The Trump administration has decided to fight Montana U.S District Court Judge Brian Morris’s ruling that blocked a construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Attorneys for the Justice Department filed an appeal on Friday to the ruling made in November. Judge Morris issued his ruling after environmentalists challenged the permit for the 1,184-mile pipeline.
The line, sponsored by Calgary-based TransCanada, would begin in Alberta and shuttle as much as 830,000 barrels a day of crude through a half dozen states to terminals on the Gulf Coast. One of those states is Oklahoma where a preliminary leg of the Keystone pipeline has been in operation for the past few years.
The main line from Canada was first blocked in 2015 by President Barack Obama. But President Trump reversed the decision two years later, promoting the $8 billion project in a boost to the nation’s energy industries.
After environmental groups sued, Morris said the administration had not fully considered potential oil spills and other impacts and that further reviews were needed.
