Congress by a 270-152 vote gave final approval today (Feb. 11, 2015) to the Keystone XL pipeline bill, paving the way for an expected presidential veto. The legislation, S.1 allows TransCanada to build the Keystone KL pipeline without a presidential permit or additional environmental review. The Senate had passed the legislation (62-36) in late January 2015.

According to Pamela Behrsin, a spokesperson for MapLight, "Some of the pipeline's strongest supporters are the Gulf Coast refinery companies that have expanded their facilities and would benefit from Canadian oil that will flow through the pipeline.

MapLight analysis of spending by the top five refinery companies and their parent companies, Valero, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and Shell/Saudi Aramco, between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2014, shows that since January 1, 2013, the five companies spent $58.8 million on lobbying Congress and federal agencies. While the figure representing an analysis of federal lobbying disclosure filings from the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives for all lobbying firms' services, MapLight suggests that most efforts led to passage of the Keystone XL pipeline bill.

MapLight is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that reveals money's influence on politics.

For a previous article, "We're concerned about the Keystone XL pipeline" go here.

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