Pryor, Cotton Call for Keystone Pipeline to Open

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor and his re-election opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, made a joint appearance in Little Rock at a pipe manufacturer to call for the impasse on the Keystone XL Pipeline to end. On Monday, Cotton and Pryor visited Welspun Corp. at the Port of Little Rock, which has 358 miles of pipe sitting outside an idle factory, waiting for the Keystone Pipeline to win approval. The company has another manufacturing site that’s operating but has more than 200 workers currently laid off. The U.S. House has approved building the pipeline and Pryor says he’s working with a bipartisan group in the Senate and hopes the matter will come to a vote as soon as this week. President Barack Obama has blocked work on the line. A portion of the pipeline is scheduled to run through eastern Smith County.