Keystone Pipeline XL blocked by a federal judge, heavy blow to the Trump administration

Judge Brian Morris of US District Court in Montana does not permanently block a permit, but asks the administration to conduct a more comprehensive review of the potential negative impacts of climate change, cultural resources and threatened species. He basically ordered a do-over.

Morris accused the administration with a well-known charge that she was unaware of the facts, facts established by experts under the Obama administration about Keystone XL's "climate-related impacts." The Trump administration asserted, without any information to support, that these impacts "would prove inconsequential". The "State Department" simply dismissed earlier factual findings on climate change to support its reversal of the trend. "

He also used "outdated information" on the impact of potential oil spills on endangered species, he said, rather than "the best available scientific and commercial data".

"Today's decision clearly shows once and for all that it is time for TransCanada to abandon its Keystone XL pipe dream," Sierra Club senior prosecutor Doug Hayes said in a statement. The lawsuit that prompted Thursday's order was filed by a group of opponents, including the Aboriginal Environmental Network and the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Montana-based conservation coalition.

"The Trump administration has attempted to impose this dirty pipeline project on the American people, but they can not ignore the threats it would pose to our clean water, our climate, and our communities," said Hayes.

Hayes told the Washington Post that the company had already installed equipment in Montana and South Dakota with the goal of starting construction in early 2019.

"It's clear that tonight's decision will significantly delay the pipeline," said Hayes, who said an environmental impact statement of this magnitude usually takes about a year. "TransCanada does not have an approved pipeline at this stage."

[Read the decision]

Morris, former clerk of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, has been appointed to the bench by President Obama. His decision is one of many legal criticisms of the Trump administration for hastily made environmental, immigration and transgender service decisions and, according to dozens of judges, without the "reasoned consideration" required by various federal laws, including the Law on Administrative Procedure. Also on Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled that Trump could not immediately stop the program, DACA, which protects from the expulsion of undocumented young immigrants who were brought into the country as children.

The administration is appealing many decisions and may also appeal Thursday's decision. The administration has not commented immediately after the order of the pipeline. TransCanada, the group behind the Calgary-based project, did not respond to the request for comments early Friday morning.

The Keystone XL pipeline license decision was largely in the hands of the State Department, under its power to issue "presidential licenses" for cross-border infrastructure projects.

The large-scale project remains one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in modern American history.

This was an extension of TransCanada's existing Keystone Pipeline, completed in 2013. Keystone XL would deliver up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta, Canada and Montana to Oklahoma and the Pacific coast. Gulf. In the United States, the pipeline would span 875 miles through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, with the remainder extending into Canada.

[The Keystone XL Pipeline and its politics, explained]

He met persistent opposition from environmental groups, as well as Obama, who worried about the contribution this would make to climate change.

According to Steven Mufson of The Post, activists say the pipeline would be particularly damaging to the climate, as it would mean extracting the low-grade, oil-rich oil from Canada's oil sands, with plenty of oil. cutting trees and consuming energy, which would increase greenhouse gas emissions. Native American groups in Montana and other areas also fought the Keystone project, saying its route would not adhere to historic treaty boundaries and encroach on their water systems and sacred lands.

In 2015, on the eve of international climate negotiations in Paris, the Obama administration appeared to put an end to the seven-year saga when it announced the stop of the construction of the gas pipeline, asserting that this approval would jeopardize the country's efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Obama said that the United States is now a "world leader when it comes to taking serious action to combat climate change."

"And frankly, approval of this project would have undermined this global leadership," he said, adding that the "biggest risk" the US faces is "not doing it".

The decision to deny the pipeline license came as a result of the completion of a long awaited final environmental impact statement – 11 volumes of analysis published in 2014.

It is this 2014 assessment that the State Department, under the guidance of the January 2017 Trump Presidential Memorandum, used to make its decision to approve the pipeline, reported the Post. According to the department, "there is no significant change or new material information that could affect the maintenance of reliability" report.

Morris said however that there had been changes since the 2014 assessment and that the Trump administration had failed to take them into account. He talked about pipeline leaks, the expansion of another pipeline called Alberta Clipper, and the evolution of oil markets. These could alter the overall impact of Keystone XL and should have been taken into account by the government.

Among the judge's conclusions:

• In issuing the permit, the State Department did not "analyze the cumulative greenhouse gas emissions" of the Keystone Project and the expanded Alberta Clipper Pipeline. She "ignored her duty to" look closely "at these two related actions.
• The ministry "acted from incomplete information regarding" potential damage to cultural resources on Indian territory along the route. "The ministry seems to have jumped the rifle."
• The department failed to provide a factual explanation of its reversal, "let alone a reasoned explanation …". An organism can not simply ignore the contrary or embarrassing factual determinations it has made in the past, nor can it ignore untimely ones. facts "" in the present, "he wrote, citing judicial precedents.
• The Department's analysis that Keystone's "climate-related impacts" would be inconsequential "required a" reasoned explanation ". She did not provide any.

Jackie Prange, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the decision a "huge victory" not only for environmental activists and tribal groups fighting the pipeline, but for "anyone who cares about the legality of the law." administration to the facts. "

"This is emblematic of what we see with the Trump administration, which is a very swift and botched reversal of past decisions … in a way that does not adhere to the rule of law," Prange told The Post. "That's why we continue to win in court."