Northwest lawmakers voted along party lines as the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to reject a plan to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Fourteen Democrats voted with all 45 Republicans in the Senate to approve it, but the plan was one vote shy of the minimum needed to send the measure to the president.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told her colleagues she was against the pipeline.
"With all that we already know about the impacts of climate change, how can we possibly move this project forward before we have a thorough understanding of the environmental impacts that will result from building the Keystone pipeline?" Murray said.
Republicans could bring the legislation back next year when they control both chambers of Congress. President Barack Obama has expressed concerns about the pipeline that would bring oil from Canada to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
