CONFRONTATION – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Congress to vote on Keystone Pipeline.  From the Washington Examiner: 

The House will hold a vote on authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline in the first two weeks of session next month, a GOP leadership aide confirmed with the Washington Examiner.

The bill will likely pass the House by a sizable margin. The Senate also plans to hold a vote in January, and has a Jan. 7 committee hearing on a bill to green light the Canada-to-Gulf Coast project.

The 1,200-mile pipeline has been under federal review more than six years. Its builder, TransCanada Corp., needs a cross-border permit to complete its northern leg.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pledged to have an open amendment process on the legislation. The bill likely has the 60 supporters needed to clear procedural hurdles for a vote, but it remains to be seen whether potentially controversial amendments — such as handcuffing the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to regulate carbon emissions from power plants — would cost Democratic votes.

COMMENT:  The key here is to make sure the legislation isn't hobbled by Republican amendments, forcing President Obama to decide whether to veto a simple authorization of the pipeline.  He's given broad hints that he will indeed veto the pipeline, but that would be a broadly unpopular move and would antagonize organized labor, which hopes for new jobs from the pipeline project.

On the other hand, Obama may decide to let the pipeline go through.  This would infuriate the environmental religionists who believe Keystone is the work of the Devil, but would raise Obama's overall popularity.  We wait and see.

January 1,  2015