WASHINGTON – Some people in Washington want to try to force U.S. President Barack Obama to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, whether he likes it or not.
There’s talk in Congress about attaching a pipeline provision to an existing bill in an attempt to force the president’s hand.
The White House is refusing to say whether the president would veto such a bill.
At today’s media briefing, presidential spokesman Jay Carney urged Congress to stay out of the issue and refused to speculate on how Obama would react.
The Keystone XL decision belongs to the administration, not to legislators. The administration has announced a delay that could last a year, pending the outcome of a court fight over the route in Nebraska.
Now, some members of Congress are working to slide a Keystone XL provision into another bill.
The Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid, has announced such talks are underway but says there’s no agreement yet over the mechanics, such as which bill to use and how aggressive the Keystone clause would be.