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Saturday, February 18, 2012

New Energy legislation from the House

The House passed a billed yesterday which authorizes construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and expands the areas in the country open for drilling. It will be interesting to see if Harry Reid allows the bill to go up for a vote in the Senate. If such a vote is allowed, the bill will almost certainly pass; there are too many Democrats who are up for election this year for the result to be otherwise. Nevertheless, president Obama is then likely to veto the legislation. He opposes both the Keystone XL Pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would create and increased drilling to reduce both American dependence on foreign oil and gasoline prices.

Reaction from the GOP presidential contenders is quite the opposite. Rick Santorum said: "I congratulate the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives for their responsible vote for energy independence in the face of the Obama Administration inexplicable opposition. We saw leadership today by a group of people unwilling to allow environmental extremists to set our energy policy. We need reliable sources of domestic energy to fuel our economy and reinvigorate our manufacturing sector, but not just that - this vote was about American jobs and America's national security. Today's vote is a step in that direction. While it is clear that Harry Reid and Barack Obama will stand in the way of this common-sense legislation, as president I will work with House Republicans and reasonable Democrats to sign similar legislation into law so we can
lower energy costs and make real steps toward energy independence."

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