Just FYI, President Obama is officially the last man standing in the trumped-up battle over the Keystone XL pipeline’s construction; the state of Nebraska, the State Department, the House, and now even the Democrat-controlled Senate have all given the project very much on-the-record green lights. As fond as the president is of intoning on the need for bipartisanship and of imploring Congress to come together and really do some stuff, there’s finally bipartisan agreement on the pipeline from all sides and he just can’t take yes for an answer:

The Senate on Friday voted 62-37 to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in an amendment to Senate budget.

Sen. John Hoeven’s (R-N.D.) amendment was largely symbolic, but served as a clear statement that the Senate backs the pipeline.

“It puts the Senate on record in support of the Keystone pipeline project. And that’s just appropriate,” Hoeven said. “The Department of State has done four environmental impact statements over the last five years — four — and said there are no significant environmental impacts. And it’s time that we in the Senate stepped up with the American people.”

All Republicans voted in favor. The Democrats who supported the measure were Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Michael Bennet (Colo.), Tom Carper (Del.), Bob Casey (Pa.), Chris Coons (Del.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Joe Manchin (W. Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Bill Nelson (Fla.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.).

Again, I’m inclined to think that the most probable reason for Obama’s ongoing noncommittal attitude is because they’re cooking up some big Climate-Change-Championing scheme with which to assuage the eco-radical crowd and maintain his environmentalist creds to introduce around the same time as the pipeline’s ultimate approval (something in the same vein as his recent “I’m trying to please everyone, so let’s drill more oil and use the revenue to get off of oil”-initiative, but bigger and even more partisan).

Our esteemed Green Knight in Recyclable Armor mused yesterday that the “time has come” for a carbon tax at last — is that what the Obama administration is up to?