to decide about the pipeline and about foreign policy? Because if Congress is not supposed to decide about Keystone XL,
isn't that bill just frivolous? And isn't Netanyahu's stunt another meaningless thing? Congress can bitch and moan, as usual, about the Iran talks, but they cannot really have a say in them, is my understanding.

Keystone is international. Any presidential authority stems from his general authority over international relations. The general rule, however, is that a specific law or provision cuts out an exemption or exception from the general law.

Congress has Constitutional authority specifically over the regulation of international commerce.

That puts the authority for dealing with it clearly in Congress' corner, using the usual legislative mechanisms.

However, since 1792 a lot of international commerce has sprung up in trivial sorts of ways. So for many decades Congress hasn't dealt with it. In the late 1800s through recent times the president has been left holding the bag in many if not most situations and has routinely said that he was taking action in the absence of any Congressional action, explicitly recognizing that Congress has first dibs, and saying that the matter had waited and Congress had simply not acted in an appropriate time frame.

There were some Congressional research office reports in the last decade or so that summarized this and laid out the historical and legal bases for this.

Keystone is one of the first times that the president has argued that the Congress explicitly does not have authority over international commerce, and his argument for vetoing the Keystone proposals so far aren't based on the merit of the legislation but on presidential prerogative: It's properly the executive's responsibility, not Congress', and how dare they meddle.

Ironically, this time it's Congress that's saying the dawdling's been the executive's.

Because KXL involves a foreign company & country, it's a matter of State Dept. (Unfortunately, the State study Boehner keeps referring was flawed & even had a stink about it). The bill, I think, is is a way to pass the slew of amendments, like upping allowable oil exort. That selling the oil is rather counter to the supposed idea of "energy independence" is totally ignored.

does it make when he vetoes it?

They might have to get up off their asses and find their way to local TV stations to shed their tears.

And just not signed the damn Koch-profiting thing.