GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge in Montana has blocked construction of the $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline to allow more time to study the project’s potential environmental impact.
FILE – In this Oct. 5, 2016, file photo, heavy equipment is seen at a site where sections of the Dakota Access pipeline were being buried near the town of St. Anthony in Morton County, N.D. The Standing Rock Sioux is challenging new government conclusions that the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline poses no significant environmental threats to American Indian tribes in the Dakotas. The Army Corps of Engineers in August finished more than a year of additional study ordered by a federal judge. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File)
The Great Falls Tribune reports U.S. District Judge Brian Morris’ order on Thursday came as Calgary-based TransCanada was preparing to build the first stages of the oil pipeline in northern Montana. Environmental groups had sued TransCanada and The U.S. Department of State in federal court in Great Falls.
Morris says the government’s analysis didn’t fully study the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of current oil prices on the pipeline’s viability or include updated modeling of potential oil spills.
The 1,184-mile (1,900-kilometer) pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta, Canada and Montana to facilities in Nebraska.
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