Legal obstacle to Keystone XL under appeal
Trump administration challenging Montana ruling at U.S. Supreme Court
The long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline project will have its day in the U.S. Supreme Court as the Trump administration is appealing a lower court’s decision overturning its permits.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco asked the Supreme Court to block a ruling from a Montana judge that prevented TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL from building its heavy-oil pipeline project across waterways in the U.S.
The ruling also overturned permits for other pipelines to be built across streams and wetlands, and is expected to cost the pipeline industry in the U.S. more than US$2 billion in delays.
TC Energy did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday on whether the rulings have prevented the company from working on the under-construction pipeline in the U.S.
Construction work is underway on the Canadian side of the border and the company has finished the border crossing portion of the pipeline.
TC Energy first proposed the Keystone XL pipeline in 2008 to move 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where Texas and Louisiana refineries can process barrels of heavy oil.
After multiple delays, the cost of the pipeline has climbed and now sits at US$14.4 billion.
The latest setback came May 28 when a U.S. appeals court in California declined to suspend a lower court’s ruling that cancelled a national environmental permit for the pipeline.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said in the ruling that the appellants, the Army Corps of Engineers and TC Energy Corp, “have not demonstrated a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits and probability of irreparable harm to warrant a stay pending appeal.”
Financial Post with a file from Reuters