The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly this week for a bill, H. R. 4348, to extend the highway bill … The extension includes three energy and environmental riders, including Rep. Lee Terry’s (R-Neb.) provision to require permitting the Keystone XL pipeline.
Also included are Rep. David McKinley’s (R-WV) amendment to prevent EPA from regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste and Rep. Reid Ribble’s (R-Wisc.) amendment that would expedite environmental reviews of highway construction projects.
The House bill will now be conferenced with the highway bill passed earlier by the Senate. White House press secretary Jay Carney made some extraordinary statements about the Keystone provision on Friday. According to the Hill, Carney said that permitting the 1700-mile pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf coast would be “preemptively sacrificing American sovereignty” and that it would be “a foreign pipeline built by a foreign company emanating from foreign territory to cross U. S. borders.”
But it’s fine to owe our soul to China. Great thinking going on in Washington.
… and fine to allow the UN through the IPCC to control energy markets.
Yeah, and it’s fine for the EU to regulate international air travel.
And it’s fine to allow US energy pricing and supply to be controlled by Hugo Chavez and OPEC.