Obama, Republians back in tussle over oil pipeline

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and the US Congress are back where they were before Christmas, locked in an election-season tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Republicans hope to again force Obama to make a politically risky decision, while the president is seeking to put it off until after the November elections.

Obama blocked the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday, at least temporarily, but Republicans immediately signaled their intention to try again to force the issue.

Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says he will call Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recommended the rejection, to testify at a hearing as early as next Wednesday, the day after Obama gives his State of the Union address.