A federal appeals court has upheld a Montana judge’s ruling barring construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.

TransCanada had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put the ruling from U.S. District Judge Brian Morris on hold while its appeal is pending, and allow the Calgary-based company to begin building the pipeline.

In a Friday ruling, a two-judge panel said Morris carefully considered all factors in his decision to prevent the company from working on the proposed 1,184-mile pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska.

 TransCanada attorneys had said an injunction issued by Morris in November could cause it to miss the 2019 construction season.

Morris allowed TransCanada to perform some activities outside the pipeline’s right-of-way, including the construction of pipe storage yards. </s> TransCanada has lost a bid to lift an injunction blocking work on the Keystone XL pipeline — a development that could delay construction work on the $8-billion US project for another year.

The Calgary-based company and the U.S. State Department had filed an "urgent" motion to try to lift the injunction preventing pre-construction work.

But on Friday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion.

In court documents, TransCanada had said delays beyond March 15 could set the project back a whole year from its intended completion date in 2021, costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars in lost earnings.

Following the decision, TransCanada said in a statement that "we are currently assessing the decision and considering our options moving forward."

'Most important ruling'

Lawyer Stephan Volker, who represents the Indigenous Environmental Network and the North Coast Rivers Alliance, both opponents of the project, called the appeal court's decision "pivotal."

"It's outstanding," Volker told CBC News. "I think that it is the most important ruling in this case."

Volker considers the decision critical because he does not believe U.S. President Donald Trump will be re-elected and said no other administration would sign off on such an "ecologically disastrous project."

"I think it's highly unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn this ruling," Volker added.

The Keystone XL pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Hardisty, Alta., to Nebraska. The pipeline would then connect with the original Keystone that runs to refineries in Texas.

Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrate on the Dodge Street pedestrian bridge during rush hour in Omaha, Neb., in 2017. (Nati Harnik/Canadian Press)

First announced in 2005, the project has been stuck in limbo after being met with considerable political, environmental and Indigenous opposition.

The Obama administration denied Keystone XL's permits, but Trump breathed life back into the project after giving it his presidential thumbs-up.

Last August, the project met another setback when U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ordered the U.S. State Department to do a full environmental review of a revised route for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.

In November, Morris put a temporary halt on pre-construction work until the U.S. State Department completed its supplementary review, including potential adverse effects on climate change and wildlife.

The following month, the Montana court gave the company permission to continue some pre-construction work such as engineering, awarding contracts and taking meetings.

Still, according to one filing made to the court in January, TransCanada had to lay off about 650 contract workers from pre-construction activities such as pipe yard and workforce camp preparations.

In February, the company requested the appeals court grant it relief from the injunction, asking for a decision by March 15.

'Very substantial harm'

In a legal filing made earlier in the year, a TransCanada executive said the March date was key to starting construction by August. Failure to meet the deadline means it "will be unable to perform any construction in 2019."

"A one-year delay in the construction schedule would impose very significant consequences on TransCanada," Norrie Ramsay, TransCanada's senior vice-president of technical centre and liquid projects, wrote in the affidavit in January.

Ramsay estimated a one-year delay would "result in lost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $949 million US between March 2021 and March 2022, based on the minimum take-or-pay shipper commitment."

"In addition, a one-year delay in construction of the pipeline would cause very substantial harm to third parties, including United States workers and TransCanada's customers that are relying on the current in-service date of the project," Ramsay said at the time. </s> TransCanada Corp., the developer of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, lost a bid to circumvent a federal judge’s ruling that has further delayed the project.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied TransCanada’s request for a stay on a Montana federal judge’s ruling that halted work on Keystone XL while it appeals that decision. The court said Friday that the company hadn’t made a strong enough showing that it was likely to prevail on the merits of its case. </s> Environmental groups are celebrating as the $8-billion Keystone XL pipeline faces further delays. The U.S. appeals court upheld a November 2018 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana that blocked construction on the controversial tar sands pipeline amid an ongoing legal challenge.In November, U.S. District Court Judge Brian Morris ruled the Trump administration violated bedrock environmental laws when approving a federal permit for the pipeline. The ruling blocked any construction while the government revises its environmental review.The outcome resulted in TransCanada and the Trump administration appealing the Montana decision to the Ninth District Court of Appeals. TransCanada has argued that if it could not begin construction on the pipeline by March 15, it would miss the 2019 construction season altogether. Now, with Friday's decision, TransCanada is saying construction won't be able to start again until 2020, if at all.“It’s been over a decade since this dirty tar sands pipeline was proposed, and TransCanada just keeps doing the same thing and hoping for a different result,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Doug Hayes. “Keystone XL would be a bad deal for the American people, and it’s never been more obvious that it will never be built.” CBC Canada is reporting that in a January legal filing, Norrie Ramsay, TransCanada's senior vice-president of technical center and liquid projects, wrote, "A one-year delay in the construction schedule would impose very significant consequences on TransCanada."Ramsey estimated this would "result in lost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $949 million US between March 2021 and March 2022, based on the minimum take-or-pay shipper commitment." </s> TransCanada Can't Get 9th Circ. To Lift Keystone XL Work Ban

Law360 (March 15, 2019, 11:30 PM EDT) -- The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP's request to begin construction on the Keystone XL pipeline while it appeals court orders blocking the controversial project, saying the natural...

To view the full article, register now. </s> (Bloomberg) -- TransCanada Corp., the developer of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, lost a bid to circumvent a federal judge’s ruling that has further delayed the project.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied TransCanada’s request for a stay on a Montana federal judge’s ruling that halted work on Keystone XL while it appeals that decision. The court said Friday that the company hadn’t made a strong enough showing that it was likely to prevail on the merits of its case.

The denial means TransCanada will have to continue to wait while the government completes a new environmental review -- this time considering oil prices and greenhouse-gas emissions and proposing a new spill-response strategy -- before it can proceed with major work on the line. TransCanada had argued that failing to stay the Montana ruling would cost the company more than $900 million in earnings and deprive the economy of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and contractor payments.

The 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) Keystone XL pipeline would help move 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil sands to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners, providing relief to a Canadian energy industry that has suffered from a lack of pipeline space. The $8 billion project was first proposed a decade ago and has been repeatedly stalled by opposition from environmental groups.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Calgary at korland@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg, Catherine Traywick </s> Two other export pipelines - expansion of the TransMountain pipeline and Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline replacement - also face uncertainty

Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrate on the Dodge Street pedestrian bridge during rush hour in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 1, 2017. 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. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Nati Harnik

TransCanada’s $10-billion Keystone XL pipeline project has suffered another setback after a U.S. federal judge blocked its construction to allow more time to study the potential environmental impact.

The Great Falls Tribune reports U.S. District Judge Brian Morris’ order on Thursday came as the Calgary-based energy giant was preparing to build the first stages of the oil pipeline in northern Montana.

Indigenous and environmental groups had sued TransCanada and the U.S. Department of State after Nebraska authorities approved an alternative route to the one TransCanada had proposed through the state.

The groups argued the U.S. State Department violated several acts in issuing a presidential permit for the pipeline without a proper environmental assessment of the changed route.

Morris said in his decision Thursday 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 modelling of potential oil spills.

The proposed 1,897-kilometre pipeline would carry crude from Hardisty, Alta., to Steel City, Neb.

Two other export pipelines, the expansion of the TransMountain pipeline sold to the federal government and Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline replacement, also face uncertainty.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> In A Setback For Trump, Judge Blocks Keystone XL Pipeline Construction

Enlarge this image toggle caption Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images

A U.S. district judge has issued an order blocking construction of the controversial transnational Keystone XL Pipeline until the State Department conducts further study of its impact on the environment.

Judge Brian Morris' 54-page order, issued late Thursday, overturns the Trump administrations's approval last year of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline and at least temporarily prevents it from being built.

Although the decision does not permanently halt the pipeline's construction, it nevertheless comes as TransCanada, the Canadian company that owns Keystone, is preparing to start construction in Montana, shipping pipe to various locations throughout the state, the Great Falls Tribune reports.

The order stems from a lawsuit filed by the Indigenous Environmental Network and North Coast Rivers Alliance, which alleges that the State Department and TransCanada violated National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, the environmental law described in the order as "the basic national charter for protection of the environment."

Since its conception, the pipeline has sparked a backlash from environmentalists and indigenous peoples who say it violates historical treaty boundaries and would bring environmental problems.

In August, Judge Morris ruled that the State Department must supplement a more thorough study of potential environmental effects of the pipeline. He had yet to rule on vacating the permit itself.

In Thursday's ruling, Morris wrote that the State Department's analysis of potential environmental effects fell short of a "hard look" on the effects of current oil prices on the viability of Keystone, cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions, cultural resources and potential oil spills.

"These omissions require a remand with instructions to the Department to satisfy its obligations under NEPA," he wrote.

Morris also noted that in 2015, during the Obama administration, the State Department denied a permit to build the pipeline, citing environmental effects. At that time, the Department "relied heavily on the United States's role in climate leadership."

Then came policy shifts in the Trump administration.

Under President Trump, the State Department wrote "there have been numerous developments related to global action to address climate change, including announcements by many countries of their plans to do so" since the Obama administration's decision two years earlier.

That statement falls short of a "factually based determination, let alone a reasoned explanation, for the course reversal," Morris wrote.

"An agency cannot simply disregard contrary or inconvenient factual determinations that it made in the past, any more than it can ignore inconvenient facts when it writes on a blank slate," he continued.

The pipeline was first proposed in 2o08. If built, it would transport around 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta, Canada, and the Bakken Shale Formation in Montana to facilities near Steele City, Neb.

The proposed U.S. portion of the pipeline would run about 875 miles through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Another 1,200 miles would run through Canada.

Four days after Trump was sworn into office, he invited TransCanada to resubmit its permit application. He signed an executive order supporting its construction in March of last year.

NPR reached out to TransCanada early Friday for comment on the ruling but did not hear back by the time of publishing.

"Today's ruling is a decisive moment in our fight against the corporate polluters who have rushed to destroy our planet," said Marcie Keever, legal director at Friends of the Earth in a news statement. "Today, the courts showed the Trump administration and their corporate polluter friends that they cannot bully rural landowners, farmers, environmentalists and Native communities."

As NPR's Jeff Brady and Jason Slotkin have reported, "The oil industry and some labor unions have supported the pipeline, largely for the thousands of construction jobs it would provide. But those jobs are temporary. The State Department has estimated that once built, the pipeline will employ about 35 people." </s> GREAT FALLS, Mont. — 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. 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. The 1,897-kilometre pipeline would transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude a day from Alberta and Montana to facilities in Nebraska. More to come.
A U.S. appeals court denies TransCanada's request to lift an injunction preventing pre-construction work on the Keystone XL expansion from beginning. The company claims this will delay the project by a year.