Today, the Senate Energy Committee converted itself into a contribution-in-kind for Mary Landrieu, to whom it gave a show-vote of approval to our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, the continent-spanning death funnel that proposes to bring the world's worst fossil fuel from the blasted environmental moonscape of northern Alberta to the refineries of Texas and, thence, to the world. Landrieu was a tough re-election battle, and she has it in Louisiana, so her buddies dressed up as big old oil-company 'ho's and gave her a vote to approve the pipeline. Landrieu gets to bring in all that sweet, sweet oily cash, so there we are.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 12-10 today for legislation that would let Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. build then operate the $5.4 billion Canada-to-U.S. oil pipeline that has been snagged in disputes for more than five years. Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Chairman Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who helped write the bill, joined all the Republicans in backing the legislation. "This is about what our future energy policy should look like," said Landrieu, pointing to the need to boost construction employment and expand oil imports from Canada and also Mexico, both long-time allies. The measure's prospects aren't good, however. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who sets the agenda for chamber action, hasn't agreed to bring the issue up for a vote. Obama could veto it if it did pass.

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Look at what Landrieu said.

"This is about what our future energy policy should look like," said Landrieu, pointing to the need to boost construction employment and expand oil imports from Canada and also Mexico, both long-time allies.

Mary Landrieu believes that oil—and specifically the dirtiest, most poisonous oil ever produced—is "what our future energy policy should look like" in a world that already may have past the point of no return as far as the effect of carbon fuels on the planet, a development that already has had perilous consequences on places like, well, Louisiana. But the pipeline doesn't run through her state, so what does she care?

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Mary_Landrieu_Lays_Some_Pipe