Keystone XL: what happens next

The Keystone XL pipeline bill failed to pass in the Senate, but incoming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to take up and pass the bill in the new year.

The Senate failed on Tuesday to pass legislation authorising the Keystone XL pipeline, but a Republican majority in 2015 is expected to bring the project up for a vote again early in the next Congress, which could generate movement on a proposal that has stalled for six years because of environmental concerns and political division over the plan.

In failing to pass the bill, the US Senate spared President Barack Obama from having to make an expected veto of legislation that several fellow Democrats supported.

The measure fell just short of the 60 votes needed for passage, despite frantic last-minute lobbying by supporters.

Obama opposed the Keystone bill and wants the State Department to finish its review of the pipeline. He has said he would not approve the pipeline if it significantly raised greenhouse gas emissions.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: BBC, CNN, Reuters

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