Trump scores a win against pipeline blockades

摘要

US president Donald Trump has bypassed a court order prohibiting construction of the Keystone XL crude pipeline. But it remains unclear if the gambit, and other efforts to approve stalled projects, will be successful. Trump takes pride in his rapid approval of Keystone XL - he claimed on 25 May that it was “under construction” - yet progress has so far been confined to courtrooms. The latest barrier to the 830,000 b/d line’s development was a federal court injunction in Montana in late 2018 barring construction and ordering the US administration to conduct additional environmental reviews. But the White House in March identified a faster way to build the 1,900km pipeline that will move Canadian crude from Alberta’s oil sands to Steele City, Nebraska. Trump simply threw out the first permit and signed a new one, this time without any environmental study requirements. This appears to have paid off. The California-based Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals on 6 June dissolved the injunction after finding Washington’s withdrawal of the initial permit made the entire case moot.