MT Federal Judge Orders Shitstain Admin To Release Documents Used To Justify Keystone XL

[hatrack]

A federal judge in Montana has ordered the Trump administration to release documents it relied on to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline last year, a development that pipeline opponents believe could stymie the controversial project.

Last March, the State Department approved construction of the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands region of Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska and ultimately to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The approval reversed a 2015 decision by the Obama administration, which had blocked the project by refusing to issue a permit for the pipeline to cross the Canadian border.

Environmental groups sued the Trump administration, saying its reversal broke three laws and that it failed to conduct additional, updated environmental reviews before granting approval. As the lawsuit progressed, the government released only some documents, prompting environmentalists to push for a more complete record—or an explanation of why other documents were being withheld. In January, the plaintiffs told the court that the government "wrongly omitted an unknown number of emails and other internal communications."

"The government provided a cherry-picked record," said Jackie Prange, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs in the case. "We were asking the government to produce all the documents, or if it wasn't going to, say which ones and why. Our concern is that there's a black box here, and the public deserves to know what evidence the Trump administration relied on to approve the pipeline."

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22022018/keystone-xl-oil-pipeline-ruling-trump-documents-environmental-nepa-review-canada-tar-sands

[Gothmog]

1. This lawsuit will be fun to watch