WASHINGTON — Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked the Keystone XL pipeline bill from moving forward on Monday, but supporters of the project vowed to push ahead and eventually get a vote on the measure.
The Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to limit debate, voting 53-39 on the measure.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, voted against moving forward with the bill.
“I could not be more convinced that the Keystone XL pipeline is not in the best long-term interest of our country,” King said in a statement. “The pipeline will facilitate the development of dirty, climate-harming oil when the United States should focus its attention on transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable forms of energy. Additionally, it would only result in only about 35 long-term jobs, and it appears likely that the oil will be exported overseas. All of this does not even begin to address the underlying issue here: the Senate should not be in the business of issuing building permits for construction projects. I look forward to the day when the Senate has a debate on real energy policy in this country, not on whether or not to approve one pipeline.”
The Keystone bill allows Congress to approve TransCanada Corp.’s project to link Canada’s oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.
Democrats, who lost control of the Senate as a result of November’s elections, flexed their muscles to deliver a message to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he will have to deal with them even on bills that enjoy some bipartisan support.
McConnell has pledged that amendments to bills will be debated in an open process. But Democrats said McConnell cut off debate last Thursday on several amendments.
“He’s got to work with us and not try to jam us,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said of McConnell. Democrats are not trying to delay the bill, but they don’t want McConnell to shut down the open process at his whim, said Schumer, the Senate’s third ranking Democrat.
Republicans have made passing the Keystone bill the first priority of the new Senate.
But the White House has said President Barack Obama would reject the bill, and Keystone supporters are four votes short of the 67 needed to overcome any veto.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairman of the energy committee, vowed to work with Democrats on her panel to consider additional amendments.