Two more state attorneys general are joining the ongoing lawsuit initially filed by 21 other states against the Biden White House for its cancelation of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen made the announcement on behalf of Florida and Alaska on Thursday, noting, “The Constitution is clear that presidents do not have the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce or to unilaterally undo an act of Congress.” The complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas now includes Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor.
Within hours of assuming the presidency, Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline. In January 2017, President Donald Trump reauthorized its construction after President Barack Obama rejected the proposal in 2015.
The pipeline is operated by TC Energy and has the capacity to transport 830,000 crude oil barrels a day from Hardisty, Alberta, to a refining location in the Gulf Coast, and other places in the United States. The pipeline would have created more than 42,000 jobs and, according to TC Energy, injected more than $8 billion into the North American economies. Biden’s decision immediately killed more than 25,000 jobs.
Fourteen state attorneys general initially filed suit against the Biden administration in February, writing a letter to the president questioning his motives.
“Nowhere, however, do you explain how killing the Keystone XL pipeline project directly advances the goals of ‘protect[ing] Americans and the domestic economy from harmful climate impacts.’ Nor does your decision actually cure any of the climate ills you reference,” the letter stated. “Observers are thus left with only one reasonable supposition: it is a symbolic act of virtue signaling to special interests and the international community.”
While Biden shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline, he had no issue greenlighting the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline led by a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed during his confirmation hearing that he would “do whatever we can to prevent that completion” of Nord Stream 2, but the administration has not aligned with his rhetoric.
