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month, citing a judge's ruling in Nebraska that overturned a state law permitting the pipeline to traverse the state.
• Nebraska's Supreme Court isn't expected to hear an appeal to that ruling until September or October, and there could be more legal maneuvering after that to carry past the November elections.
• Republicans seized on the announcement to ridicule Landrieu, whose campaign for re-election is based in part on a claim that her position as chair of the Senate Energy Committee is a major benefit to her oil-producing state.
• Begich didn't wait for Republicans to criticize him. He said he was "frankly appalled at the continued foot-dragging by this administration on the Keystone project."
• Further complicating the political calculations for Democrats, billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer has vowed to spend $50 million of his own money to make climate change a top-tier issue in the 2014 elections. He opposes the pipeline. Environmentally minded voters tend to back Democrats, and the party is already worried about a fall-off in voting this fall by other supporters because of the wobbly economic recovery and controversy over the nation's health care law.
• In his comments to reporters, Reid said Republicans had first said they merely wanted to vote on a nonbinding measure expressing support for the pipeline. He said they have now switched positions and want to vote on legislation to allow the project to begin.
• Landrieu told reporters that negotiations are continuing, and that it is not yet clear whether the legislation will be binding or not. Hoeven and other Republicans put it differently. "We ought to have a vote that matters," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
• In a nonbinding vote last year, 62 lawmakers supported construction. Among them were 17 Democrats, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has since retired and been replaced by another pipeline supporter, Sen. John Walsh.
• More recently, 11 Senate Democrats urged Obama in a letter to approve the pipeline by the end of May. Six of the 11 are on the ballot this fall, including Landrieu, Begich and Walsh, and Sens. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Warner of Virginia.
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