Work on TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL crude oil pipeline would be allowed to continue based on an interim ruling by US District Court for the District of Montana Judge Brian Morris, who denied a request by Native American tribes to halt construction due to potential damage to cultural sites caused by future oil spills. Work started in April 2020 on the 1,179-mile, 830,000-b/d pipeline from Hardisty, Alta., to Steele City, Neb.
Even with this decision, however, progress on the line remains stalled, a ruling by the US Supreme Court earlier this year having upheld the same court’s invalidation of required US Army Corps of Engineers water-crossing permits. Work cannot resume until new permitting has been completed (OGJ Online, Apr. 16, 2020).
The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota and the Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes in Montana said a 2019 permit for the project issued by President Donald Trump violated treaties signed in the mid-1800s. Judge Morris did not make a final ruling on the case and invited further arguments.
