Senate Keystone Debate To Delve Into Climate, Oil Exports

By ELANA SCHOR 

POLITICO:The Senate’s Monday vote to start the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline bill has opened the legislative floodgates for the new GOP Congress, with members on both sides of the aisle set to unleash a torrent of politically sensitive energy amendments on issues such as crude oil exports and climate change.

The climate amendment, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is designed to pin down senators’ views about the connection between humans’ greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is pushing the measure to end the four-decade-old ban on exporting U.S. oil, an effort that’s opposed by a majority of voters.

“We shall see,” Cruz said, when asked if his export amendment will win 60 votes. “I think it’s good policy.”

The Senate vote of 63-32 to begin debate comes after the House passed its bill on Friday to approve the pipeline that would link Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The White House has threatened to veto the Keystone bill, which lacks the Democratic votes both in the House and the Senate necessary to override a presidential rejection.

One of the Republicans facing reelection in 2016 who would face the most pressure on Sanders’ climate amendment, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, declined to say how he would vote because he was “told by the powers that be” that it would not get a vote on the floor.

But Sanders vowed to fight for floor time for his amendment with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has promised to adopt an open amendment process for the Keystone bill.

“Don’t tell me I’m being deceived” on the chance to offer amendments, he quipped when asked about Kirk’s assessment of his odds. Republicans, Sanders added, would “pay a price” for ducking a vote on his proposal.

“We want to have folks on the record” about climate science, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) told reporters.

The Senate is expected to hold no votes on Wednesday and Thursday, due to a party retreat, and no votes are scheduled for Friday, meaning that the first round of voting on amendments to the Keystone bill could easily slip to next week as the two parties haggle over timing. Whether Sanders and Cruz get votes on their amendments then remains to be seen.

Cruz is not the only Republican weighing a White House run who has declared his support for unrestricted export of the nation’s growing supply of oil. Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio have also called for ending the export ban, an idea that has drawn support from red-state Democrat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.).

But other rank-and-file Republicans are not prepared to begin debate on crude exports. The bipartisan push for natural gas exports in recent years attracted supporters on the Hill after a longer period of study and contentious debate in the energy world, in contrast to the push for crude oil export debate, which only became prominent in the past year.

Indeed, the most common Senate GOP answer to Cruz’s pitch on Monday was typified by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran’s response. “I’ve given no thought to the topic, sorry,” he told a reporter.

Other senators crafting amendments for the Keystone debate, which is expected to run until the last week of January, include:

— Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who will offer an amendment requiring electric utilities to produce 25 percent of their power from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources by 2025. It’s the same as legislation he has offered in recent years and which hasn’t had much momentum.

— Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said Monday he is working on an amendment to address petroleum coke, or petcoke. That byproduct of refining the heavy oil Keystone would carry sparked an outcry in his home state after locals raised public health and environmental concerns connected to petcoke storage facilities along the Detroit River.

— Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman last week said he plans to introduce a slimmed-down version of the energy efficiency bill he has long cosponsored with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. That amendment is expected to mirror the House-passed version of the efficiency bill, though whether it can recruit new Democratic supporters for the broader Keystone bill remains an open question. Shaheen opposes the pipeline bill, though she backs the amendment.

— Colorado GOP Sen. Cory Gardner said Monday that he will draft an amendment on Energy Savings Performance Contracts, an efficiency initiative he spearheaded in the House before his election to the upper changer.

— Democrats also are expected to offer amendments that require producers of the oil transported by the Keystone pipeline contribute to the federal oil spill liability trust fund, prohibit the export of oil from the pipeline and boost solar energy.

Authors: ELANA SCHOR -Darren Goode contributed to this report. 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/keystone-xl-debate-senate-114205.html#ixzz3OhLIB8Hk