WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The controversial Keystone Pipeline Vote in the Senate Tuesday went down to defeat by one vote.  The vote would've allowed Canada to build a piepline thorugh the U.S. to the Gulf of Mexico.  Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu is in a tight December runoff and had hoped to push the measure through.

Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley has been a staunch opponent of the pipeline and spoke against it on the Senate floor.  "And the argument goes that this will strengthen our national security by decreasing our dependnce on oil in the MIddle East. But they're overlooking the fact that this is not American oil, It's Canadian oil and it's being sent down to the gulf to be exported.  The Tar Sands do nothing more for the U.S. as if it were exported through Canada to the world market."

Merkley says the pipeline would turn on the faucet for the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet and would increase global warming.