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A federal judge on Thursday blocked the construction of TransCanada's $ 8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, granting a major victory to environmentalists and a blow to the Trump administration. US District Judge Brian Morris, Montana, quashed the Truste Administration's approval for the 1,179-mile pipeline construction last year, saying the justification for approving the project was insufficient. Morris was particularly concerned about the apparent indifference of the Trump administration to the climate and criticized the State Department, which analyzed the project, for not taking into account the impact of a possible oil spill and the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. "An agency can not simply ignore the contrary or embarrassing factual determinations it has made in the past, nor can it ignore uncomfortable facts when writing on a blank slate," wrote Morris. This decision comes after TransCanada has already begun delivering pipeline to Montana in anticipation of construction in 2019. Critics have long argued that an oil spill could alter the water supply system used by the companies. Native American tribes and harm the Montana wildlife, where the pipeline would cover about 250 miles of land. The construction of the pipeline, which would be used to transport oil from Canada to the US Gulf Coast, was rejected by the Obama administration in 2015.
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