Nebraska’s highest court dismissed Friday a lawsuit challenging a proposed route for the Keystone XL pipeline, clearing the way for State Department action.
The Nebraska Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling because the plaintiffs lacked the legal standing to challenge the 2012 state law establishing a route through the state, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
“We conclude that the district court erred by not dismissing the action for lack of jurisdiction due to the failure of the plaintiffs … to establish standing,” the court wrote.
The court’s decision means Keystone XL now has a legal route through the state. That kicks the Keystone XL decision back to President Obama, whose administration has been evaluating the 1,700-mile project for more than six years.
The White House issued a veto threat Tuesday of legislation working its way through both chambers of Congress that would approve construction of the $8 billion pipeline. It cited the ongoing Nebraska case while also reiterating Obama’s position that the State Department should be allowed to finish its review of TransCanada Corp.’s application for a cross-border permit to build Keystone XL’s northern leg, which stretches into Canada.
“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 U.S. national interests, and if presented to the President, he will veto the bill,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told the Washington Examiner.
The veto threat the White House issued this week also gave hope to the pipeline’s opponents that the president would reject the project.
“We are confident President Obama knows this route is too risky to approve,” said Jane Kleeb, director of Bold Nebraska, said in a statement after the Nebraska Supreme Court ruling.
The plaintiffs, represented by Dave Domina, the 2014 Nebraska Democratic Senate nominee, had sought to challenge the law on constitutional grounds. They claimed the state’s utility regulator should approve the new pipeline route rather than the legislature.
But with Nebraska’s high court siding with the state legislature just hours ahead of a U.S. House vote on the Keystone XL legislation and a day after a Senate panel advanced a similar bill to the floor, Capitol Hill is again heating up over the pipeline.
“Today’s court decision wipes out President Obama’s last excuse,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. “He’s had six years to approve a project that will increase U.S. energy supplies and create closer ties with our nearest ally and neighbor, and he’s refused to act. Regardless of whatever new excuse he may come up with, Congress is moving forward.”
Republicans and centrist Democrats want Obama to green light the pipeline because they say it will create jobs — the State Department forecast 35 permanent jobs and 42,100 temporary ones during the two-year construction phase — and strengthen energy security by getting supplies from Canada.
“Today’s ruling provides the perfect opportunity for the president to change his unproductive posture on this jobs project and reverse his veto threat,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
But Obama has derided the jobs claims in recent public comments, and echoed concerns of environmentalists that the oil sands Keystone XL would haul from Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast are destined for export. He’s also reiterated his comments from June 2013 that he would scrap Keystone XL if it “significantly exacerbates the problem of carbon pollution.”
“It’s very good for Canadian oil companies and it’s good for the Canadian oil industry, but it’s not going to be a huge benefit to U.S. consumers. It is not even going to be a nominal benefit to U.S. consumers,” Obama said at a year-end press conference last month.
While the House is expected to pass its Keystone XL bill, the Senate is less certain. The bill has 60 co-sponsors in the upper chamber, and lead sponsor Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said 63 would vote for it. But getting to the 67 needed to override Obama’s veto is less certain.
Senate Democrats are planning to push a series of amendments to the Keystone XL bill that could attract some more votes, but each amendment would need 60 supporters to make it onto the main legislation. One would require the creation of a clean energy job for every one the pipeline adds and another would prevent export of crude flowing through Keystone XL.
Many liberal Democrats, however, plan to vote against any measure giving the thumbs up to Keystone XL.
“Why is this bill so urgent? The answer is money. Money and power,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a Thursday hearing. “I didn’t come here to do favors for TransCanada.”
