As per the custom of huge corporation bullies, TC Energy is lacking permits but has already started construction on this segment of the pipeline, and is continuing in spite of the ruling against the Army Corps. Yesterday, April 16, the same judge, Brian Morris, was to rule on a request for an injunction to stop further work on the pipeline until all permits were acquired. We have been unable to find the ruling on this challenge as of this writing.
This permit denial is crucial and may have far-reaching consequences. This pipeline is destined to cross tribal lands and hundreds of streams, rivers and waterways through Montana and South Dakota on its way to southeastern Nebraska, so the Army Corps must be on board.
Late Wednesday, Morris handed another setback to TC Energy with a ruling that invalidated a key U.S. Army Corps of Engineers clean water permit. The so-called nationwide permit applied to a broad range of projects including Keystone XL, and is needed to so the pipeline can cross rivers, streams and other waterways.
Keystone XL would have hundreds of those crossings along its 1,200-mile (1,930 kilometer) route from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska. It would carry up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude daily and opponents say a spill is inevitable.
Bluestem Prairie
See our recent post regarding the Keystone boondoggle where construction has already started in Montana.
Read the entire article here in Ecowatch.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
