Heritage to score senators on Keystone vote

The conservative Heritage Action for America said tomorrow’s Senate vote on the Keystone XL pipeline will feed into its scores for senators.

Heritage said it supports the bill, and designated it as a “key vote” Monday for calculating its legislative scorecard.

{mosads}“The project would increase America’s energy security, create thousands of jobs, and increase revenue in the states is runs through,” Heritage said about Keystone XL.

“Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, yet Keystone’s approval has been stalled in the upper chamber for six years.”

The bill is sponsored by Sens. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and has garnered the support of all Senate Republicans and 14 Democrats.

Landrieu believes that the vote will pass the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster by Democrats, but only 59 senators have committed to voting “yes.”

Apart from Heritage, conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and FreedomWorks support the pipeline bill.

But they have criticized Landrieu and her Democratic Senate supporters of using the bill politically, as an attempt to give her a leg up in her December runoff against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

“The construction of the Keystone pipeline is still in the best interest of the American people, though it is evident political calculations are a motivating factor for the current push by many Senate Democrats, most notably Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.),” Heritage said.