The Keystone XL pipeline bill finally passed the Senate and the House, but a presidential veto on the bill has caused the project to go back into limbo once more. Once the veto was apparent Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the US Senate, announced that the chamber with a majority of Republicans would work on getting the votes necessary to override the veto by March 3. Although US President Obama had stated previously that he would veto the pipeline bill if it passed both chambers and reached his desk many hoped that Obama would pay attention to the majority of Americans who are for the pipeline, and the jobs and economic opportunities that the project would provide. In the veto message that Obama sent out he wrote “Through this bill, the United States Congress attempts to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest.”
The presidential veto of the Keystone XL pipeline is just the latest issue with the project, and with the problems that American citizens and Republican legislators have with this administration. John Boehner, the Speaker of the House and a Republican, slammed the decision by the president. “The president’s veto of the Keystone jobs bill is a national embarrassment. The president is just too close to environmental extremists to stand up for America’s workers. He’s too invested in left-fringe politics to do what presidents are called on to do, and that’s put the national interest first.”
