The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday threw out a challenge from landowners over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route, even though a majority of the judges agreed the plaintiffs should have won their case.

Landowners charged that a 2012 state law that gave former Gov. Dave Heineman the right to review and approve certain pipeline projects, including Keystone XL, was unconstitutional. Despite the court’s 4-3 ruling in favor of the landowners, Nebraska’s constitution requires a supermajority of five judges to strike down a law as unconstitutional.

The Nebraska case surfaced Wednesday during a Senate committee session on Keystone XL legislation. Ranking committee member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the Nebraska law gave pipeline-siting authority to Heineman instead of the Nebraska Public Service Corp.

Cantwell said the state agency protects the public’s interest on issues of safety, the environment and public domain.

In a statement Friday, Cantwell called the court’s decision “an attempt to circumvent the public interest process for the citizens of Nebraska to raise concerns about a pipeline going through their community.”

The committee passed the Keystone XL bill by a 13-9 vote, sending it to the full Senate. The bill, which is expected to be taken up next week, is identical to one that failed by one vote to pass the Senate in November.

President Obama has vowed to veto the measure. It would take a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress — 67 in the Senate and 287 in the House — to override the veto and pass the legislation.

The 36-inch, 1,179-mile Keystone XL pipeline would carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Houston and Port Arthur, Texas.

The project, estimated at $7 billion, was approved by the House on Friday by a 226-153 vote — marking the 10th time since July 2011 that the chamber has passed legislation approving the pipeline’s construction.

(MGNonline)