"The district court’s 11 May 2020 order granting partial vacatur and an injunction is stayed, except as it applies to the Keystone XL pipeline, pending disposition of the appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari, if such writ is timely sought", the court document said on Monday.
In April, the US District Court of Montana ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Endangered Species Act when it issued the federal permit and prohibited the Army Corps from using this fast-tracked approval process for the Keystone XL and other pipeline projects.
The order allows the federal permit to be used for other pipeline projects, but the block on the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is upheld.
Keystone is an oil pipeline system that moves Alberta crude oil from the Canadian town of Hardisty to refineries and tank farms in the US states of Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas. The first three phases of the system are currently operational, however, the construction of the fourth phase, better known as Keystone XL, which is planned to transport oil to Nebraska, has caused a major uproar on both sides of the border.
The Keystone XL pipeline consists of 1945,7 kilometres (1,209 miles) of new 36-inch-diameter pipeline, 526 kilometres (327 miles) of pipeline in Canada, and 1419 kilometres (882 miles) in the United States from the Saskatchewan border through Montana and South Dakota to a terminal in Steele City, Nebraska.