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 With Republicans assuming full control of Congress on Tuesday
after victories in the November elections, they have put Keystone at
the center of their agenda and plan weeks of debate.
They believe that the public spotlight on Keystone will pressure
President Barack Obama to eventually approve the project.
The White House was adamant that Obama would not sign the Keystone
bill.
"There is already a well-established process in place to consider
whether or not infrastructure projects like this are in the best
interest of the country," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told
reporters.
Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, introduced a bill to
approve TransCanada Corp's project that would transport more than
800,000 barrels per day of mostly Canadian heavy oil to Nebraska en
route to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
 Obama, who has been considering the pipeline for six years, has
opposed previous Keystone bills, saying the State Department needs
to complete its approval process.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers predicted that 63 senators
would back the pipeline, enough for the bill to pass but short of
the 67 that would be needed to overcome a veto.
If Obama vetoes the bill, backers will attach it to a wider measure
he could find harder to reject, such as a must-pass spending
legislation or steps to improve energy efficiency.
"We may not have enough to overcome a veto, so it may be a two-step
process," Hoeven told Reuters.
New Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to open the
amendment process on legislation, allowing the full Senate to weigh
in on proposed additions to bills.
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But Democrats accused Republicans of trying to rush the measure to
the floor after McConnell moved to bypass the energy committee which
was scheduled to debate the bill this week. It was uncertain whether
the energy committee would debate the bill on Thursday or if it
would go straight to the Senate floor. Keystone has divided
Democrats between environmentalists, who say oil sands mining will
raise emissions linked to climate change, and union supporters who
say it will add thousands of construction jobs and boost energy
security.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated his view, through a
spokesman, that Keystone should be approved, saying it would create
jobs in both countries.
The head of TransCanada complained about the veto threat, saying the
Obama administration's review process seemed to have no end. "The
bar continues to move again and again," said Chief Executive Russ
Girling.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, additional
reporting by Jeff Mason, Randall Palmer and David Ljunggren in
Ottawa, and Scott Haggett in Calgary; Editing by Marguerita Choy and
Caren Bohan)
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