WASHINGTON,
Nov. 18, 2014 - A bill authorizing the go-ahead on the Keystone XL pipeline
failed in the Senate Tuesday night by a single vote, saving President Obama
from having to decide whether to veto the legislation, despite polls that show
the project is broadly popular, or to allow it to go forward and anger
environmentalists and many Democrats.
The
vote was 59-41 with all 45 Republicans supporting the measure along with 14
Democrats, mostly from energy states. Backers needed 60 “yes” votes for the
bill to move forward. Still, the
legislation will get another, better chance in the next Congress when
Republicans will be in the majority.
"This will be an early
item on the agenda in the next Congress," incoming Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, vowed after the vote.
The outcome was a body blow
to Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana who had sponsored the bill and pushed hard
for support among her Democratic colleagues. Landrieu, who chairs the Senate’s
Energy Committee, is facing a runoff election on Dec. 6 with Rep. Bill Cassidy
and she was hoping the bill’s passage would show voters in her energy-rich
state that she could deliver on important energy legislation.
GOP leaders had Cassidy
sponsor the House Keystone bill, which was approved easily on Friday, 252-161.
"This is for Americans,
for American jobs, to build an American middle class, and it will create 40,000
immediate jobs," Landrieu said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
"If the people of this Congress haven't noticed, there's a long
unemployment line in some parts of this country."
Opponent of the pipeline
dispute that job figure and say the project, which would carry heavy crude oil
from Canada through the country’s midsection to refineries in Texas, would
increase pollution and pose a threat to environmentally sensitive lands.
After the balloting, Senate Environment
and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., thanked the other 40
Democrats who said no to the legislation.
“I know the fight is far from
over, but I’m proud of my colleagues today,” Boxer said in a statement. “We
will continue working for a safe, clean, job-producing energy future.”
Obama, while stopping short
of threatening a veto, last week made it clear that he was opposed to the
legislation and that he wanted the government review of TransCanada Corp.’s
project, now six years old, to go forward.
“Understand what this project is,” Obama said. “It is
providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land,
down to the Gulf [Coast], where it will be sold everywhere else. It doesn't have
an impact on U.S. gas prices.”
#30
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