Barack Obama was staring at decision day on the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday after the contentious project cleared an important legal hurdle and gained new support in Congress.
In a much anticipated decision, the Nebraska supreme court on Friday narrowly upheld a decision by the Republican governor, Dave Heineman, to reroute the pipeline through the state without consulting an independent commission.
Three hours later, the US House of Representatives voted 266-153 to force construction of the pipeline, keeping Keystone at the top of the agenda of the new Republican-controlled Congress. Twenty-eight Democrats voted in favour of the pipeline, the 10th time the House has approved it.
“President Obama is now out of excuses for blocking the Keystone pipeline and the thousands of American jobs it would create,” said the House speaker, John Boehner. “It’s time to start building.”
The White House said it would veto such legislation, pending decisions from the Nebraska court and the State Department.
But with the court ruling now in from Nebraska, one of Obama’s main justifications for blocking efforts in Congress to force his hand – or rejecting the pipeline outright – was gone.
TransCanada said: “We welcome today’s decision. Every aspect of this project has been extensively reviewed and we have repeatedly demonstrated how this project is in America’s national interest.
“Building Keystone XL is the choice of reason. It is time to approve Keystone XL.”
Campaigners said Keystone still failed the climate change test and called on Obama to reject the pipeline outright.
“Obviously we have a bloody nose this morning, but we are not down for the fight,” Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, the coalition of landowners and environmental campaigners that had sought to block the pipeline, told a conference call with reporters. “We are confident the president has all the information he needs to reject a Keystone permit.”
More than six years after TransCanada first proposed a pipeline that would transport tar sands crude across the American heartland to refineries on the Texas Gulf coast, Obama could at last be running out of time to make a decision on Keystone.
The pipeline – now a flashpoint for a wider debate about climate change and the economy – is still under review by the State Department. Up to 10 other government agencies could also weigh in before the State Department decides whether the pipeline is in the national interest. Then it’s up to Obama.
Keystone opponents in Nebraska said they expected a final decision from the State Department to arrive within a few weeks or a month. Girling said he believed the State Department could reach a decision about a permit in two months.
In both scenarios, the pressure is building on Obama to act, following Friday’s vote in the House, and moves in the Senate to hold a debate on Keystone early next week.
“Today’s court decision wipes out President Obama’s last excuse,” Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican and chair of the Senate energy committee said in a statement.
The split ruling from the Nebraska supreme court on the proposed pipeline route represents a wafer-thin victory for Keystone supporters.
Four of the seven justices agreed with a lower court ruling in 2012 rejecting TransCanada’s route. But the proposed route remains lawful because court rules required a super majority of five judges to overturn the route.
“We believe that Nebraska citizens deserve a decision on the merits. But the supermajority requirement, coupled with the dissent’s refusal to reach the merits, means that the citizens cannot get a binding decision from this court,” the court wrote in the majority opinion.
A court ruling in the other direction would have forced TransCanada to gain approval for its route from an obscure regulatory commission in Nebraska, a process that could take at least seven months.
Brian Jorde, a lawyer for the three Nebraska landowners who sued to block the pipeline’s route, said the matter was far from settled – although he did not say whether he would seek other legal avenues.
“This will be decided once and for all on another day,” Jorde said. “Unfortunately for TransCanada this could potentially be the worst possible outcome.”
Girling said he understood that opposition to the pipeline could continue.
Republicans have seized on the pipeline for the first substantive business of the new Congress, ratcheting up the pressure on Obama with successive votes for approval.
The Keystone vote in the Senate is also expected to pass, with more than 60 co-sponsors so far. Democrats will try to slow its process or use the debate to expose Republicans’ views on climate change, but they do not have the numbers to block a Keystone vote outright.
However, the White House has been just as adamant that it will not allow Congress to force its hand.
The House and the Senate while having enough votes for pro-Keystone legislation do not have the votes to overcome a presidential veto.
The White House said it would still veto Keystone legislation despite the Nebraska ruling.
“Regardless of the Nebraska ruling today, the House bill still conflicts with longstanding executive branch procedures regarding the authority of the president and prevents the thorough consideration of complex issues that could bear on US national interests,” the deputy press secretary, Eric Schultz, said in a statement.
“If presented to the president, he will veto the bill.”
