Court declines to block big oil pipeline

McClatchy Washington BureauNovember 14, 2013 

A big pipeline carrying oil from tar sands crosses many states and is opposed by environmental groups that warn of potential dangers.

Sound familiar?

No, not Keystone XL. It's the Flanagan South Pipeline, proposed to carry oil between Illinois and Oklahoma. And in a new decision, a federal judge has declined the environmental groups' request to stop the project with a preliminary injunction.

In the 60-page decision dated Nov. 13, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded that the Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation failed to make a compelling case against the Flanagan South project, which is mostly planned to cross private land.

Jackson stated the environmental groups "have significantly overstated the breadth of federal involvement in the pipeline project" and failed to establish that the project would require the "extensive environmental review process" sought by environmentalists.

Once constructed, the Flanagan South Pipeline will run 589 miles from Pontiac, Ill., through Missouri and Kansas, and ultimately into Cushing, Okla.

 

 

 

Keystone, Flanagan South, injunction

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