Keystone XL Faces Continued Legal Challenges Despite TC Energy’s Dangerous Plans to Start Construction Amid Public Health Crisis

Today, TC Energy -- formerly TransCanada -- the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, announced plans to begin construction on the controversial tar sands pipeline. The announcement came in the wake of a major investment by the Alberta government to prop up the failing tar sands industry. 

Keystone XL faces significant nationwide opposition because of the threat it poses to clean water, communities along the route, and the climate. The project still faces legal challenges from environmental and landowner groups over the Army Corps of Engineers’ failure to consider impacts to hundreds of waterways the pipeline would put at risk of tar sands leaks and spills, as well as a challenge by Indigenous rights groups and Tribes to Donald Trump’s attempt to unilaterally approve the pipeline. 

TC Energy has faced criticism from rural and tribal communities over the company’s plans to begin construction amid the coronavirus pandemic, putting workers and rural communities in areas with limited health facilities at risk of a potential outbreak. 

In response, Catherine Collentine, Associate Director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, released the following statement: 

“Over the last decade of pushing their dirty tar sands pipeline, TC Energy has already made it abundantly clear that they don’t care about risks to our communities, but this is a shameful new low. By barrelling forward with construction during a global pandemic, TC Energy is putting already vulnerable communities at even greater risk. Keystone XL still faces numerous legal challenges, and we will continue to fight to ensure this dangerous pipeline is never completed.”