Pipeline Battle Continues

    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama and 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. It would run through western South Dakota.
     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, R-Mich., 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.