Bernie Sanders Applauds Senate Democrats For Sustaining Obama’s Keystone XL Veto

Senator Bernie Sanders applauded the Senate today for sending the message that United States is listening to the scientific community on climate change by sustaining President Obama’s veto of Keystone XL.

In a statement, Senator Sanders (I-VT) said:

I applaud President Obama for vetoing the Keystone XL legislation and the Senate for sustaining that veto.

The Senate and President Obama have sent an important message that the United States finally is listening to the scientific community and recognizing that global warming poses a real threat to our planet.

At a time when we should be doing everything we can to promote the development of clean sources of energy, it would have been crazy to let a Canadian oil company ship some of the dirtiest oil on the planet across the United States.

Climate change is real, it is caused by human activity and it is already causing devastating problems. Our job now is to aggressively transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

Senator Sanders was correct. The push for Keystone XL defied all logic and common sense. Rejecting Keystone XL is the first step in creating a policy that will lead to real energy independence. Having the opportunity to buy oil from another country is not a strategy for energy independence. The message is clear. Republicans aren’t going to be allowed to get away with ignoring science so that the oil industry can profit.

Bernie Sanders has led the charge to sustain President Obama’s veto. The Keystone XL bill was a waste of time. There was no chance that the president was going to sign the bill into law, or that Republicans would ever be able to muster enough Democratic support to override President Obama’s veto. Senate Republicans spent a month passing a bill that would never become law.

Keystone XL is bad energy policy. It is an even worse jobs bill, and the country is better off because Democrats and Independents like Bernie Sanders sustained President Obama’s veto.