Keystone XL Owner Loses Bid to Stay Ruling That Delayed Project
Keystone XL Owner Loses Bid to Stay Ruling That Delayed Project
(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.
Calgary-based TransCanada didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment on Friday’s ruling.
--With assistance from Rachel Adams-Heard.
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
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