Last week, AWB president Don Brunell called for swift action by Congress on the Keystone XL pipeline.

TransCanada, a Canadian pipeline company, hopes to build the 1,400-plus mile Keystone XL down to Cushing, Okla., connecting it there with a second, southern leg. That 480-mile leg would take the diluted heavy bitumen oil from Alberta’s tar sands region to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

The House has approved construction of the Keystone XL Project – and now both Republicans and Democrats are expressing support for a measure that would create thousands of American jobs in areas hard hit by the recession.  Wednesday’s 293-127 vote on the transportation extension was the fourth time the House voted on the proposed oil pipeline project in the last two years. A large group of House Democrats – 69 of 190 – backed the bill, giving Republicans new hope the Democratic-led Senate and Obama might be convinced to embrace the oil pipeline project

The Wall Street Journal editorial board agrees.

What the country needs is for the State Department to sign off on the cross-border rights so the oil can flow from Canada. The State Department has twice conducted lengthy reviews that found no major environmental risks from the pipeline… The U.S. and its workers are paying a heavy price for this obstructionism…

This should not be a difficult decision.