Ala Attorney General joins 20 states in filing suit to block Biden’s plan to revoke Keystone XL Pipeline permit

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined 20 other state attorneys general in filing suit to block President Joe Biden’s proposal to revoke a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The multistate lawsuit led by Montana and Texas was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

“Hours after being sworn into office, President Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit through an executive order despite having no legal grounds to do so,” said Attorney General Marshall. “The president is not constitutionally empowered to cancel the international contract, and his illegal action will cost numerous jobs in Alabama and over 40,000 jobs nationwide, needlessly harming our nation’s workers, energy independence, and security.”

The multistate lawsuit states only Congress has the legal authority to approve or cancel the pipeline permit.

The States’ lawsuit asks the court to declare the section of Executive Order 13990 cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline’s cross-border permit unconstitutional and unlawful and seeks to prevent the Biden administration from taking any action to enforce the permit revocation.

The proposed 1,200-mile pipeline would have carried oil from Canada to the U.S.

In addition to Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming have joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

A copy of the lawsuit is linked here.

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