New Philadelphia, OH 1/9/15 – On Friday afternoon the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill authorizing the Keystone XL oil pipeline by a 266-153 vote.
The oil pipeline would span nearly 1,200 miles, from Canada to Nebraska, and connect to existing pipeline to Texas. Congressman Bill Johnson says the issue has been presented several times, but he had confidence that there would be success in today’s vote.
President Obama has already indicated that if the Keystone measure goes through that he will veto, and Johnson holds him responsible for stopping progress.
Johnson says that with Canada having oil that needs to be refined, it only makes sense to make it possible to keep in the United States, rather than send it to our competitors.
The Senate has a test vote on Monday with enough support to pass an identical bill.