A coalition of states has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden and his administration over the president’s decision to revoke a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Led by Texas and Montana, 21 states have jointly filed a lawsuit against Biden arguing that the president didn’t have the authority to unilaterally change an energy policy that Congress had set when he revoked the permit on his first day in office.
The lawsuit argues that only Congress has the power to regulate interstate and international commerce, including granting or rejecting permits for oil pipelines that cross an international border.
“This administration continues to tout imaginary green-energy jobs, without any recognition that their actions in the real world will make it impossible for hard-working Americans to put food on the table.”
The 1,200-mile Keystone XL, which was to be constructed as an extension to an existing pipeline system, was designed by TC Energy Corp. to transport approximately 830,000 barrels of oil from Canada and Montana to junctions in the middle of America and to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The oil sands pipeline’s construction and operation were modeled to create and sustain thousands of jobs and advance the United States’ energy independence. It was also designed to improve commercial relations with Canada and provide tax revenues to high-poverty areas.
“The United States and the world face a climate crisis,” the order stated. “At home, we will combat the crisis with an ambitious plan to build back better, designed to both reduce harmful emissions and create good clean-energy jobs. Our domestic efforts must go hand in hand with U.S. diplomatic engagement. Because most greenhouse gas emissions originate beyond our borders, such engagement is more necessary and urgent than ever.
“Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my administration’s economic and climate imperatives,” Biden added.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen argued that there is no “perceived environmental benefit to [Biden’s] actions.”
“His attempt to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline is an empty virtue signal to his wealthy coastal elite donors. It shows Biden’s contempt for rural communities in Montana and other states along the pipeline’s path that would benefit from and support the project,” Knudsen said in a statement.
The states argue that Biden hadn’t consulted with them before making his decision, “nor did he consider the far-reaching consequences his decision would impose on Plaintiffs.”
“These revenues would particularly benefit poorer rural areas, providing a much-needed influx of resources to fund important public and community services.”
Revocation of the permit, the states continued, will cost them and their communities “tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue” and business and job opportunities for residents.
The states are asking the federal court in Texas to declare that the Biden administration had acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally when he revoked the permit and seek to block the Biden administration from enforcing its order to revoke the Keystone XL permit.
The White House and Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.
The other states that have joined in the lawsuit include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
