TC Energy’s 1,900km long tar sands pipeline project aims to import over 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Canadian oil sands into the US
Image: The Keystone XL pipeline project secured the US Presidential Permit in March 2019. Photo: courtesy of TC Energy Corporation.
A US appeals court has overturned an earlier decision on the proposed $8bn (£6.3bn) Keystone XL pipeline project by dismissing the legal challenge put up by various environmental groups.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case against the 1,900km long Canada-US tar sands pipeline project saying that it was no longer active following a fresh Presidential Permit issued by the US President Donald Trump.
In late March, President Trump issued the permit to enable the project proponent TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) to construct, connect, operate, and maintain facilities related to the pipeline project at the US-Canada international border at Phillips County in Montana.
Earlier court judgments on the Keystone XL pipeline project
Prior to that, in mid-March, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overturn the ruling of the US District Court for the District of Montana, which prevented TC Energy from moving ahead with the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline project, citing environmental concerns.
The federal district court in Montana in November 2018 ruled that the environmental review for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline was not complete, thereby preventing its construction until the government complied with the law.
The US District Court for Montana judge Brian Morris, in his judgment, said that the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions and also the impact on Native American land resources that were likely to result from the Keystone XL pipeline project were not adequately looked into by the Trump administration before releasing a presidential permit in March 2017.
The judgment in the Montana court came less than two months after the US State Department declared that the pipeline project will not have any significant impact on the environment.
Despite the latest development in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, TC Energy is unlikely to start construction on the Keystone XL pipeline project this year, said Sierra Club, one of the environmental organisations opposing the pipeline.
Sierra Club senior attorney Doug Hayes said: “Despite today’s ruling, we remain confident that Keystone XL will never be built.
“This proposed project has been stalled for a decade because it would be all risk and no reward, and despite the Trump administration’s efforts, they cannot force this dirty tar sands pipeline on the American people.”
The Keystone XL pipeline project aims to import over 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude sourced from Canadian oil sands into the US.