Billions of dollars in the American economy
The bill has 60 co-sponsors, which gives it enough to pass the chamber even before the debate began Friday. This includes six Democrats. Sixty-seven votes are needed to override a presidential veto.
Republicans are promoting the energy security and job creation aspects of the 1,800-kilometre pipeline, which will bring oilsands bitumen from Alberta and Bakken light crude from North Dakota to Gulf Coast refineries.
Calling the pipeline the “largest ready-to-build infrastructure project in the United States,” Republican Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana said the Keystone XL creates thousands of jobs and invests billions of dollars in the American economy “without spending a dime of taxpayer money.”
For Democrats, however, climate change and the environment are central issues.
Democratic senators noted many Canadians oppose oilsands pipelines through the Rockies or to the Maritimes and also oppose expansion of the oilsands themselves.
Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington said during the opening debate that Canadian pipeline companies “know they’re not going to be successful in getting this oil from Alberta across British Columbia out to the Pacific because the people of British Columbia don’t want it. So of course why not come to the United States.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, emphasized the “staggering” destruction oilsands mining has brought to Alberta’s boreal forest.