WASHINGTON, DC (WPMT) The U.S. House votes 270 to 152 to approve bipartisan bill that authorizes construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.  Last month, January 29, the U.S. Senate passed its own bipartisan version of the bill.  The House bill included Senate revisions.   The bill now heads to President Obama’s desk. The president has already promised that he will veto the bill.

The Keystone XL pipeline would run from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska allowing crude oil extracted from tar sands to flow all the way to Gulf Coast refineries. The project had been stalled for years by studies, delays and rejections heaped on it by the Obama Administration.

GOP Congressman Lou Barletta issued the following statement following passage of the bill:

“President Obama’s own State Department completed five reviews, totaling more than 22,000 pages and concluded  that the Keystone XL pipeline is a project that will create jobs, and actually improve safety and the environment.  In fact, the State Department also found that the pipeline would support over 42,000 jobs. Because of the scope of the project, it would also spin off manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania.

Opponents of the pipeline have spent more than half a decade searching for reasons to prevent its construction, and have come up empty. The president has no further reason to veto the bill, other than his allegiance to political groups who oppose it on ideological grounds.

In the interests of job creation and energy independence, I urge the president to finally put politics aside and sign the bill.”