The Big Event

Each story has its own major event, its key moment in time. Certain major events are actually a compilation of events, as with the Keystone XL Pipeline controversy. However in order to understand why a story turns out the way it does, people must look at the event that defines the controversy or begins the controversy.

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been a part of the much larger controversy for years, however the pipeline itself has become a representation of many different arguments rolled into one controversy. All of these controversies and arguments culminated in one series of events and one event in particular, the passage of the bill to construct the Keystone XL Pipeline by the United States Congress and then the bills subsequent veto by President Obama. The Keystone XL Pipeline passed the House of Representatives in February of 2015 and passed the United States Senate in late January of 2015. However the bill was vetoed by the president in March of 2015 and then was failed to be overridden. Even though the bill had bipartisan support the veto could not be overridden. Main support of the bill came from Republicans who favor big businesses, the main people against the bill were Democrats whose main concerns against the pipeline stem from the dangers it might cause on the environment. Although these divisions are not exactly this clear cut, they are in general following those guidelines. Notable exceptions include some Democrats in the south voting for the pipeline because of added economic benefits in their state. The controversy quickly became whether it was worth the risk to the environment in order to create jobs and work with big business. The Republican majority in congress was able to pass the bill with only a few objections from Republicans and with only the support of a few Democrats. However despite the objections to the construction of this infrastructure by Democrats, the bill still passed the Senate and the House of Representatives, this only caused the controversy to grow even larger as many people believed the Republicans were pandering to the big oil companies. Nevertheless President Obama had promised to veto the bill if it were to pass and make it to his desk, when it did make it to his desk he kept true to his word and vetoed the bill. His reasoning for vetoing the bill was that it endangered more people than it would benefit, in this case essentially it would harm the climate and cause more damage than its economic benefits could repair. Essentially the worry is that the oil transported in those pipes could potentially spill out in an accident causing black oil to spill over the pristine landscapes of the Midwest United States and Southern Canada and cause irreparable damage to the environment of that region. Oil is a very sticky and smelly situation and has proven difficult to clean up in water but it is even more difficult to clean up on land. Despite this many people still supported the bill because of its ability to create jobs. Even more Democrats rejected the bill, including President Obama because of oil's likely link to influencing climate change. Many people feel that in order to keep the Earth from becoming warmer and warmer we must reject fossil fuels and begin to invest in renewable energy. In order to make that transition to clean energy we must reject expanding the dirty and stinky oil business according to many Democrats.

Lawrence Jackson, "Joint Session of Congress" via Wikipedia
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