Republicans Question Casey's Keystone Pipeline Vote

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

March 9, 2012 | 11:00 AM

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Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey

Sometimes you just can’t win.
Yesterday, Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Casey crossed party lines to try and authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, which President Barack Obama rejected earlier this year. As the LA Times reports,

Thursday’s vote to attach the Canada-to-Gulf Coast pipeline project to a must-pass transportation bill failed 56-42, with 11 Democrats joining Republicans to support the measure. Sixty votes were needed for passage.
President Barack Obama had called senators to urge a no vote. “We hope that the Congress will … not waste its time with ineffectual, sham legislation,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

The pipeline has become a major campaign issue. That was evident shortly after the vote was completed, when Republican Senate candidate Steve Welch blasted Casey for…voting with Republicans. In a press release, he called the vote “an election year gimmick,” adding:

For five years, Bob Casey has pursued a liberal energy agenda that would do little to lower gas prices, make America energy independent, or create jobs….

Today’s vote in favor of increased production contradicts Senator Casey’s energy past.
But Pennsylvanians know better than to fall for Casey’s stunts. A quick glance at Casey’s record will show support for policies like Cap and Trade, more burdensome regulations on the energy industry and statements opposing domestic oil production; all policies that will cause energy prices to skyrocket, crush economic growth and prevent America from breaking it’s foreign oil addiction.

Another Republican candidate, Tom Smith, argued Casey hasn’t done enough on the issue:

“Today we witnessed a rare example of Senator Casey parting with his 98% support of President Obama’s anti-growth agenda in an election year,” said Smith. “However, the Keystone Pipeline failed again, and tens of thousands of new jobs were again sacrificed for the appeasement of liberal special interests. Senator Casey failed to demonstrate leadership and fight for the approval of this project and the creation of American jobs.”