The Senate has just defeated the Keystone XL Pipeline bill.Â
After the House passed the Keystone XL Pipeline bill as one of their very first acts after returning to work in the wake of the election, moments ago the Senate tried to do the same. The bill was defeated.
A contentious debate – more like a series of monologues, really – was held before the vote.Â
Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, in a desperate fight to save her seat, called for the vote and tried to rally her colleagues to a “yes” vote. She failed. Landrieu will face a runoff in the coming weeks and hoped her support of the bill would save her job.
Leading the opposition to the bill was California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, whose passionate oratory concluded with the photo of a young girl forced to wear an oxygen mask after her lungs were damaged by the very pollution Keystone could help create.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, among the most progressive in the Senate, presided over the debate.
Keystone would have created a mere 35 permanent jobs, despite the GOP falsehood of labeling it a “jobs bill.”
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Image: Screenshot via NBC News