Keystone Pipeline: Alaska's future

I have written many times on how the Clean Air Act will have a negative impact on building an Alaska gas pipeline.

Well, in a story by Reuters, the Enivronmental groups have filed a suit to rescind a presidential permit that would allow the Keystone pipeline builders to obatin certain permits.

The story: U.S. green groups target Keystone oil pipeline

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0849745120080808?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

The National Resources Defense Council, the Dakota Resource Council and Dakota Rural Action filed suit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., against the Department of State, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Reuben Jeffery, undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.

The groups allege in the suit that the Keystone project will spur refinery expansions, increase greenhouse gas emissions and create more air and water pollution in the Midwest and surrounding states.

The suit alleges the defendants did not consider the environmental impacts of the planned pipeline before granting the presidential permit that allows the line to cross into the United States from Canada.

The suit states that the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the defendants to assess all reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts from the pipeline and claims this has not been done.

"Although plaintiffs and others repeatedly admonished defendants that NEPA requires them to address (and, as warranted, to mitigate) the predictable increases in pollution from the refining of oil transported through the pipeline, defendants refused to consider these environmental impacts, and permitted the pipeline without the benefit of this important information," the filing states.

Enough said since the NRDC has put efforts in on keeping ANWR locked up.

To be continued..........................