The Trump administration is barreling past the courts in an attempt to greenlight the stalled Keystone XL pipeline (again). Trump issued a presidential permit that purports to restart construction of the proposed tar sands pipeline. The announcement flies in the face of a recent court ruling stating that the administration’s environmental impact statement of the pipeline’s route through was insufficient (to put it mildly). The U.S. State Department failed to adequately address issues such as the pipeline’s contribution to climate change and the risk of oil spills (not exactly environmental impacts to overlook). The courts ordered an immediate stop to all KXL construction until the State Department revised its report (which it’s yet to do) and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals backed this decision. But instead of letting the battle play out in the courts, Trump is again trying to flout the law.
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