Exactly how many iterations of this absurdly common-sense conclusion are we going to need before the Obama administration gets its rear in gear? From the Washington Post:

Americans support the idea of constructing the Keystone XL oil pipeline between Canada and the United States by a nearly 3 to 1 margin, with 65 percent saying it should be approved and 22 percent opposed, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The findings also show that the public thinks the massive project, which aims to ship 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta and the northern Great Plains to refineries on the Gulf Coast, will produce significant economic benefits. Eighty-five percent say the pipeline would create a significant number of jobs, with 62 percent saying they “strongly” believed that to be the case. … That so many Americans back the pipeline, even with environmental risks, highlights the quandary facing President Obama and his top aides as they weigh whether to approve the proposal.

Ah, yes — an insulated from politics “quandary” if ever there was one. Let’s see: To heed the vast majority of Americans who can see past the smokescreen of eco-radical crapola and recognize that America needs to get moving on major energy infrastructure projects in order to take the best advantage of our recent shale boom, or to abide by the whims of a handful of out-of-touch, well-monied ultra-progressives and their borderline religious followers who have latched onto the Keystone XL pipeline as a symbol of all things fossil-fueled? Man, what a pickle.

Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto and 13 other young activists, including the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, are calling on Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline. After speaking with top State Department officials on Thursday, the activists sent a letter to Kerry, digging deep into the secretary’s past when he testified in Congress against the Vietnam War. “In 1971, when you were roughly our age, you asked ‘How can you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?’ ” the letter states. “We stand at such a point today, with respect to an even greater challenge, an even bigger mistake — the imminent threat of catastrophic climate disruption.” “We dare to believe that it’s not just an accident of history that this recommendation falls to you,” the letter said.

…Melodrama? Maybe?

As the Washington Post-ABC poll points out, 47 percent of Americans are still concerned that Keystone XL poses a significant threat to the environment — and it’s not like there’s zero cause for that concern. Every choice we’re going to make in the energy sector requires tradeoffs, but on net evaluation with all of the other alternatives (including, as these so-called environmentalists would evidently have it, either just shutting all of the power off everywhere or spending ourselves into poverty for “renewable” energy sources), the Keystone XL pipeline is the most cost effective, efficient, ecologically safe, and economically rewarding choice we have available — and Americans know it.