WASHINGTON — The US Senate on Thursday failed to pass legislation that would have cleared the way for the immediate construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Senate Republicans fell short by four votes in their attempt to push through an amendment that would approve TransCanada Corp.’s $7 billion project to construct an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
The measure also would have eliminated the need for President Barack Obama to authorize the project.
The Keystone XL amendment, which was part of a larger transportation bill that will renew funding for highway and infrastructure projects, needed 60 votes to pass.
The amendment received 56 votes in favor, including 11 from Democrats.
No Republicans opposed the amendment, but Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) did not vote.
Obama sparked the ire of Republicans in January when his administration denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The administration said it did not have “sufficient time to obtain the information necessary to assess whether the project, in its current state, is in the national interest.”
Obama on Thursday personally lobbied Democratic senators to vote against the amendment, which was sponsored by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).
The White House, however, has said that it is open to the possibility of approving the project in the future and last month gave its blessing to the partial construction of the pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas.
As gas prices have spiked in the US, Republicans have sought to frame Keystone as an election issue on which they have sharply diverged from Democrats.
“At a moment when tensions are rising in the Middle East, millions of Americans are struggling to find work and millions more are struggling with the rising cost of gas, Democrat opposition to this legislation shows how deeply out of touch they are with the concerns of middle-class Americans,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday.
“President Obama’s personal pleas to wavering senators may have tipped the balance against this legislation. When it comes to delays over Keystone, anyone looking for a culprit should now look no further than the Oval Office.”
Hoeven told FOX News he was not abandoning the project and would look to attach authorization for the pipeline to future legislation.
A Democratic amendment related to the Keystone XL pipeline also failed to pass the Senate Thursday by a 34-68 vote.
Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-Ore.) competing amendment would have banned exports from the pipeline to ensure the oil was used in the US.
Wyden said the prohibition on international trade of the oil would have boosted domestic energy supplies.