Obama breaking out the veto pen today for Keystone (user search)
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  Obama breaking out the veto pen today for Keystone (search mode)
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Author Topic: Obama breaking out the veto pen today for Keystone  (Read 9958 times)
Clarko95 📚💰📈
Clarko95
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« on: February 24, 2015, 02:26:00 PM »

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/congress-sends-keystone-bill-obama-plans-veto-29181671

The White House announced he's going to veto it today, after it passed the Senate last Thursday 62-38 and the House earlier in February 270 - 152.


This is just the beginning, folks. This may be only his 3rd, and Obama's last veto was in October 2010 on some obscure bill dealing with legal papers notarized out of state, but since the Republican Congress convened in January, the President has issued over a dozen veto threats as McConnell and Boehner line up legislation opposing him on healthcare, energy, taxes, etc.

Republicans are just a bit short of the votes needed in both the House and Senate to override his veto, but they are considering trying. Additionally, they may simply slip it into a bill dealing with the budget or security.

Stay tuned!
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Clarko95 📚💰📈
Clarko95
YaBB God
*****
Posts: 3,607
Sweden


Political Matrix
E: -5.61, S: -1.96

« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2015, 02:07:01 PM »
« Edited: February 25, 2015, 02:13:36 PM by Clarko95 »

From a jobs, safety, and environmental perspective, it might actually be better to continue shipping it by rail rather than build more pipelines.

The railraod industry is booming in part because of the oil boom. Shipping drilling equipment and supplies to drilling sites, and taking the crude oil to refineries. Additionally, the new tank cars required will support thousands of good manufacturing jobs. Over the 2010 - 2019 period, the railroads are investing over $200 billion to upgrade their infrastructure, which is pretty much free (non-government) stimulus. And to my understanding, railroad employees on pretty much all levels are paid very well, and their union contracts and profit-sharing agreements mean they get big bonus checks at the end of the year and pretty solid pensions. After declining from 1947 - 1997 and flatlining, railroads have on a hiring spree (small compared to other industries, but it's still very well paying jobs) since 2007.

Lec-Megantic (SP?) and some other high-profile derailments aside, railroads might be safer and more environmental because when a derailment does happen, it's pretty hard to miss, as opposed to pipelines, which can leak significant amounts of oil before the leak is discovered and fixed, and are more insidious to the surrounding environment because the leak occurs underground and is far harder to clean up than a train derailment. It's easier to require railroad rolling stock to be stronger and safer in the event of derailments/collisions than it is to require "safer" piplines (granted, I don't know much about piplines). It's also less politically charged to regulate the railroads, not being so high-profile politically but very high-profile to all the voters who live in towns through which railroads pass.

Obviously transporting crude is an inherently risky business, and accidents and spills will occur whether we're using railroads or pipelines, but the "less bad" option here is probably railroads.

So as apathetic/lean-against as I am about Keystone, as a supporter of railroads over pipelines and trucking/cars, I guess this might be a small plus in some areas Tongue
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