The Keystone XL project was voted on Tuesday, November 18, by the senate. Seconds after Senate leader Elizabeth Warren announced the project had been denied, a Native American reportedly from the Lakota tribe began the celebratory chant. Leader Warren called for the Sergeant at Arms to remove the chanter.
Upon the removal of the chanter, additional disrupting chanting ensued by protesters against the Democrats who had voted for the measure. All persons disrupting the Senate were removed by the Sergeant at Arms and the Senate continued without further disruption.
The failed Keystone XL pipeline project is the fourth phase of a project to pipe crude oil from Alberta, Canada, the same site as the first phase of the project. The Canadian section would consist of 327 miles of new pipeline for Canadian crude oil routed to the United States.
It would enter the United States at Morgan, Montana, and be laid through Baker, Montana, where American-produced oil would be added to the pipeline, after which it would be routed through South Dakota and Nebraska, where it would have joined the existing Keystone pipelines at Steele City, Nebraska. This phase has generated the greatest controversy of the pipeline project because of the projected routing over the top of the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska. The Keystone Project is solely owned by TransCanada Corporation.