Texas, Montana and 19 other Republican-led states are suing President Joe Biden in federal court over his rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The lawsuit, which also calls on Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other cabinet members, was filed in the U.S. District Court in South Texas on Wednesday. Along with Texas and Montana, the other plaintiffs are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West -Virginia and Wyoming.
Many of the states are not close to the proposed road for Keystone XL, which will transport oil from tar sands in Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Why then do they believe that they stand? The Attorney General’s Office in Montana says this is because the death of the pipeline “will also have a ripple effect that adversely affects the economy and the environment in non-pipeline states.”
The GOP-led states allege that Biden exceeded his authority by revoking the permit on his first day, due to a provision passed by Congress in 2011 tax legislation that required President Barack Obama to enter the pipeline. 60 days had to approve or give a ruling that it was not in the national interest.
Obama rejected the application by TransCanada (now TC Energy Corp.) a few weeks later, saying Congress had given him insufficient time, but he allowed the company to reapply, postponing the decision until after he re-elected. Obama later rejected the application, President Donald Trump approved it and Biden revoked the approval.
The pipeline requires a presidential permit and a national interest assessment because it crosses an international border (with Canada).
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
Twelve states – including many of the same states that have sued Keystone XL – sued Biden last month over an executive order on climate change that issued a binding determination of the ‘social cost of carbon’.
The 12 – Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah – claim that Biden exceeded his authority by issuing the binding calculation of the social cost of carbon, which is taken into account. federal regulations, which allow decisions by the federal government and other decisions. Last month, the Biden administration, according to the executive order, temporarily and dramatically increased its calculation of the social cost of carbon to $ 51 per tonne, following the Trump administration’s approach, which reduces the cost of climate change to society. it, reversed it.
The Attorney General argues that the Biden administration’s calculation of the social costs of greenhouse business is “arbitrary and fickle”, and believes that it will adversely affect the economy, especially in rural states.
