Congressman Leonard Lance (7th District, including Hillsborough) on Friday supported a bill that would approve the application for the 2,100-mile Keystone XL Pipeline from western Canada, down the Midwest to connect to an existing pipelines to Illinois and Texas.
Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat from the 12th District, which includes Manville, voted no.
The measure passed the House by a 252-161 tally, but the Senate failed by one vote to override a filibuster and the measure died, for the time being.
"Boosting American-made energy results in more American jobs and improved international relations," said Mr. Lance, a Republican from Hunterdon County. "It is a winning combination for our nation’s economy and our national security."
Environmentalists and others oppose the pipeline because of the risk of oil spills along the pipeline, which would traverse highly sensitive terrain and over vast aquifers, and encourage higher greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of oil sands compared to extraction of conventional oil.
Mr. Holt said in the floor debate, "We have heard about the nature of this very dirty material that is dug, rather than pumped. . ."
"We will risk oil spills that are a mess to clean up," Mr. Holt said, claiming that the TransCanada pipeline, also known as Keystone, had 12 separate oil spills in its first year of operation.
The latest vote marks the ninth time the House has taken action to move forward with what supporters call a jobs and energy project.
Mr. Lance, a member of Energy and Commerce Committee, said the pipeline is a centerpiece of his "all-of-the-above energy strategy."
The bill appears to be the most serious effort to force the President to make a decision regarding the project.
"For six years the Administration has punted making a call on the project, despite the U.S. State Department’s final supplemental environmental impact statement finding no serious environmental impact from Keystone’s construction," said Mr. Lance’s statement. "With strong bipartisan support in both Houses of Congress, the backing of labor and business and the demand of energy consumers and job-seekers, it is clear it is time to build the Keystone Pipeline."
Mr. Holt said "the real problem" is "that it is taking us down the road where we should not be going. This is the most carbon-intensive liquid fuel — if you want to call it liquid — that we could possibly use. It is changing our very climate in ways that are deadly and costly. We shouldn’t be going in this direction."

