On Tuesday (November 18, 2014), the U.S. Senate defeated
Bill S. 2280 (the Bill), a bill to approve the Keystone XL
pipeline. Approval of the Keystone project was stopped by a single
vote, as the Bill received only 59 of the 60 affirmative votes
required to continue forward in the legislative process. Shortly
after the vote, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senator of Kentucky
and the incoming U.S. Senate majority leader from the Republican
Party spoke on the Senate floor and stated that he would
reintroduce a bill in support of the Keystone XL pipeline once the
new Senate convenes in the new year. In 2015, the Republican Party,
which has traditionally been in support of Keystone, will control
both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives for the
first time in eight years. It is also important to note that even
if both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate
approve the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama still has the
power to veto approval of
