Oily Keystone XL amendment expected today in the Senate

Amidst a flurry of votes today in the Senate on various amendments being tacked on to the Senate Budget Resolution is likely to be an amendment spearheaded by Senator Hoeven from North Dakota that would call for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The non-binding Hoeven amendment — co-sponsored by Senators Hoeven (R-ND), Baucus (D-MT), Cornyn (R-TX), Manchin (D-WV), Roberts (R-KS), Heitkamp (D-ND), Barrasso (R-WY), Landrieu (D-LA), Murkowski (R-AK), and Begich (D-AK) — supports approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, prejudging the ongoing review process currently being undertaken by the State Department. A vote could come on Friday afternoon on this amendment, amidst the expected “vote-o-rama”.

If approved, this non-binding amendment will not change anything in the process of the State Department’s review of the Keystone XL proposal. And it certainly will not change the fact that this pipeline presents a clear risk to communities and our climate in order to ship toxic oil through our country for export around the globe.

As usual with efforts pushing the problematic, dangerous, and ill-advised Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, this one is soaked in dirty energy money.

Research today, based off our Dirty Energy Money database, found that that these 10 Senators co-sponsoring the pro- Keystone XL Pipeline Amendment (Hoeven Amendment 494) in the Senate today have taken an average of $807,517 from the fossil fuel industry.

That works out to 254% more money than the average Senator not sponsoring the amendment.  

In total, co-sponsors of this amendment have pulled in a total haul of over $8 million dollars from the fossil fuel industry.

Some more details on the co-sponsors’s dirty energy money ties:

Senator Hoeven has received more than $421,000 from fossil fuel interests
Senator Baucus has received more than $680,000 from fossil fuel interests
Senator Cornyn has received more than $2.1 MILLION from fossil fuel interests
Senator Manchin has received more than $1 MILLION from fossil fuel interests
Senator Roberts has received more than $400,000 from fossil fuel interests
Senator Heitkamp has received $47,450 from fossil fuel interests (in just one Senate race in a small state)
Senator Barrasso has received more than $819,000 from fossil fuel interests
Senator Landrieu has received more than $1.25 MILLION from fossil fuel interests
Senator Murkowski has received more than $1.04 MILLION from fossil fuel interests
Senator Begich has received more than $212,000 from fossil fuel interests (in just one Senate race)

Once again, this puts to rest any delusions we might have that the Keystone XL pipeline is about anything but money for the fossil fuel industry and their allies in Congress.  The only thing this amendment would actually do is show which Senators would rather follow Big Oil’s money rather than listen to the people who elected them.