The fourth phase of the oil pipeline through Canada and the U.S. is known as the Keystone XL Pipeline. Although the U.S. Senate voted to approve construction of Keystone XL, the decision was vetoed by President Obama in February 2015. The Senate was unable to override the veto because of lack of votes.
Keystone XL would continue construction from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, including a shorter route that would include Montana and North Dakota. The Senate needed a two-thirds majority to override the president’s veto, but fell five votes short in a 62-37 vote that included
Republicans and eight Democrats, The Hill reported.
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Iowa Senators Joni Ernst, a co-sponsor of the bill, and Chuck Grassley voted to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline and also to override the veto. The pipeline would not involve Iowa in its construction from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Ernst said the 42,000 projected jobs by the U.S. State Department would help in the creation of new jobs and investment of billions of dollars into the economy with a
new energy infrastructure, Radio Iowa reported.
Following the Senate vote to authorize the pipeline, Ernst told reporters: “My colleagues and I promised our folks back home that we would govern in a responsible way and that’s what we are doing,” adding that they were moving legislation the American people wanted.
Grassley pointed out in a written statement that the pipeline offered “a privately funded shovel ready infrastructure project that would support a lot of good-paying jobs.”
However, he noted that Obama faced a difficult move “stuck between the unions that want these jobs and environmentalists who don’t want any more use of fossil fuels,” Radio Iowa reported.
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In 2014, a similar vote by the Senate failed. Grassley voted in favor of it, but outgoing Democrat Tom Harkin voted against it.
The new Republican Senate passed the legislation, but Obama promised the veto and it was anticipated the Republicans would not get the 67 votes necessary to override the veto
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