BATON ROUGE, La. — Attorney General Jeff Landry announced Wednesday that he joined Louisiana to a 21-state coalition petitioning the Southern District of Texas to invalidate the Biden Administration's executive order canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
In a release from the attorney general's office, Landry has filed suit to protect the validly authorized construction and operation of the Keystone XL Pipeline.
“In the blink of an eye and through executive fiat, the Biden Administration unleashed a flood of action designed to destroy our oil and gas industry, and thousands of jobs,” said Landry.
“The Biden order not only violates federal law and Constitutional safeguards, but also threatens jobs, our state and local economies, and even the environment he purports to want to protect," he adds. "It should concern every person that the price of gas started going up the day he picked up his pen and began threatening financial stability for the hard-working people of Louisiana.”
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the portion of Executive Order 13990 canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline cross-border permit, which was originally authorized by Congress nearly a decade ago.
“Congress has the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, and no president has the power to overturn permits granted by an Act of Congress,” added Landry.
The pipeline project is expected to deliver 830,000 barrels of crude each day, feeding Gulf Coast refineries that employ thousands of workers and indirectly create thousands of more jobs, the release states.
The project is anticipated to generate more than $2 billion in earnings, providing tens of millions of dollars to state and local governments along its route – including 17 areas with minority and/or low-income populations.
The lawsuit is led by the attorneys general of Montana and Texas and supported by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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