FEVER PITCH: Next week the House will vote to pass Keystone, the State Department will be sift through the final comments submitted by agencies on the project, and President Obama will ready his veto pen.
The six-year long review may finally be ending, but just to be safe, don’t hold your breath.
{mosads}After voting on the Senate’s version of legislation that would approve the Keystone XL pipeline, the House will send it over to Obama’s desk.
It will be Obama’s first veto in the face of a defiant Republican-controlled Congress. But the veto isn’t the end.
The State Department must finish its national interest determination on the project, after which Secretary of State John Kerry will need to send his recommendation over to the president.
Then, and only then, with the process complete, will the pipeline’s fate be squarely in Obama’s hands.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) railed against the State Department on Thursday, calling on Kerry to make the process transparent after reporters put heat on a department spokeswoman over the “internal” process.
Read more here.
ON TAP FRIDAY: The National Association of State Energy Officials will wrap up its Energy Policy Outlook Conference. The events will focus on weatherization, water system efficiency and energy efficiency programs.
NEWS BITE:
Oil giant BP will encourage shareholders to support a proposal that would require it to disclose how climate change policies would affect the company.
“We consider the resolution to be non-confrontational, and it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our current actions and build on our existing disclosures in this area,” a BP spokesman said Thursday, confirming a report published by Reuters.
Activist shareholder groups have presented similar proposals to a variety of oil companies. Royal Dutch Shell earlier this week endorsed such a resolution.
AROUND THE WEB:
A train carrying ethanol partially derailed and caught fire in Iowa Wednesday, and some cars fell into the Mississippi River, the Associated Press reports.
Recording artist Sting recently moved into a converted coal-fired power plant in London, Bloomberg Business reports.
In a question and answer session with the Center for Public Integrity, William Ruckelshaus, the first Environmental Protection Agency head, says Republicans used to have strong support for the EPA.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Thursday’s stories…
– Bill aims to improve federal land access for hunters
– Feds to auction 41M acres of Gulf of Mexico drilling rights
– Boehner to Kerry: Stop the Keystone secrecy
– Green group scores senators on Keystone votes
– GOP senators push for more nuclear power, Yucca waste site
– Oil falls again amid supply surge
– Business leaders call for net-zero emissions goal
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