GOP highlights failed Keystone vote ahead of La. runoff

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana Republican Senate candidate Bill Cassidy said Senate Democrats' rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline is stifling American energy independence in the weekly GOP address on Saturday.

Cassidy, currently a member of the House of Representatives, used the nationally released speech to take fresh digs at Democratic incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu's failure to get the vote needed for pipeline passage - though he never names Landrieu. Cassidy's name was on the House-passed bill.

"More than six years after the Keystone application was first submitted, the pipeline has still not been approved. This is six years too long," he said. "Why did it take Louisiana's senior senator nearly 3,000 days to do something about it? If there was ever legislation that should be easy to get through the United States Senate, it is the Keystone XL pipeline."

He said Louisiana should choose a senator in the Dec. 6 runoff "who will work hard for jobs in Louisiana all the time, not just when their job is on the line."

"On December 6, it's the people of Louisiana's turn to be heard," he said. "We the people of Louisiana will decide whether we want someone in the Senate who represents President Obama or who represents us."

Energy is a multibillion-dollar industry in Louisiana. Landrieu had hoped a successful Keystone vote would bolster her reputation as a fighter for oil and gas. But environmental opposition and Obama administration criticism blocked the legislation, which fell just one vote short of the 60 votes needed for passage on Tuesday.