Trump issues new permit for stalled Keystone XL pipeline
Matthew Daly
3 hrs ago
Ceneta) WASHINGTON - Moving defiantly to kick-start the long-stalled
Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new
presidential permit for the project two years after he first approved it
and more than a decade after it was first proposed.
Trump said the permit issued Friday replaces one granted in March 2017. The
order is intended to speed up development of the controversial pipeline,
which would ship crude oil from tar sands in western Canada to the U.S. Gulf
Coast.
A federal judge blocked the project in November, saying the Trump
administration had not fully considered potential oil spills and other
impacts. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ordered a new environmental
review.
A White House spokesman said the new permit issued by Trump "dispels any
uncertainty" about the project. "Specifically, this permit reinforces, as
should have been clear all along, that the presidential permit is indeed an
exercise of presidential authority that is not subject to judicial review
under the Administrative Procedure Act," the spokesman said.
But a lawyer for environmentalists who sued to stop the project called
Trump's action illegal. The lawyer, Stephan Volker, vowed to seek a court
order blocking project developer TransCanada from moving forward with
construction.
"By his action today in purporting to authorize construction" of the
pipeline despite court rulings blocking it, "President Trump has launched a
direct assault on our system of governance," Volker said Friday in an email.
Trump's attempt to "overturn our system of checks and balances is nothing
less than an attack on our Constitution. It must be defeated," Volker said.
Calgary-based TransCanada said in a statement that Trump's order "clarifies
the national importance of Keystone XL and aims to bring more than 10 years
of environmental review to closure."
© Provided by thecanadianpress.com FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2015 file photo,
the Keystone Steele City pumping station, into which the planned Keystone XL
pipeline is to connect to, is seen in Steele City, Neb. President Donald
Trump has issued a new presidential permit allowing construction of the
Keystone XL oil pipeline, two years after he first approved the long-stalled
project. Trump said the permit issued Friday, March 29, 2019, replaces one
granted in March 2017. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Trump "has been clear that he wants to create jobs and advance U.S. energy
security, and the Keystone XL pipeline does both of those things," said Russ
Girling, TransCanada's president and CEO.
Keystone XL will create thousands of jobs and deliver crude oil to U.S.
refineries "in the safest, most efficient and environmentally sound way,"
the company said. An appeal filed by the company is pending.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hailed Trump's action, saying in a statement
that "it shouldn't take longer to approve a project than to build it."
Keystone XL will boost U.S. economic and energy security interests, said
Christopher Guith, acting president of the chamber's Global Energy
Institute. "Review after review has found it can be built and operated in an
environmentally responsible way. It's time to move forward," Guith said.
Anthony Swift, director of the Canada project for the Natural Resources
Defence Council, an environmental group, said the pipeline "was a bad idea
from Day One and it remains a terrible idea. If built, it would threaten our
land, our drinking water, and our communities from Montana and Nebraska to
the Gulf Coast. And it would drive dangerous climate change."
Trump "is once again showing his disdain for the rule of law," Swift said,
adding that the last time Trump "tried to ram this permit through he lost in
court" and is likely to do so again.
Keystone XL, first proposed in 2008 under President George W. Bush, would
begin in Alberta and go to Nebraska, where it would join with an existing
pipeline to shuttle more than 800,000 barrels a day of crude to terminals on
the Gulf Coast.
After years of study and delay, former President Barack Obama rejected the
project in 2015. Trump reversed that decision soon after taking office in
2017, saying the $8 billion project would boost American energy and create
jobs. A presidential permit is needed because the project crosses a U.S.
border.
After environmental groups sued, Morris said the administration had not
fully considered potential oil spills and other impacts and that further
reviews were needed.
TransCanada disputes that, saying Keystone XL has been studied more than any
other pipeline in history. "The environmental reviews are clear: the project
can be built and operated in an environmentally sustainable and responsible
way," Girling said.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Mont., contributed to
this story.
EM -> { Trump for 2020 }
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