OKLAHOMA CITY (Legal Newsline) – Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt supports TransCanada’s federal lawsuit, which deals with President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline that runs through Oklahoma.
“The Keystone XL pipeline has already boosted our economy by creating good-paying jobs and will continue to create jobs throughout the rest of the country, as well as shore up our national security by moving us closer to energy independence. States like Oklahoma, through which the pipeline runs, want this project completed and Congress has approved the project,” Pruitt said. “The president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to unilaterally block the completion of this project. I applaud TransCanada for filing this lawsuit challenging the president’s actions, and Oklahoma will support this lawsuit at each step.”
Pruitt’s announcement comes after TransCanada filed a suit in federal court claiming the president went beyond his constitutional rights by denying the construction of Keystone XL. TransCanada alleged that the president’s decision was arbitrary and unjustified.
TransCanada’s legal actions challenge the reasons this project was rejected. Allegedly, the decision to reject had nothing to do with the merits of project, but rather symbolically reflected the administration’s concerns of how the international community sees the country in regards to climate change.