Attorneys general from Texas and Montana are lead plaintiffs in a suit filed March 17 by 21 states in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke the cross-border permit of TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. The states argued Biden had no legal authority for his decision in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the southern district of Texas.
The lawsuit said, “Revocation of the Keystone XL permit will cost the plaintiff states and their communities tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue from the regulators, residents and businesses facilitating the refining, transportation and exploration of crude oil that would be moved and delivered by Keystone XL.”
The 1,200-mile pipeline would move up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude oil daily from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Neb., where it would connect to other pipelines to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Among lawmakers who have urged Biden to reverse his decision are Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana).