Most Equal Comrade, will you stand with the forces of economic growth, or with your greenie base?

The House passed authorization of the Keystone XL pipeline today.  Not by enough to protect the bill from the MEC's veto, but still, a strong message has been sent. The Senate takes it up next week.

The debate allowed both sides to run over their well-rehearsed arguments for and against the project. Republicans said it would create jobs and would pose minimal environmental risks, while Democrats said there are environmental dangers and rejected the idea that it would create any signficant long-term job growth.

But the debate got a shot in the arm from reports that the Nebraska Supreme Court threw out a challenge to a state law that was used to approve the pipeline’s route through Nebraska.

That ruling was important because the Obama administration has said the pipeline should not be approved in part because of uncertainty over legal issues in Nebraska. Resolving that issue means there’s one less reason for opposition by the White House.

“President Obama is now out of excuses for blocking the Keystone pipeline and the thousands of American jobs it would create,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in response to the ruling. “Finally, it’s time to start building.”

But the news out of Nebraska didn’t change President Barack Obama’s mind. “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,” deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz said.

Just before the vote, the State Department said the Nebraska decision means an inter-agency review of the national interest of the pipeline will resume. That review was stalled once the Nebraska law was challenged, and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she had no estimate of how much longer that review might take.

For cryin' out loud, the thing has been studied and reviewed to death.  If the Senate passes it and the MEC does veto it, there can never again be a subatomic particle of doubt that this regime's agenda is one of planned decline.