Approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline won't save Sen. Mary Landrieu, the endangered Louisiana Democrat begging Congress to hurry up and vote, but it will create momentum for a long-stalled project that guarantees jobs, revenues and energy, says a former federal pipeline safety regulator.
"The fact that we can now get a vote … maybe it has nothing to do with the elections — what do you think?" regulator-turned-infrastructure-advocate Brigham McCown quipped on
Newsmax TV Thursday to "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
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Landrieu, a faithful supporter of her state's oil and gas interests, still faces a
Dec. 6 runoff for a seat that most observers expect her to lose, especially after the rest of the country voted last week to hand over control of the Senate to Republicans, effective in January.
Landrieu kicked off this week's lame-duck session of Congress — possibly her last — pleading for a Keystone vote in the Senate, where she is co-sponsor of a pipeline funding bill that she hopes will pass and help her with voters back home.
"I don't blame Mary … but it's too little, too late," said McCown, founder of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure, and former head of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration in President George W. Bush's Department of Transportation.
McCown said that Landrieu ultimately represents a party and a president whose policies were "repudiated" by voters on Nov. 4 — even though Landrieu herself has supported action on Keystone against the wishes of President Barack Obama and outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Among the Obama policies that voters rejected, said McCown, was endless delay on building the pipeline to carry oil from Canada to Texas.
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"The president just said a couple weeks ago, 'Well, I have to let the process play out.' We have been letting 'the process play out' for six years — longer than it took the United States to win World War II," said McCown.
"And we can't figure out — the administration can't figure out — whether adding 852 miles of pipeline to our existing 2.5 million miles of pipeline is needed?" he said.
Meanwhile, the House is taking up a Keystone bill sponsored by Landrieu's election opponent, Rep. Bill Cassidy.
McCown predicted that whoever gets more credit for the final bill, Cassidy or Landrieu, it will clear Congress — hopefully to be signed by the president — because Democrats on Washington want the issue to go away.
Opposing Keystone any longer is "a loser argument for them, and they know it," said McCown.
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