US COURT: Transcanada's Keystone XL PROFITS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ENVIRONMENT

[Segami]

In a major ruling that's flown under the radar, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit - based in Denver, Colorado - decided not to grant the Sierra Club and Clean Energy Future Oklahoma a temporary injunction on the construction of the southern half of Transcanada's Keystone XL tar sands export pipeline.




The Court's decision hinged on an "injury" balancing test: Would Transcanada be hurt more financially from receiving an injunction? Had it lost, it would be stuck with one until Sierra Club, et al receive a U.S. District Court decision on the legality of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to grant Transcanada a Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) for construction of what's now called the Gulf Coast Pipeline in February 2012.



Or would ecosystems suffer even greater and potentially incalculable damage from the 485-mile, 700,000 barrels per day pipeline crossing 2,227 streams? In a 2-1 decision, the Court sided with Transcanada, and by extension, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Court ruled, "the threatened environmental injuries were outweighed by the financial harm that the injunction would cause Transcanada." Commenting on the case brought by Sierra Club, et al, Judge Jerome A. Holmes and Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr. - appointees of President George W. Bush and President George H.W. Bush, respectively - shot down the arguments sharply.



Holmes and Kelly ruled that Sierra Club, et al failed to show how the pipeline will have a significant environmental impact despite the fact it's been deemed a "fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet" by retired NASA climate scientist James Hansen. Construction of Keystone XL's southern half - subject of significant grassroots activism by the Tar Sands Blockade and others - is now nearly complete. Tar sands dilbit is slated to begin to flow through it in early 2014.




cont'



http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/10/14

[HooptieWagon]

1. We'll see a lot more of these decisions if TPP gets passed. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Oh shit. This is very bad news.

[Segami]

3. Very!!

[RobertEarl]

4. Nothing new

Same as it ever was. $$ trumps everything. Spoiling the planet means profits.

[2naSalit]

5. Just another taste

of shock doctrine... while everybody is looking at the horror show in DC, this major catastrophuk flies handily under the radar and since nobody was able to be there to say anything, it will go through and we will be forced to live with it. There's too much of this going on right now and we need to find a way to usurp the gatekeepers of the news because we know who pays their wages.

[sabrina 1]

6. Yes, that is so true. n/t

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. True,

The 1% never rest, and never lose focus on their agenda. Shrub's freudian slip from 2004 eerily sums it up:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

[gopiscrap]

8. that's fucked up

[cali]

9. It doesn't matter. Yes, that's right. It doesn't matter

that oil will keep being extracted whether there's a pipeline or not. they're just shipping more and more of it via rail and trucks- particularly rail.

[lonestarnot]

10. Denver.