{"id":53013,"date":"2020-05-06T08:01:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T13:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53013"},"modified":"2020-05-06T08:01:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T13:01:19","slug":"big-oil-fears-keystone-xl-ruling-means-end-of-easy-pipeline-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53013","title":{"rendered":"Big Oil Fears Keystone XL Ruling Means End of Easy Pipeline Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"page-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2020\/05\/03\/keystone-xl-future-pipeline-permits\">Big Oil Fears Keystone XL Ruling Means End of Easy Pipeline Permits<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Keystone%20XL%20Pipeline%20in%20Texas42_credit-julie-dermansky.jpg?itok=JwQgoyHD\" alt=\"Keystone XL pipeline construction in Texas in 2012\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On April 15, Judge Brian Morris\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/morris-kxl-army-corps-summary-judgment-order.pdf\">nullified<\/a>\u00a0water-crossing permits in Montana that were granted for\u00a0the Keystone\u00a0XL, a major setback for the long-embattled tar sands oil pipeline. The ruling came just days after Keystone\u00a0XL\u00a0owner\u00a0TC\u00a0Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, obtained\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/columns\/climate-crisis-covid-19-cancels-cop26-kxl-construction-trump-big-oil-huddle\" target=\"_blank\">billions of dollars in subsidies<\/a>\u00a0from the Alberta government as global oil prices\u00a0plummeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The oil and gas industry has taken notice. Seemingly just a ruling on Keystone&nbsp;XL&nbsp;\u2014 the subject of opposition by the climate movement for the past decade \u2014 the ruling could have far broader implications for the future of building water-crossing pipelines and utility&nbsp;lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his decision, Judge Morris cited a potential violation of the Endangered Species Act when he ordered the&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Army Corps of Engineers to do a deeper analysis of potential impacts to protected species. Morris required the Corps to demonstrate whether or not it could construct the pipeline without harming endangered species, such as the Pallid Sturgeon or the American burying beetle. Instead,&nbsp;the Army Corps \u201cfailed to consider relevant expert analysis and failed to articulate a rational connection between the facts it found and the choice it made,\u201d&nbsp;Morris&nbsp;ruled,&nbsp;when the Corps&nbsp;gave Keystone&nbsp;XL&nbsp;the initial green&nbsp;light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/sites\/default\/files\/kxl-complaint-20190701.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original July 2019&nbsp;complaint&nbsp;<\/a>in that case \u2014 filed by Northern Plains Resource Council, Bold Alliance, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Center for Biological Diversity \u2014 also argued that the Army Corps had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in using an obscure regulatory lever to fast-track the review&nbsp;process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Big Oil Fears Keystone XL Ruling Means End of Easy Pipeline Permits On April 15, Judge Brian Morris\u00a0nullified\u00a0water-crossing permits in Montana that were granted for\u00a0the Keystone\u00a0XL, a major setback for the long-embattled tar sands oil pipeline. The ruling came just days after Keystone\u00a0XL\u00a0owner\u00a0TC\u00a0Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, obtained\u00a0billions of dollars in subsidies\u00a0from the Alberta government [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5317,29619,1030,1729,29618,11481,23924,29620],"class_list":["post-53013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-desmog-blog","tag-judge-brian-morris","tag-keystone-xl-pipeline","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-pipeline-permits","tag-steve-horn","tag-tc-energy","tag-water-crossing-permits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53014,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53013\/revisions\/53014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}