Defying the wishes of the Republican-led House and Senate, the president on Tuesday rejected the years-in-the-making would-be legislation that sought to pave the way for a 1,179-mile pipeline to carry crude tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Congress authorized the bill more than a week ago, and in recent days it was handed off to the White House.
"The president does intend to veto this pace of legislation, and we intend to do it without drama or fanfare or delay,” Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said at a scheduled media briefing early Tuesday afternoon in Washington, DC. Later in the day it was confirmed that the president had, in fact, vetoed the bill.
Ahead of the president’s expected decision, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—top-ranking Republicans representing Ohio and Kentucky, respectively—published an op-ed condemning Obama’s intentions.
"The allure of appeasing environmental extremists may be too powerful for the president to ignore. But the president is sadly mistaken if he thinks vetoing this bill will end this fight," they wrote. "Far from it. We are just getting started."
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