Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against fast-tracking the approval of the controversial Keystone XL proposal to import Canadian crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday voted 12-10 to bypass a requirement that President Barack Obama sign off on the project, a pending decision that has delayed the TransCanada pipeline for years.
Sanders said he opposes the pipeline because extracting and refining tar sands oil will emit more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“The scientific community has overwhelmingly concluded that global warming is occurring, that it is caused by human activity and that it is already causing devastating problems in terms of drought, wildfires, flooding and extreme weather disturbances,” Sanders said in a statement.
“The scientists tell us that there is a narrow opportunity in the near future to substantially reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and transform our energy systems away from fossil fuels and into renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, geo-thermal and bio-mass,” Sanders added.
Unless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., takes up the bill in the Senate, the Obama administration will still have to issue a final decision on the project before it can proceed.
