Keystone XL suffers another setback, judge blocks work on pipeline

Keystone XL has become a major flash point in the growing war between environmentalists and the oil industry over expanding pipeline infrastructure. The line has now been tangled up in political battles for about a decade.

"It's been two years since the Trump administration tried to revive this pipeline from the dead, but Keystone XL is still far from being built," Jackie Prange, senior attorney at Natural Resource Defense Council said in a statement. "Today's decision is one of the rules of law over this reckless and risky project."

TransCanada was not immediately reached for comment.

The Obama administration blocked the cross-border pipeline in 201[ads1]5, largely over environmental and climate concerns. The line would carry oil sands, a type of crude that forms Secretary of State John Kerry called "a particularly dirty source of fuel."

In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance Keystone XL and another controversial pipeline, Dakota Access, which started service over a year ago.

In November, Morris ruled that the Trump administration failed to conduct the necessary environmental review when it approved Keystone XL in 2017. The judge blocked construction of the line , and a month later prohibited TransCanada from any activity that advances the project until new environmental reviews have been completed.