Can Senate Force Approval of Keystone Pipeline?
The votes might not be there, but the legal argument could be.
In April, the State Department extended the review process indefinitely, citing pending litigation in Nebraska and the need to study the "unprecedented" number of public comments it had received. (Related: "State Department Further Postpones Keystone XL Decision.")
"The legislation Senator Hoeven and I have introduced will green-light the construction of the pipeline immediately," Landrieu said in a statement.
The idea of pushing past the White House to expedite Keystone XL is certainly appealing to proponents of the pipeline. But after years of controversy, is it just more political posturing or could it really work?
The answer seems to be that there's a reasonable legal case for overriding the president on the issue, but the necessary votes probably aren't there.
The history of the
