Today, the U.S. Senate voted to approve S. 1., legislation to approve the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite strong environmental problems and the export of American steel jobs overseas for the duration of the construction. The legislation was passed without meaningful reform, a corrupt giveaway to the fossil fuels corporations.
Most of the senators who voted for the pipeline, which will carry viscous and toxic tar sands across the American Midwest all the way down to Texas, to be processed and burned, pumping vast new amounts of carbon dioxide right after the hottest year in history, were Republican. Don’t let Democratic partisans try to convince you that the Republicans were the only ones to blame for today’s vote.
8 Democratic U.S. Senators – 1 of every 5 Senate Democrats – joined the Republicans today to vote in favor of the Keystone XL Pipeline. These 8 anti-environment Democrats were:
Michael Bennet
Tom Carper
Robert Casey
Joe Donnelly
Heidi Heitkamp
Joe Manchin
Claire McCaskill
Jon Tester
Mark Warner
With this many of its U.S. senators willing to vote with the interests of Big Oil, can the Democratic Party claim to represent environmentalism?