The judge is a jobs killer. Update to this story.
TransCanada was back in federal court in Great Falls Monday seeking permission to resume preconstruction work on the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline while it awaits supplemental environmental review of the project and appeals a judge’s decision blocking the pipeline.
“I will rule as soon as I can,” District Judge Brian Morris said at the close of the hour-and-a-half hearing on TransCanada’s request, which was opposed by environmental groups.
TransCanada is proposing the pipeline that would deliver oil from the tar sands of Alberta to Steele City, Neb. en route to Gulf Coast refineries. In the United States, 875 miles of the pipeline would cross Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
Environmental groups that brought a lawsuit in federal court in Great Falls challenging the controversial oil pipeline succeeded Nov. 8 when Morris granted them summary judgment and overturned the State Department-issued presidential permit for the project.
TransCanada is appealing to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and also awaiting the completion of a supplemental environmental review by the State Department required by Morris’ ruling.
Now TransCanda is asking the court to allow preconstruction activities to continue during those processes.
Peter Steenland, TransCanada’s attorney, said TransCanada will lose the construction season if work can’t resume.
He referenced a status update on the project by Norrie Ramsay, TransCanada’s senior vice president of technical center and liquid projects, that was filed as part of the case.
A one-year delay, the status update says, would result in lost earnings of about $949 million between March 2021 and March 2022.
The company says a one-year delay in construction would also cause $2.56 billion in financial harm to third-party construction contractors and U.S. workers.
And it says it would not be able to employ about 6,600 workers.[…]
The Trump administration’s State Department OK’d the presidential permit to construct the pipeline in March 2017. That came after the Obama administration State Department had killed the project.
A presidential permit is needed to build the line because it crosses an international border.
The judge cited insufficient review of greenhouse gases and oil spill impacts in his order sending the review back to the drawing board.