Administration will let project use federal land

The Trump administration on Wednesday approved a right of way allowing the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to be built across U.S. land, pushing the controversial $8 billion project closer to construction although court challenges still loom.

The approval signed by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and obtained by The Associated Press covers 46 miles of the pipeline’s route across land in Montana that’s controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and the Army Corps of Engineers, said Casey Hammond, assistant secretary of the interior.

Those segments of federal land are a small fraction of the pipeline’s 1,200mile route, but the right of way was crucial for a project that has obtained all the needed permits at the state and local levels.

The pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily from western Canada to terminals on the Gulf Coast.

Project sponsor TC Energy said in a court filing that it wants to begin construction on the U.S.-Canada border crossing in Montana in April. Opponents promised to challenge those plans in court.

First proposed in 2008, the pipeline has become emblematic of the struggle between economic development and curbing the fossil fuel emissions that are causing climate change. The Obama administration rejected it, but President Donald Trump revived it and has been a strong supporter.

The stretch approved Wednesday includes all the federal land crossed by the pipeline, Hammond said. Much of the rest of the route is across private land, for which TC Energy has been trying to get permission to build on.

Environmentalists and American Indian tribes along the pipeline route say burning the tar sands oil will make climate change worse and that the pipeline could break and spill oil into waterways such as Montana’s Missouri River. They have filed numerous lawsuits.

Hammond said Interior Department officials and other agencies have done a thorough review of the line’s potential effects on the environment.

He said TC Energy had provided detailed plans to respond to any spill from

the line.

“We’re comfortable with the analysis that’s been done,” Hammond said.

Another oil pipeline in TC Energy’s Keystone network spilled an estimated 383,000 gallons of oil in eastern North Dakota in October.

The company’s critics say a damaging spill from Keystone XL is inevitable, given the length of the pipeline and the many rivers and other bodies of water it would cross beneath.

An attorney for environmental groups that have sued to overturn Trump’s permit for the line said they will ask the judge in the case to issue an order blocking the new approval.

Additional approvals from the Army Corps of Engineers are needed for the pipeline’s impact to Montana’s Fort Peck dam. Two utilities must approve power lines that would connect to the project’s pumping stations.

TC Energy spokeswoman Sara Rabern said in a statement that the government approval marked an “important step as we advance toward building this important energy infrastructure project.”

In Phillips County, Mont., where the line would cross the Canadian border into the U.S., officials want the tax revenue on the oil that would pass through, estimated at more than $1 million annually.

“It’s a no-brainer for us as far as how the community feels,” county commissioner John Carnahan said. “It’s not only good for the county, it’s good for America.”

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Montana initially denied a request from environmentalists to block construction in December because no work was planned immediately.

However, he also has ruled against the project, including a 2018 decision that stalled the line and prompted Trump to issue a new presidential permit for it to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

In Nebraska, the state Supreme Court removed the last major obstacle for the project in August when it ruled in favor of state regulators who had approved a route for the pipeline in 2017.

TC Energy intends next month to begin mobilizing construction machinery to areas for worker camps and pipeline storage yards in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, according to its court filings. It also plans to start toppling trees along the route in parts of South Dakota.