Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) offered an amendment to S.1, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act, which would exempt power plant units that burn "coal refuse" or waste from complying with certain clean air and public health protections required under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Cross State Air Pollution Rule and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. Communities living downwind from these plants would suffer negative health consequences, ranging from asthma attacks to premature deaths, were these clean air exemptions to become law. On January 21, the Senate rejected the Toomey amendment by a vote of 54-45 (60 votes were needed for passage; Senate roll call vote 9). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.