Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and 20 other Republican state attorneys general on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden over his decision to revoke a permit, effectively killing the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.
“Hours after being sworn into office, President Biden revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit through an executive order despite having no legal grounds to do so,” Marshall said in a statement. “The president is not constitutionally empowered to cancel the international contract, and his illegal action will cost numerous jobs in Alabama and over 40,000 jobs nationwide, needlessly harming our nation’s workers, energy independence, and security.”
The lawsuit argues that Biden’s revoke of the permit was an overreach and that such matters should be left to Congress.
“The decision to provide or withhold permission to construct and operate an oil pipeline across the international border with Canada is a regulation of international and interstate commerce. Under the Constitution, the power to regulate international and interstate commerce resides with Congress—not the President,” the suit reads.
Environmental groups supported Biden’s decision on his first day in office to pull the permit for the planned 1,200-mile U.S.-Canada pipeline. Native American tribes have argued in separate lawsuits that former President Donald Trump’s administration failed to respect historical treaty boundaries when it pushed forward the pipeline project.
Proponents of the project say it would create thousands of jobs. The lawsuit states that it would create approximately 42,100 jobs with $2 billion in associated earnings throughout the U.S.
