Last week, nearly a dozen Democratic U.S. senators took a bold and extraordinary step by joining together demanding President Obama to approve the Keystone pipeline by a specific deadline.
The letter concludes, "We ask that you bring this entire process to an end no later than May 31, 2014, and that your final decision be the right one, finding that the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest.”
While the additions of these votes are not enough to withstand a Presidential veto, the letter represents a remarkable political shift.
This concerted push for a decision prior to the upcoming mid-term elections intensifies the pressure on the President to ensure the re-elections of these Democratic candidates. The national approval ratings of Keystone XL among the general electorate will require Democratic legislators to make potentially difficult decisions, as they hit the campaign trail.
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For the last five years, KXL has been continuously debated, studied, reviewed, analyzed and reanalyzed. KXL is the final piece in a multi-phase system designed to carry both U.S. (Bakken) and Canadian crude to U.S. refineries. It is expected to provide relief to and reduce shipping costs of Bakken shippers currently utilizing rail transport. Moreover, KXL will increase the safe transportation of petroleum products compared to other options including older pipelines, truck, and rail.
There’s no logical reason this project should be denied. Domestically, we must not allow political considerations to sacrifice safety in energy transportation. It is clearly in America’s international interest to shift global energy supplies westward and away from Moscow.
Time is indeed running out, so too are the excuses for not approving KXL.
Brigham A. McCown is an attorney and public policy expert. With nearly three decades of combined public service, Mr. McCown formerly headed a federal agency and served as a key federal regulator over the energy and transportation industries. He is also a retired Naval Aviator and an avid baseball fan who calls it as he sees it, right down the middle. To learn more, visit him on National Journal, Huffington Post, and Fuel Fix or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
