US Senate Republicans proposed legislation Monday to give Congress, not the executive branch, permitting authority over the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Unlike earlier bills by Republican lawmakers to speed approval of the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline, the legislation attempts to limit possible lawsuits springing from the permit.
Environmental groups and other Keystone XL opponents would have to file legal challenges with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, not in state or federal courts along the route.
The bill was introduced by Republican Senators Richard Lugar of Indiana, John Hoeven of North Dakota and David Vitter of Louisiana. Lugar aide Neil Brown said the proposal picked up more than 40 other co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.
President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada's original application to
build the 1,700-mile pipeline on January 18, saying the decision rested not on the project's merits, but rather a 60-day deadline Congress imposed on the process. TransCanada said it would reapply and, if approved, would put the system into operation in late 2014.
The Senate bill removes a requirement for the executive branch to issue a permit allowing the pipeline to cross the US-Canada border in Phillips County, Montana.
Ryan Bernstein, an energy adviser to Hoeven, said the strategy relies on the US Constitution's Commerce Clause giving Congress power to regulate foreign trade.
The bill would deem a final environmental impact statement issued by the State Department in October still valid and sufficient for satisfying the National Environmental Policy Act. It would also allow Nebraska's ongoing work rerouting the pipeline around a critical aquifer to continue on a separate track from Congress' consideration of the overall project.
"Nebraska can take all the time it wants to make that determination and do all the necessary reviews," Bernstein said.
Pipeline supporters in the House of Representatives have yet to get behind a single strategy for passing new legislation to speed the permit.
On Sunday, House Speaker John Boehner said he might insert a Keystone XL provision into a broad energy and transportation bill under consideration by two committees this week.
"If it's not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it will be part of it," Boehner told ABC News.
