Washington, DC – The U.S. Senate today passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a strong opponent of the pipeline who voted no on the bill, released the statement below regarding the vote:
“Now that we have burned through three weeks of the Senate’s time, Senate Republicans have succeeded in passing their first piece of legislation: a gift for Big Oil that the President has already said he will veto. I’m glad the President will veto this bill because the Keystone XL pipeline would be a disaster for our health and environment – enabling expanded development of one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet and exacerbating climate change. I hope we can now put this debate behind us and move on to more serious legislative efforts to address the major issues facing our country.”
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