How Keystone Review Undercut Obama's Climate Policies

Ranchers arrested for trespassing on their own property. Preachers moonlighting as land agents. Billionaire activists hiring former Navy SEALs to conduct mock terror attacks. Given the farcical turns the fight over Keystone XL has taken, it’s only fitting that the pipeline has reemerged as a top priority for the new Republican Congress when the issues it was supposed to fix—weak job creation, energy insecurity, pain at the pump—are far less pressing than when Keystone was proposed.

The pipeline, now expected to cost about $8 billion, would carry heavy crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta to Nebraska, where it would link up with existing networks. Because it would cross the U.S.-Canada border, it’s ultimately up to President Obama to decide whether it will be completed. That hasn’t stopped the House of Representatives from voting to authorize construction three times in the past six months. On Jan. 20 the Senate began voting on amendments to its own pro-Keystone bill, which is expected to pass with Democratic support.