Terry Leads on Energy

His critics are quick to criticize, but we think Congressman Terry has done an outstanding job representing not only those in his district but also all Nebraskans when it comes to his leadership in getting the Keystone XL pipeline built.   While other Republican leaders in the state (Heineman, Johanns) just gave the president fodder to turn down the pipeline, Terry led and pressed.

In today's "The Hill Overnight" we received the information below which shows that Terry isn't about to led the issue die, even if the president somehow failed to mention his veto of the pipeline while trying to convince Americans last night in his State of the Union speech that he cared about energy and jobs. 

Here, according to "The Hill" is what Lee is doing today:

"State of play: House Republicans are holding their first hearing Wednesday on President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline, giving the GOP a high-profile opportunity to attack the administration for killing the project.

A panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear testimony from Kerri-Ann Jones, the State Department’s Keystone point woman, about the decision.
Lawmakers will also examine legislation authored by Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) that would put the final verdict on the pipeline into the hands of the independent Federal Energy and Regulatory Commission (FERC), not the State Department. The bill instructs FERC to issue a permit and limits its discretion to reject the project.
Terry told The Hill Tuesday that he plans to press Jones on the State Department's reasoning for rejecting the pipeline, arguing a report justifying the decision did not offer enough detail.

"I thought the report to Congress was really vague," Terry said. "It didn’t say anything about national interest, which was the only basis for turning it down. So as far as I am concerned they violated the law unless there is a clearer reason than what was issued in the report, so I think we will have some questions about what their real reasoning was."
Obama, who denied the pipeline last week, had faced a Feb. 21 deadline to make a decision about Keystone under the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut enacted in December.
GOP leadership is eyeing Terry’s bill, among other measures, in its effort to overturn Obama’s rejection of the pipeline, which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast. Kentucky Rep. Ed Whitfield, a top Republican on the committee, said Tuesday he plans to move Terry's legislation through the panel.

"The administration had more than enough time to review the pipeline and make a decision," a GOP committee staffer said in a statement. "Since politics prevented the president from saying yes to the pipeline and yes to tens of thousands of jobs, we are taking politics out of the equation by relieving the president of his decision making authority."

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the committee, said last week he hopes to include a measure aimed at forcing approval of the pipeline in upcoming legislation to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year. House GOP leaders are weighing that approach, and Terry also said Keystone provisions could find a spot in separate infrastructure legislation."