A Montana Federal Judge likely won’t have a ruling for months whether to allow construction to move ahead on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls, Montana heard arguments last week in a lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s decision to reverse President Obama’s 2015 decision to stop the controversial 1,100 mile long project. The judge had previously ruled in favor of plaintiffs when the government attempted to have the suit thrown out as a presidential matter of national security.
The suit was brought by the Northern Plains Resource Council and other environmental and indigenous rights groups. The NPRC started the hearing with the introduction of two documents that summarized a recent ruling by the Nebraska Public Service Commission denying TransCanada’s preferred pipeline route.
The suit contends that since the preferred pipeline route was denied, the environmental impact statements are no longer at play and the judge should remove the permit to allow the crossing of the border with Canada.
An approval of the permit would allow construction as far south as Nebraska where the tar sands oil would eventually be pumped to Cushing, Oklahoma and through a previously completed Keystone pipeline to the Gulf Coast.
“The plaintiffs have thrown everything at the wall just to see what sticks,” TransCanada attorney Peter Steenland said, claiming the National Environmental Policy Act is not applicable in this case, and that any case law the defense cited saying otherwise is wrong.
In his closing argument, Steenland, a former career DOJ environmental attorney turned energy industry lawyer, noted that the government has won all 17 NEPA cases that have gone on to the U.S. Supreme Court. He advised Morris to follow established jurisprudence.
Steenland said projections that Keystone XL will begin construction in Montana in September are wishful thinking, as TransCanada is still awaiting BLM right-of-way and Army Corps of Engineers waterway permits.