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Yesterday, the Senate voted on a bill that would have overridden President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline. And it’s all thanks to you.
When Keystone XL reared its ugly head this time around, the climate movement responded with a massive show of strength: 802,000 of us sent messages to our Senators telling them to vote against this disastrous tar sands pipeline.
Here’s Bill McKibben with more on what this victory means:
Today the Senate defeated legislation to build the Keystone XL pipeline. The vote was close, but given that this pipeline was a ‘no brainer’ a year ago, it’s pretty remarkable that people power was able to keep working, even in the back rooms of the oil-soaked Senate. (See the full vote count here) Thanks to your hard work — most recently sending 802,000 messages to the Senate in just 24 hours, not to mention all the calls to your Senators — we have kept the pipeline at bay yet again. It’s unlikely the Senate will take another vote on Keystone XL, but then again, one can’t underestimate the corrupting influence of the money Big Oil is pumping into Capitol Hill.
Still, the news isn’t all good. Last week, TransCanada announced plans to build the half of the pipeline that runs from Oklahoma to Texas; and while it doesn’t let them get new tar sands oil across the Canadian border, it’s a blow for folks along the southern half of the route, who we’ll keep fighting side by side with. And TransCanada also announced plans to reapply for a permit to cross the border — so even the partial win we’ve got at the moment may turn out to be temporary. But for right now, there is pipe rusting in big piles across the heartland of the country, instead of sitting underground pumping dirty oil at 700,000 barrels per day. Our victory may not last forever. But today big oil actually lost something big.