The Carroll Standard

GOP wants Sen. Baucus to go rogue on Keystone XL oil sands pipeline

Alexander Bolton | The Hill:

Republicans are pressing Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to buck his leadership and use his authority in the payroll tax conference to green-light the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

Baucus has told business leaders in Montana that winning authorization for the transnational pipeline is one of his highest priorities for 2012.

Republicans say Baucus, as co-chairman of the payroll tax conference, has the power to include Keystone language in must-pass legislation and will pressure him to act.

"The quickest and surest way to get the pipeline going is for the Democratic chairman of the conference committee to put it into a must-do piece of legislation, the payroll tax package," said a senior Senate Republican aide.

Senate Democrats think Baucus will stick with the caucus and oppose the inclusion of language to force President Obama's hand on Keystone but they acknowledge the senior Montana lawmaker could go rogue, as he has in the past.

"Max Baucus has been around here longer than I have, and he is certainly a free agent," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters.

Some Senate Democrats have questioned Baucus's reliability on caucus positions ever since he split with the Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to support the 2001 Bush tax cuts. ... continued...