Geman reports: "Environmental groups allege in a new lawsuit that the Obama administration has illegally allowed preliminary work on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to begin, even though the controversial project has not been granted final approval."
Celebrities such as Darryl Hannah have been arrested during protests over the Keystone XL Pipeline. (photo: AP)
Groups Sue to Block Keystone Pipeline
05 October 11
nvironmental groups allege in a new lawsuit that the Obama administration has illegally allowed preliminary work on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to begin, even though the controversial project has not been granted final approval.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Nebraska Resources Council and Friends of the Earth are suing the State Department and the US Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday.
The lawsuit is part of a wider political and legal battle over TransCanada Corp.'s proposed $7 billion, 1,700-mile pipeline to bring crude from Alberta's oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.
The groups said that State and the Fish and Wildlife Service are allowing TransCanada to clear a portion of the pipeline route in Nebraska.
"Today's lawsuit challenges work that the company has started in Nebraska and cites the agencies for violating the National Environmental Policy Act, which prohibits commencement of a project before it has been approved," the environmental groups said in a news release.
"Quietly, the State Department and Fish and Wildlife Service have allowed TransCanada to mow a pipeline corridor through about 100 miles of native prairie grasslands in Nebraska's Sandhills and to remove endangered species living in the corridor," they said. The groups are holding a press conference on the lawsuit outside a federal courthouse in Obama, Neb., on Wednesday.
A final Obama administration decision on whether to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is expected late this year.
Business groups call the proposed pipeline - which could carry up to 830,000 barrels per day - an economic engine and an important step toward improving US energy security by expanding supplies from a friendly neighbor.
But environmentalists are pushing the White House to reject the pipeline due to greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects and concerns that the pipeline, if spills occur, would pollute the Ogallala aquifer that underlies Nebraska and other states.
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