Keystone XL Approval Goes South - Jobs Go North

Well, politics work in your favor sometimes. That is, when an election is coming, of course. When we say "your" we mean those of you that depend on new pipeline projects being approved.
                
For those of you reading this (that are not aware), yesterday March 4th, the U.S. Senate failed to achieve enough votes to over-ride the President's veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act. It's simple math really. The Keystone XL Act passed both houses of congress with approximately 62% support. That means in order to achieve the 2/3 majority required to over-ride a presidential veto would put the number of votes as of the original passage at 19. Nineteen votes is all that separated this project from approval. It puts things into perspective when you look at it from that angle, doesn't it? Nineteen votes away from hundreds of inspection jobs.  

Ok, so we know that people can debate the actual final amount of inspection jobs that would have been needed throughout the duration of this project, but we are sure we can all agree that INSPECTORS would have been hired. Why is this important? We think with the falling oil prices worldwide that new construction inspection jobs might get scarce for awhile. Now we realize maintenance and integrity work will ALWAYS be around but no U.S. pipeline inspector likes it when potential jobs or future projects disappear. Political preference aside - this vote did not fall in OUR favor.

Back to the 19 votes. As we mentioned before, it is simple math. Only 3 of the 20 Democrats (needed to pass the over-ride) that voted against the approval and represent swing states are up for re-election in 2016. Obviously, they considered the electorate blow back and determined that the political consequences were either too far in the future for the voters to remember or just non-existent.

We would like to know what you think? Also, if any members want us to repost any of the historical blogs, let us know. We apologize that the content was lost due to our blog hosting provider. We should be fine now that we have switched to hosting the Member Zone here!

Stay Safe,

The Velocity Training Team

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