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Opponents can now portray themselves as victims of an injustice because they lost even though a majority of judges sided with their claim. In doing so, however, they will have to ignore the fact a similar requirement is all that is preventing the Congress from passing Keystone over the head of the President.

The majority of both the House and Senate support the project, as do the majority of Americans. A new bill forcing Mr. Obama to make a decision is now in the works, and is expected to attract more than 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate. But a mere majority won’t be enough, because if Mr. Obama vetoes the bill as threatened, it would require 67 votes to override him.

The Republicans will go ahead with the bill anyway, hoping that forcing the President to veto a bill that has such broad support will prove an embarrassment, especially at a time Mr. Obama is pleading for more co-operation and less partisanship in Washington. If he hopes to get anything done in his final two years in office Mr. Obama will need some level of help from Congress, which won’t be forthcoming if he insists on basing decisions on a determination to curry favour with the Democratic party’s most ardent environmentalist diehards.

Even as the confrontation grows more heated, it takes on a surreal effect as the price of oil tests new lows amid a global supply glut. In the six years since Mr. Obama took office, the U.S. has moved to the top of the world’s oil producers, diluting Keystone’s claimed value as a hedge against energy insecurity. The President could be forgiven if he used that as a reason to finally put the axe to the project, although everyone knows oil prices are prone to wild swings, and will eventually rise again as supply is reduced.

But that might be too easy, and rational, for a project that has preferred denial, grandstanding and political bullheadedness since it came before a President who can’t bring himself to make a decision. This will go on until the Senate finds 67 members desperate enough to put an end to it, or finds a way to package the bill with sweeteners Mr. Obama can’t resist, or until the President leaves office.

National Post

KellyMcParland