The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted down a motion to consider a bill that . Supporters fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to proceed. The bill would redirect the funds saved to extend tax credits for renewable energy.

The bill () is supported by interest groups such as the  and the Natural Resources Defense Council, such as Public Citizen, and such as Growth Energy. The bill is opposed by Major (multinational) oil & gas producers, Petroleum refining & marketing, Republican/Conservative, Manufacturing, Chambers of commerce, and Fiscal & tax policy interest groups such as , the American Petroleum Institute, Heritage Action for America, National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Taxpayers Union.

The vote fell mostly along party lines with most Republicans voting against the motion and most Democrats voting for it. Two Republicans, and , voted 'YES,' however, while four Democrats, , , , and , voted 'NO.'

Democrats Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, and Mark Begich were also who voted against beginning debate on the bill. The three senators also voted against a procedural vote on a similar bill, , in May 2011. All three senators include the industry among their top 10 contributing interests.

MapLight has conducted an analysis of campaign contributions from interest groups invested in the vote to members of the U.S. Senate between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2011.

• Interest groups that opposed this motion (Republican/Conservative, Major (multinational) oil & gas producers, Petroleum refining & marketing, Manufacturing, Chambers of commerce, and Fiscal & tax policy) to senators who voted 'NO' ($264,051) as they did to senators who voted 'YES' ($18,561).
• Major (multinational) oil & gas producers and Petroleum refining & marketing interest groups that opposed this motion gave an average of  to senators who voted 'NO' ($75,713) as they gave to senators who voted 'YES' ($12,185).
• Interest groups that supported this motion (Environmental policy, Alternate energy production & services, and Consumer groups) to senators who voted 'YES' ($67,753) as to senators who voted 'NO' ($11,467).
• Alternate energy production & services interest groups that supported this motion to Senators that voted 'YES' ($13,152) than to Senators that voted 'NO' ($6,117).
• All four senators who  count the Oil & gasindustry among their top 10 contributing interests. Oil & gas groups are 's largest (), 's third largest (), 's fourth largest (), and 's 10th largest () contributors.

METHODOLOGY: MapLight analysis of reported contributions to congressional campaigns of members of the U.S. Senate from interest groups invested in the vote from July 1, 2005–June 30, 2011. Campaign contributions data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics (). 

Submitted by Chris Gorin on Mar 29, 2012