Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has joined a multi-state lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke a permit for the long-controversial Keystone XL pipeline.
A coalition of states filed the lawsuit in March, and Moody was included in an amended complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Galveston, Texas. The lawsuit raises a series of arguments challenging Biden’s decision to revoke a permit that former President Donald Trump had approved in 2019.
The pipeline is proposed to carry oil from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma to refineries in Texas, according to the amended complaint.
But it has faced heavy opposition from groups such as environmentalists. The amended complaint, in part, argues that Biden overstepped his authority in revoking the permit.
“The decision to provide or withhold permission to construct and operate an oil pipeline across the international border with Canada is a regulation of international and interstate commerce,” the amended complaint said. “Under the Constitution, the power to regulate international and interstate commerce resides with Congress --- not the president.”
n a prepared statement Wednesday, Moody said Biden’s decision threatens jobs, including in Florida. She called Biden’s order “reckless.”
Other states that are plaintiffs are Montana, Texas, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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