Obama lobbies against Keystone pipeline

President Barack Obama’s deputies are defending his lobbying against a GOP effort in the Senate to fast-track approval of the job-creating Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
GOP leaders in the Senate are pressing the chamber’s Democratic leadership for a vote on the fast-track bill Mar. 8, but Obama has called Democratic Senators to urge them to vote against the GOP measure.

“The president has communications with some members of Congress… he’s made some phone calls, I’ll confirm that,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Mar. 8. Carney declined to say how many Senators were called by Obama, or if other Administration leaders called Senators to vote against the fast-track bill.

Carney slammed the GOP’s fast-track bill as an “irresponsible” effort “to curry favor with some political constituency or another.”
Polls show the pipeline is supported by most Americans, and by some Democratic-affiliated groups such as construction unions.  (Continues)