"President Obama yesterday got nudged from his left to nix the Keystone XL pipeline, as seven Democratic National Committee (DNC) members signed on to a resolution urging rejection of the controversial Canada-to-U.S. project on environmental, economic and national security grounds."

"Authored by Maryland state legislator and Democratic national committeewoman Heather Mizeur -- who drew fire from the natural gas industry this year after pitching a bill to 'pause' the extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing in the Free State -- the resolution won an endorsement from Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), a DNC vice chairman, as well as five other state-level DNC representatives. Its emergence on the heels of a two-week White House sit-in against Keystone XL suggests that liberals are coming to embrace the pipeline as a grass-roots touchstone and could portend more inter-party ire at Obama if the project is approved.

The 1,661-mile pipeline would nearly double U.S. imports of Canadian oil-sands crude, meaning a sizable new market for energy companies and new construction jobs for pro-XL unions. The fuel carried by XL also stands to generate more emissions than conventional crude, a factor singled out by backers of Mizeur's resolution in a summary of their goals released yesterday."

Elana Schor reports for Greenwire September 20, 2011. [2]