His move is an effort to get around a Federal Court ruling against the way the decision making for the project is going….
Trump is seeking to jump over the part of things that has the State Department in the process because the pipeline runs from Canada to America….
The fight over the project is a decade old and still isn’t over even with Trump’s signature on a piece of paper….
President Trump signed a new order Friday granting permission for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, marking the White House’s latest effort to jump-start one of the most controversial infrastructure proposals in recent U.S. history.
Trump’s presidential permit gives TransCanada, the Calgary-based firm behind the project, permission to “construct, connect, operate and maintain” the pipeline in U.S. territory. The order appears aimed at addressing a ruling from a federal court judge in Montana last fall, who halted the project after finding the Trump administration had inadequately considered the environmental impact of the project before allowing it to move forward.
That ruling faulted the State Department for not doing a sufficient review as required under the National Environmental Policy Act. But because that law applies to agency actions, as opposed to those by the White House, the president may be able to sidestep the issue by granting the permit himself rather than delegating the cross-border permit to the secretary of state.
Christopher Guith, acting president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Energy Institute, praised Friday’s decision to grant a new permit. “We’re pleased to see action that will help clear the way for development of the Keystone XL pipeline,” Guith said in a statement. “The Keystone XL pipeline is one of the most studied pieces of infrastructure in American history.”….
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Trump’s move to approve the pipeline does not address a separate legal hurdle that the project faces in Nebraska, where the state Supreme Court is considering a challenge landowners have brought against the pipeline route approved by the Nebraska Public Utilities Commission….
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The Obama administration approved the southern leg of the pipeline that began operations in January 2014, easing a bottleneck between Cushing, Okla., and refineries on Texas’s Gulf Coast….