Tammy Baldwin, the most liberal member of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, was the only member – Republican or Democrat – on the 53-member Energy & Commerce Committee to skip every single vote in yesterday’s Committee markup of a job-creating energy bill — H.R. 3548, the North American Energy Access Act.

A key goal of this legislation is to save the Keystone XL pipeline, a shovel-ready jobs and energy security project that President Obama delayed and ultimately rejected.  H.R. 3548 takes politics out of the pipeline decision by removing the president’s authority over the pipeline’s permit and giving it to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  As Bloomberg News reported, “pipeline backers, including labor unions, have said the project may create as many as 20,000 jobs.”

Curiously, while Congresswoman Baldwin didn’t have time for a vote on creating jobs, in contrast to all 53 of her Committee colleagues, she found time to Tweet about her upcoming appearance on the liberal Ed Schultz radio show that afternoon while the vote was taking place.

“Tammy Baldwin claims job creation is her top priority, yet she’s unwilling to show up for her own job and vote to put Americans back to work,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Lance Trover.  “It’s clear Tammy Baldwin has time for self-promotion and tax increases, but when it comes to creating jobs for the American people or even doing the job that she’s paid to do, her priorities are clearly elsewhere.”

Interestingly, on the very same day Baldwin is skipping votes to create jobs, the Canadian Prime Minister landed in China searching for new energy customers.  According to Canada.com, currently, Canada only exports oilsands crude to the United States but the Obama administration’s recent decision to reject, for now, the Keystone XL oilsands pipeline has Harper searching for new energy customers.