On the recordJune 25, 2014
I was in my office when I heard the statement by the Republican leader about Keystone. I direct this question to the Senator from South Dakota, who is a fine Senator and understands energy issues. We agreed to have a vote on Keystone. My friend, the Republican leader, keeps misdirecting the matter. We can have a vote on Keystone. That was part of the deal we made. We had a bipartisan bill, Portman- Shaheen. They worked on that bill for months, since last fall. They put in amendments that people wanted. Jeanne Shaheen came here yesterday and said: Let's have a vote on Keystone, but just as long as we can have a vote on energy efficiency. She even suggested we could have a vote using the McConnell rule--a 60- vote threshold--on both of them. This is so transparent that my friend the Republican leader is doing the bidding again of the Koch brothers, who own the first or second largest tar sands holding which exists in the world. I say to my friend from South Dakota: Why can't we just have a vote on both of those--energy efficiency and on Keystone?
