Setbacks hamper pipeline industry backed by Trump

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — After a U.S. energy boom and strong backing from President Donald Trump propelled a major expansion of the nation’s sprawling oil and gas pipeline network, mounting political pressures and legal setbacks have put its future growth in doubt even as the pandemic saps demand for fuel.

Two major oil pipeline projects suffered courtroom blows this week: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the cancellation of a key permit for the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from Canada, and a federal judge ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline shut down more than three years after it started moving oil across the U.S. Northern Plains.

The rulings came a day after utilities cancelled an $8 billion natural gas pipeline through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina amid mounting delays and bitter opposition from environmentalists.

Industry representatives took consolation from the Supreme Court’s decision that the permit it denied for Keystone XL can once again be used for other projects. That would allow more than 70 pipeline projects that faced potentially billions of dollars of delays to proceed.

But that outcome may be “too little too late” for some companies already making changes to their plans, said Ben Cowan, who represents pipeline companies as an attorney with Locke Lord LLP.

The recent blows against the industry have emboldened environmentalists and Native American activists, who routinely oppose fossil fuel pipelines because of potential spills and their contribution to climate change.

Montana farmer Dena Hoff, a Keystone opponent, witnessed the environmental damage that pipelines can cause in 2015 when a pipeline broke beneath the Yellowstone river adjacent to her farm and spilled 31,000 gallons (117,000 liters) of crude that fouled downstream...