Vulnerable Senate Democrats Urge Keystone XL Approval

Four politically vulnerable Senate Democrats are urging U.S. President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, spotlighting the implications of an election-year decision that may influence which party controls the chamber.

At a rally yesterday in Washington, Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas joined Republicans, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S., oil-industry lobbyists and labor leaders to call on the administration to authorize the $5.4 billion Canada-U.S. oil pipeline. Two other Senate Democrats who face tough November re-elections -- Mark Begich of Alaska and Kay Hagan of North Carolina -- weren’t at the rally but also have voiced strong support for the project.

“The president is in a bit of a squeeze on this,” said Stu Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report. Rejecting Keystone will give Republicans running against the four Democrats a “green light” to attack over a project that’s popular with voters and industries back home, he said.

TransCanada Corp. (TRP) of Calgary wants to build the pipeline to carry oil-sands crude from Alberta to refineries in Texas and Louisiana. The U.S. State Department last week released an environmental assessment that said Keystone isn’t as significant a threat to climate change as its opponents contend.

Landrieu and Pryor touted their leadership in pressing for the pipeline’s approval yesterday before television cameras that could beam their words back home to Republican-leaning states where Keystone is popular.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-05/vulnerable-senate-democrats-urge-keystone-xl-approval.html