UPDATE: Senate defeats Keystone XL pipeline.
The final vote was held in the Senate yesterday -- and we did it. We won!
While the vote came down to the wire with 11 Democrats crossing party lines to vote for the measure, it fell short of the 60 needed by four votes, two of which were Republicans who were absent for the vote.
The 11 Democrats who voted for the Keystone pipeline include Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia. If you live in any one of those states - we encourage you to still use the tools below to call or facebook your Senators and tell them why you oppose the pipeline.
Nevertheless, this is a HUGE victory, and we couldn't have done it without you. We will keep a close eye on this issue and keep you updated as developments occur.
As we alerted folks yesterday, dirty Senators are still pushing to force through the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Over 800,000 of us have already said 'no' to the pipeline. But some Senators aren't hearing us yet, and we need to remind them that this pipeline must be stopped.
We know you've gotten lots of emails about this over the past few weeks, so we'll keep it simple and short: It looks like the big vote that we thought would come a week or two ago is happening today. If we can beat the polluters today, they'll be out of turns in the Senate and we'll have closed down Keystone with the Administration and one house of Congress. Sure, they can try again with permitting, or ask the more-conservative House to pass a bill ramming the pipeline through. But if we win today we'll have won 2 out of 3, and by rules so simple a child can understand them, that means they should give up and go home.
You can use the tool below to look up your Senators and contact them by phone, or on their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Any of these methods will get the message to them today. And after you tell your Senators, make sure to tell your friends too - it's vital that we spread the word about this:
Passage in the Senate remains uncertain, requiring 13 Democrats to cross party lines in order to move the measure forward. If we keep up the pressure, we can deal a heavy blow to big oil and their allies in Congress. If you haven’t already, click here to add your name to the growing list of Americans who reject the Keystone XL pipeline and the dirty tar sands oil it will bring.