WASHINGTON, March 4 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate energy and environment committees, issued the following statement today after the Senate voted to sustain President Barack Obama’s veto of a bill that would have allowed construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline:

“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.”