Nebraska Court OKs Keystone Pipeline

House vote on Keystone as Nebraska court OK’s pipeline

The Nebraska Supreme Court delivered an unpleasant surprise to the White House this morning. Barack Obama and his aides had argued that the Keystone XL Pipeline approval legislation working its way quickly through Congress would have to get vetoed in part because it would intrude on a court case in Nebraska over its route. That impediment, whether real or imaginary, vanished in a split decision this morning:

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday against landowners challenging Keystone XL pipeline route through the state, possibly clearing a path for President Barack Obama to make a decision on the project that has been under review for more than six years.
Nebraska’s highest court, in a split decision, threw out a lower-court ruling that had found a 2012 state law on pipeline oversight unconstitutional. The law gave Nebraska’s governor the power to review and approve certain major pipelines, including Keystone XL. The judges sided with Nebraska’s Republican governor, Dave Heineman, in a ruling that said the state law must remain in place because a required supermajority of the court wasn’t prepared to strike it down.

The formal veto threat on Wednesday cited this pending case as one of the main reasons Obama planned to veto any legislation authorizing construction of the pipeline. “The bill also would authorize the project despite uncertainty due to ongoing litigation in Nebraska,” the official statement read, even though a conditional approval would have had no impact on the legal issues involved. The other reason, that it would “cut short consideration” of a project that the State Department has been reviewing for almost as long as it took us to send a man to the Moon, may be the only fig leaf left. . . .

Long past time to ram this one through.

Update before pushing publish: House approves building Keystone pipeline

The Keystone XL pipeline cleared its first hurdle of the new Congress on Friday when the House voted to approve construction of the long-stalled project, just hours after a court in Nebraska cleared a final legal hurdle there.

The 266-153 vote saw 28 Democrats side with the GOP in backing the pipeline, signaling significant though not overwhelming support for the controversial project that would carry crude oil from Canada into the U.S. for refinement.

Now off to the newly reconfigured Republican Senate, and then to the President.