Mark Stricherz of The Colorado Observer has an interesting story out this morning. Colorado US Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet voted to block the development of the Keystone XL pipeline last week, killing 20,000 jobs in the process — jobs that may now to go to China. The interesting part is what caused Mark Udall and Michael Bennet to kill those jobs.
Did Barack Obama personally lobby Mark Udall or Michael Bennet to block the pipeline?
From Stricherz's article:
WASHINGTON, DC – For a good five minutes on the U.S. Senate floor, Republican John Hoeven of North Dakota lobbied Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado to vote to put the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline on the fast track to approval. It was a week before the Senate’s March 8 vote on the controversial pipeline, and Hoeven thought Udall might be convinced to vote for his amendment.
“He didn’t commit one way or another. He seemed interested in the arguments,” Hoeven recalled in an interview Tuesday.
Udall confirmed he spoke with Hoeven about the measure. “I didn’t argue with Sen. Hoeven. I was interested and I listened,” Udall said in an interview.
Udall ended up opposing the amendment, which fell four votes shy of getting the 60 necessary to overcome a filibuster attempt in the upper chamber. Hoeven suggested the Obama administration might have convinced Udall on the eve of the vote to block the measure, noting that the president called many wavering Democratic senators and succeeded in getting them to vote with the administration.
Udall said his vote was based on the merits of the issue. “It was my conclusion that that all these amendments were political. They were not helping anyone – the pipeline, the American consumer, the environment. Let’s let all these studies come out,” he said, referring to reports about the effect that the 1,661-mile pipeline would have on the environment and economy.
…Like Udall, Colorado’s junior Democratic senator, Michael Bennet, did not go out of the way to advertise his opposition to the pipeline. His office did not issue a press statement on his vote, and he declined to discuss his vote Tuesday on two different occasions.
In the past five years, Bennet has received campaign contributions from oil and gas as well as environmental interests. Environmentalists gave $164,000 to his campaign committee, while oil and gas interests contributed $137,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. [Peak emphasis]
Both Udall and Bennet have some 'splaining to do.
Did they or did they not get personally lobbied by Barack Obama to vote against the creation of 20,000 jobs?
Do they represent Colorado in Congress or are they merely a rubber stamp for Barack Obama's agenda?
(Photo Credit: The Colorado Observer)