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Clinton Finally Comes Out Against Keystone Pipeline

September 23, 2015 at 8:16 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 49 Comments

After months of declining to take a position on the Keystone XL pipeline, Hillary Clinton says she opposes the construction of the project, NBC News reports.

Said Clinton: “I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone XL pipeline as what I believe it is: A distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change, and, unfortunately from my perspective, one that interferes with our ability to move forward and deal with other issues. Therefore, I oppose it. I oppose it because I don’t think it’s in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change.”

First Read: “Consider the political expediency: Had Hillary Clinton supported Keystone, it might have led to a donor meltdown.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Energy Tagged With: Hillary Clinton, Keystone XL

Obama Vetoes Keystone XL Legislation

February 24, 2015 at 3:39 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 41 Comments

President Obama “has officially vetoed a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, marking his third rejection of congressionally approved legislation during his six years in office,” NBC News reports.

“Congress could override the veto if two-thirds of both the House and the Senate vote to do so, but lawmakers aren’t expected to reach that threshold.”

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

Keystone XL Bill Moves Towards Final Passage

January 29, 2015 at 1:55 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 39 Comments

A bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline cleared a major hurdle in the Senate by a 62 to 35 vote, bringing the Republican-controlled Congress a step closer to a confrontation with the White House, Roll Call reports.

Senate Republicans would need 67 votes to override a promised veto by President Obama.

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL


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Manchin Says Obama Veto Threat Not Democratic

January 8, 2015 at 1:41 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 49 Comments

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he was disappointed that the White House threatened to veto his legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline, arguing the president’s move was “not the way a democracy works,” The Hill reports.

Said Manchin: “He never even gave it a chance, never even gave it a chance. Now, that’s just not the way you do legislation. It’s not the way a democracy works. And it’s not the way the… three branches of government should work.”

Filed Under: Energy, White House Tagged With: Joe Manchin, Keystone XL

Obama Will Veto Keystone Pipeline Bill

January 6, 2015 at 1:26 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 67 Comments

The White House says President Obama would veto Keystone pipeline legislation, the AP reports.

A spokesman says there is a “well-established” review process that is being run by the State Department that should not be undermined by legislation.

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

Why are Republicans Starting with Keystone?

January 6, 2015 at 10:05 am EST By Taegan Goddard 61 Comments

First Read: “Beyond today’s drama in the House, it’s also the start of the new GOP-controlled U.S. Senate. But here’s something to chew on: Republicans now have complete control of Congress, and the first thing they want to get done is … the Keystone XL pipeline? That’s the statement they want to make after their midterm victories?”

“We get the politics of Keystone; we’ve been covering the issue for years now. But it’s such small ball — and it’s even smaller now in the midst of the lowest gas prices in years and 200,000-plus jobs being created each month. We’ve got to ask: All that money spent on the midterms, all that jockeying for control of the Senate, and first real statement from the new GOP majority is Keystone? It’s small-ball politics, whether you’re on the right, left or in the middle. It’s certainly no Contract with America.”

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

Keystone XL Pipeline Will Be First Vote in New Senate

December 16, 2014 at 4:39 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told CNN that a measure authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline will be the first bill he’ll schedule for a vote next year.

“If passed, it would force Obama to decide whether to veto what could be the first bill the new Congress sends to his desk. The President has said he wants the decision left in the hands of the State Department, which is six years into a review of the project and currently holds final authority because the pipeline would cross international borders.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Keystone XL

Inside Mary Landrieu’s Final Keystone Push

November 19, 2014 at 7:28 am EST By Taegan Goddard 5 Comments

The New York Times reports that “despite cajoling and browbeating her colleagues during a private lunch — which one attendee described as ‘civilized but pretty contentious’ — Ms. Landrieu, who has so often bulldozed her way to success, was not able to produce that elusive final vote.”

“At the lunch, Ms. Landrieu made an ‘impassioned plea’ that at moments verged on tears, according to a Democrat. Ms. Landrieu, according to the Democrat, focused part of her pitch on how the legislation would help her back home, though at one point she argued that Democrats should send the bill to Mr. Obama’s desk because it would help him politically by giving him something to veto.”

Bloomberg: “Landrieu had hoped the vote would prove to Louisiana voters that her clout and seniority still matters in Washington. Instead it showed the opposite: Her Democratic colleagues risked no political capital of their own to bail her out, and her Republican opponent, Representative Bill Cassidy, wasted no time rubbing it in.”

Filed Under: Environment Tagged With: Keystone XL, Mary Landrieu

Senate Democrats Block Keystone XL Approval

November 18, 2014 at 6:29 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 133 Comments

“Senate Democrats narrowly defeated a bill 59 to 41 that would have approved the construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, rebuffing their Democratic colleague, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), who had hoped to muscle the legislation through in advance of her uphill runoff election fight back home,” the New York Times reports.

“The battle over approving the pipeline, which will carry petroleum from the oil sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas, ultimately became a proxy war for the Louisiana Senate seat, where Ms. Landrieu and Republican Representative Bill Cassidy are locked in fight for votes in their oil-rich state ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff election.”

Roll Call: “Republican leaders plan to bring the pipeline legislation back up next year, when GOP reinforcements appear certain to bring it over the line and to President Obama’s desk.”

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]President Obama got the result he wanted. He doesn’t have to show his hand on Keystone XL until next year. [/speech_bubble]

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

What Will Obama Do If Keystone Passes?

November 18, 2014 at 5:18 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

“The White House played somewhat coy last week — blasting the congressional approval as an improper short-circuit of the review process currently underway at the U.S. State Department without explicitly saying that Mr. Obama would veto the bill,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The hedging on the Keystone issue leaves Mr. Obama’s options open. He could kick the Keystone bill back to Congress, where it’s very unlikely to clear the two-thirds vote threshold needed to override. Or he could sign it — or simply allow it to sit on his desk and become law without signing it, another option available to him — and take heat from progressives who have been loudly urging the him to ax the project.”

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

McConnell Suddenly Believes in Science

November 18, 2014 at 12:28 pm EST By Taegan Goddard 21 Comments

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) regularly deflects questions about climate change by saying he is “not a scientist,” the New Republic reports.

“But apparently McConnell will make an exception when it comes to the Keystone XL pipeline. In remarks on the Senate floor, hours before a vote on a bill that fast-tracks construction of the pipeline, McConnell pointed to the ‘science’ supporting the legislation.”

Said McConnell: “Those who took a serious look at the science and the potential benefits reached the conclusion long ago. They understand that the whole drama over Keystone has been as protracted as it is unnecessary. We hope to turn the page on all of that today.”

Filed Under: Energy, Environment Tagged With: Keystone XL, Mitch McConnell, science

Could Obama Trade Keystone XL Approval for Something?

November 18, 2014 at 10:42 am EST By Taegan Goddard 40 Comments

The New York Times reports that people “familiar with the president’s thinking say that in 2015 he might use Keystone as a bargaining chip: He would offer Republicans approval of it in exchange for approval of one of his policies.”

Jonathan Chait: “The superficial logic of a Keystone trade makes sense. Obama doesn’t really care about the project much one way or the other. He regards it as a sideshow with negligible effects on climate change. Republicans, on the other hand, constantly implore him to approve it. That would seem, on the surface, to lay the basis for a logical trade of one kind or another.”

“The trouble is, there’s little reason to think Republicans actually care about approving Keystone. Its value to them lies entirely in its use as a talking point. The pipeline is an easy, tangible example of a thing they propose to create jobs. In fact, the number of jobs the pipeline would create is pathetically negligible — around 2,000 jobs a year for two years to build it, after which maintaining the pipeline would require about 35 jobs. But the number of jobs Keystone creates is not the point. The point is that it sounds like something that creates jobs, because describing an actual tangible project makes it easy to visualize how people would be put to work on it.”

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

Keystone XL Pipeline Stuck at 59 Votes

November 18, 2014 at 7:24 am EST By Taegan Goddard 10 Comments

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and other supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline “are stuck at 59 votes — one vote shy of the supermajority they need to move their bill forward on Tuesday,” The Hill reports.

However, Landrieu remained adamant on Monday evening that she had the 60 votes.

Politico: “The parlor game on Capitol Hill regarding the 60th vote has become so intense that Democrats merely rumored to be thinking about voting ‘yes’ have found themselves under attack from pipeline opponents on social media.”

Filed Under: Energy Tagged With: Keystone XL

White House Hints at Veto of Keystone XL Legislation

November 13, 2014 at 10:20 am EST By Taegan Goddard 60 Comments

The White House has begun hinting that President Obama would veto legislation that mandates approval of the Keystone XL oil-sands pipeline, National Journal reports.

“While a Keystone bill may not be able to clear the lame-duck Senate, the legislation will very likely have more than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster when Republicans take over the chamber next year. But it’s unclear whether the new Senate could muster the 67 votes necessary to override a presidential veto.”

Wonk Wire: Using Keystone XL to save Mary Landrieu

Filed Under: Energy, Environment Tagged With: Keystone XL, Mary Landrieu

Republicans Vow to Fight EPA Rules and Approve Pipeline

November 11, 2014 at 9:13 am EST By Taegan Goddard 11 Comments

“The new Republican Congress is headed for a clash with the White House over two ambitious Environmental Protection Agency regulations that are the heart of President Obama’s climate change agenda,” the New York Times reports.

“Senator Mitch McConnell, the next majority leader, has already vowed to fight the rules, which could curb planet-warming carbon pollution but ultimately shut down coal-fired power plants in his native Kentucky. Mr. McConnell and other Republicans are, in the meantime, stepping up their demands that the president approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry petroleum from Canadian oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.”

“At this point, Republicans do not have the votes to repeal the E.P.A. regulations, which will have far more impact on curbing carbon emissions than stopping the pipeline, but they say they will use their new powers to delay, defund and otherwise undermine them.”

Filed Under: Energy, Environment Tagged With: GOP agenda, Keystone XL

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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