Federal judge halts Keystone pipeline

WASHINGTON — In a setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge in Montana has blocked a permit for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada and ordered officials to conduct a new environmental review.

Environmentalists and tribal groups cheered the ruling by U.S. district judge Brian Morris, while President Donald Trump called it "a political decision" and "a disgrace."

The 1,184-mile pipeline would begin in Alberta and shuttle as much as 830,000 barrels of crude per day through a half-dozen states to terminals on the Gulf Coast.

Trump has touted the $8 billion pipeline as part of his pledge to achieve North American "energy dominance" and has contrasted his administration's quick approval of the project with years of delay under President Barack Obama.

The Trump administration has not said whether it would appeal the ruling. The State Department said it was reviewing the decision.

The pipeline was first proposed by Calgarybased TransCanada in 2008. It has become the focal point of a dispute that pits Democrats, environmental groups and Native American tribes who warn of pollution and increased greenhouse gas emissions against business groups and Republicans who cheer the project's jobs and potential energy production.

Morris put the project on hold late Thursday, ruling that the State Department had not fully considered potential oil spills and other impacts as required by federal law since the last review in 2014. He ordered the department to complete a new review, which could take up to a year.

Topics for the review include the cumulative effects on greenhouse gas emissions of Keystone XL and a related pipeline that brings oil from Canada; the effects of oil prices on the pipeline's viability; updated modeling of potential spills; and the project's effect on cultural resources of native tribes and other groups along the pipeline's route.

Environmentalists and Native American groups had sued to stop the project, citing property rights and possible spills. Becky Mitchell, chairwoman of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a plaintiff in the case, said her organization is thrilled.

"This decision sends TransCanada back to the drawing board," Mitchell said, calling the ruling "the results of grassroots democracy in action, winning for water and people."