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Falling short by a single vote, a vote in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday evening failed to get the requisite 60 votes needed to approve a bill designed to force approval of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
The final vote was 59 in favor and 41 voting against the bill (see official roll call below). The ‘Yays’ included all the 45 Republicans in the Senate who were joined by 14 Democrats. The remaining Democrats voted ‘Nay’ against the bill, accompanied by the Senate’s two Independents, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Angus King of Maine.
Climate campaigners celebrate the vote result, even as they acknowledged the deplorable fact that such a vote took place at all.
“Once again, Congress tried to play games with our future–and failed,” said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, in a statement. “Since Keystone XL has always been President Obama’s decision, this vote was never anything more than an empty gesture of political theater.”
Boeve suggested President Obama take the opportunity provided by the result in the Senate to reject the project once and for all. “By dramatically accelerating tar sands oil development, Keystone XL clearly fails President Obama’s own climate test,” she said. “The pipeline is a lose-lose for everyone except TransCanada. The President has all the information he needs to reject this pipeline now, and we’re going to stand by him to make sure he does.”
The Sierra Club’s executive director Michael Brune applauded those senators who “stood up for the health of our families and our climate” by voting against the measure. “There’s no good reason the Senate should have wasted all this time on yet another meaningless push for Keystone XL,” said Brune. “Since day one, the decision on the pipeline has belonged to President Obama, and he has repeatedly said he will reject this pipeline if it contributes to the climate crisis. As there is no doubt that it does, we remain confident that is precisely what he’ll do.”
Following the vote, 350.org’s Jamie Henn tweeted:
Reactions to the vote were also trending on Twitter:
#nokxl Tweets
The complete roll call for the Senate vote follows (with Democratic ‘Yay’ votes underlined):
Alphabetical by Senator Name
Ayotte (R-NH),
Baldwin (D-WI),
Barrasso (R-WY),
Blumenthal (D-CT),
Blunt (R-MO),
Booker (D-NJ),
Boozman (R-AR),
Boxer (D-CA),
Brown (D-OH),
Burr (R-NC),
Cantwell (D-WA),
Cardin (D-MD),
Chambliss (R-GA),
Coats (R-IN),
Coburn (R-OK),
Cochran (R-MS),
Collins (R-ME),
Coons (D-DE),
Corker (R-TN),
Cornyn (R-TX),
Crapo (R-ID),
Cruz (R-TX),
Durbin (D-IL),
Enzi (R-WY),
Feinstein (D-CA),
Fischer (R-NE),
Flake (R-AZ),
Franken (D-MN),
Graham (R-SC),
Grassley (R-IA),
Harkin (D-IA),
Hatch (R-UT),
Heinrich (D-NM),
Heller (R-NV),
Hirono (D-HI),
Hoeven (R-ND),
Inhofe (R-OK),
Isakson (R-GA),
Johanns (R-NE),
Johnson (D-SD),
Johnson (R-WI),
Kaine (D-VA),
King (I-ME),
Kirk (R-IL),
Klobuchar (D-MN),
Leahy (D-VT),
Lee (R-UT),
Levin (D-MI),
Markey (D-MA),
McCain (R-AZ),
McConnell (R-KY),
Menendez (D-NJ),
Merkley (D-OR),
Mikulski (D-MD),
Moran (R-KS),
Murkowski (R-AK),
Murray (D-WA),
Nelson (D-FL),
Paul (R-KY),
Portman (R-OH),
Reed (D-RI),
Reid (D-NV),
Risch (R-ID),
Roberts (R-KS),
Rockefeller (D-WV),
Rubio (R-FL),
Sanders (I-VT),
Schatz (D-HI),
Schumer (D-NY),
Scott (R-SC),
Sessions (R-AL),
Shaheen (D-NH),
Shelby (R-AL),
Stabenow (D-MI),
Thune (R-SD),
Toomey (R-PA),
Udall (D-CO),
Udall (D-NM),
Vitter (R-LA),
Warren (D-MA),
Whitehouse (D-RI),
Wicker (R-MS),
Wyden (D-OR),
Ahead of a vote scheduled for late afternoon in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, activists opposed to a measure seeking to force approval of the Keystone XL were pulling out all the stops in order to make sure key lawmakers heard their message.
A live stream of the Senate proceedings was available on C-SPAN throughout the day.
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