The US Senate fell one vote short Tuesday of approving construction of Keystone XL, a pipeline that would have provided a means for crude oil transportation from Alberta, Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
Along with all 45 Republican senators, 14 Democrats voted in favor of the measure.
The final tally was 59 to 41.
Among Democrats in support of the pipeline was Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louis.), who represents a state with an economy that depends largely on oil-industry jobs.
“This is for Americans, for American jobs, to build an American middle class, and it will create 40,000 immediate jobs,” she said on the Senate floor. “If the people of this Congress haven’t noticed, there’s a long unemployment line in some parts of this country.”
In the most recent midterm elections, Landrieu received less than 50 percent of the vote, pitting her against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-Louis.) in a runoff election to be held December 6. Reports say her support of the pipeline was meant to prove to Louisiana voters that she has their best interests at heart.
“I came here 18 years ago, fighting to get here, fighting to stay here, and I’m going to fight for the people of my state until the day that I leave – I hope that will not be soon,” she said. “There’s only joy in the fight. Where I come from, we just never talk about quitting, and we don’t talk about whining.”
While Landrieu and some Democrats supported the bill, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was among those who spoke against it.
“If we want to grow this energy economy with good jobs, we want to protect our families’ health, we want to protect our planet from devastating climate change, the vote is no on the Keystone XL pipeline,” she said on on the floor. “We know misery follows this pipeline.”
Boxer also cited potential health risks, such as heart disease, associated with constructing the pipe.
Other Democrats who voted against the bill were friends with the Louisiana senator, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Chris Coons (D-Del).
Although the measure was defeated, it is expected to resurface when Republicans officially take control of the Senate in January. The Keystone XL Pipeline is a priority for Republican leaders, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner.
“Once the 114th Congress convenes, the Senate will act again on this important legislation, and I look forward to the new Republican majority taking up and passing the Keystone jobs bill early in the New Year,” McConnell said.
The failure of Keystone XL in the Senate spared President Barack Obama a veto he was expected to have issued had it passed on Tuesday.
“Understand what this project is – it is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else,” the president said while he was in Myanmar last week. “That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices. You know what does have an impact on U.S. gas prices is the incredible boom in U.S. Oil production and natural gas production that’s taken place under my administration.”
Advocates of the Keystone XL say its construction will result in new jobs and $2 billion of economic output. Opponents, on the other hand, say this move does not the US take steps toward transitioning to energy options that do not release greenhouse gases.
A review by the State Department in January, however, indicated that the pipeline would not significantly contribute to climate change, as oil will be produced regardless of whether or not Keystone XL exists.
The pipeline is an $8 billion project that was proposed by TransCanada in 2005. With the defeat on Tuesday, the company’s chief executive, Russ Girling, said TransCanada will persist in making the pipeline a reality.
“We will continue to push for reason over gridlock, common sense over symbolism and solid science over rhetoric to approve Keystone XL and unlock its benefits,” he said.
(With reports from Al Jazeera, CNN, Reuters and The New York Times)
