Keystone pipeline legal battle far from finished

The battle over the Keystone XL pipeline proposed in the northern U.S. has resulted in another fight—this one over the President’s move to revoke one cross-border permit for a new one.

The President took the action last month, revoking the original March 2017 permit which was put on hold by the 9th Circuit court of Appeals.  By revoking the permit, the President then issued a new permit. The White House argued that since the 2017 permit no longer existed, the legal case was moot.

TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline agreed with the President’s move and said the claims “challenged the validity of a permit that no longer exists.”

But now two environmental groups are challenging his legal move. The Indigenous Environmental Network and the North Coast Rivers Alliance filed their challenge in the District of Montana and argue that the second presidential permit is invalid.

(Click here to read the lawsuit.)

If the pipeline is ever built in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, it would carry crude oil from Canada eventually to the existing Keystone pipeline built a few years ago in Oklahoma and Texas.