Legislating from the bench.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris issued an order Thursday blocking construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline until further environmental analysis is conducted.
The decision comes as TransCanada is preparing to build the oil pipeline beginning in northern Montana, with pipe being shipped to the state by train and trucked to locations along the line.
Environmental groups that sued TransCanada and the U.S. Department of State in federal court in Great Falls called the decision to overturn the Trump administration-issued permit a landmark ruling.
In his decision, Morris said the government’s analysis fell short on:
» The effects of the current oil prices on the viability of the pipeline.
» The cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
» A survey of potential Native American resources.
» And updated modeling of potential oil spills and recommended mitigation measures.
“The Department must supplement new and relevant information regarding the risk of spills,” Morris wrote.
As for climate change, Morris noted that the department denied the permit in 2015 and relied heavily on the United State’s role in climate leadership. That was under the Obama Administration.
Then, under the Trump administration, the department approved the permit, dismissing concerns about climate change.
The Trump Administration decision approving the project noted that “there have been numerous developments related to global action to address climate change, including announcements by many countries of their plans to do so” since the 2015 decision.
Morris said that statement fell short of a factually based determination, let alone a reasoned explanation, for the course reversal.
“An agency cannot simply disregard contrary or inconvenient factual determinations that it made in the past, any more than it can ignore inconvenient facts when it writes on a blank slate,” Morris wrote.
The reversal required a “reasoned explanation” but instead the State Department discarded prior factual findings related to climate change, the judge said.