WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to override President Barack Obama's veto of a bill to construct the Keystone XL pipeline, reported the Associated Press.
The vote was 62 to 37, five votes short of the 67-vote supermajority needed to override a presidential veto.
Republicans have already been discussing other way to force the pipeline's approval, either by attaching it onto must-pass spending bills or other, broader, energy legislation, said the report.
"If we don't win the battle today, we will win the war because we will find another bill to attach this pipeline to," said Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.), the chief sponsor of the bill, before the vote.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pleaded with Democrats for more support of a bill that he said advanced the president's own priorities.
"If you're interested in jobs and infrastructure and saving your party from an extreme mistake, then join us," he said. "Vote with us to override a partisan veto and help the president pursue priorities he's advocated in the past."
Obama has repeatedly resisted Congress' attempts to force his hand. His veto of the bill, the third of his presidency, said that the bill circumvented longstanding and proven processes for determining whether cross-border pipelines serve the national interest and cuts short consideration of its effects.
The $8 billion project would transport oil extracted from Canada's tar sands to pipelines linked to Gulf Coast refineries.
Environmentalists have framed the pipeline as a test of Obama's commitment to address climate change, arguing that it would open up a path for tar sands oil to get to market. Republicans have pushed the pipeline as a job-creating infrastructure project that will supply the United States with oil from a friendly neighbor, rather than unstable regimes.
The State Department's analysis found that the oil would be harvested regardless of whether the pipeline is built, a conclusion that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said needed to be re-examined given low oil prices. The same review said the pipeline would create thousands of jobs during construction, but ultimately it would require 35 permanent employees.
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