Keystone XL Faces New Legal Challenge

A legal challenge to the environmental permitting process to which the Keystone XL pipeline has been subject was upheld Wednesday, Bloomberg reports.

Texas landowner Michael Bishop filed a petition in April arguing that the Army Corps of Engineers failed to hold the requisite public hearings before completing its review of the project in violation of federal environmental regulations. Bishop has now been granted an entry of default against the Corps and will be allowed to petition a U.S. magistrate with a request that the permits given to TransCanada, the company set to build the pipeline, be invalidated.

"I'm going to ask the judge for everything I had in my original petition," Bishop said. "I'm going to ask him to revoke the permit and effectively shut this pipeline down until they comply with the law."