College Conservative contributor Jim Hinton has a proposal to fuel the congressional agenda during its next session.

Congress is about to head into its Christmas Recess, and will soon be closed for business until January. When Congress returns, it will be the Republican-led 114^th Congress calling the shots instead of the split 113^th. I have a radical proposal for the Republicans of the new Congress: be gracious in victory, and stick a thumb in the eye of the White House in the process. You can do this by taking the high ground and doing more than paying lip service to the idea of bipartisan cooperation. Let’s get the final phase of the Keystone XL pipeline approved in 2015.

Now, I know that many people view the Keystone pipeline as a very partisan topic. Conservatives want the increased security of reducing our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, while liberals can’t stand the thought of anything to do with oil. What’s bipartisan about that?

Well, how about the minor detail that there are plenty of Democrats in favor of Keystone? Supporting Keystone just plain makes sense.

…Democratic senators have also support Keystone XL. Senators Michael Bennet, Bob Casey, and Tom Carper voted in favor of approval on November 18th, though they did not sign Landrieu’s letter. All three will be in the 114^th Congress. Added to the other seven survivors of the November vote that means that Republicans can potentially add ten Democrats to votes to approve Keystone,

In the House last month, thirty-one Democrats voted in favor of HR 5682, calling for approval. Twenty-five of these will be returning in January.  (Of those not returning, four were retiring, and only two lost their bids for election. Coincidence? Maybe sound energy policy wins votes.) Without these Democrats, the House has 246 Republicans and the Senate has fifty-four. These are clear majorities, but they are not super-majorities: should the Republicans go their own way and not engage in bipartisan support, they can pass these bills, but are in danger of a veto.