Indigenous Environmental Network v. Trump

After the developers terminated the Keystone XL pipeline project, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on July 16, 2021 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an appeal of the district court’s denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction barring work on the pipeline. The Ninth Circuit declined to remand with instructions for dismissal of the underlying action and also declined to vacate any district court decisions. In addition, the Ninth Circuit took no position on whether the underlying action was moot or whether vacatur was appropriate, instead leaving those matters to the district court.

Filing Year For Action

The federal district court for the District of Montana dismissed as moot a case brought by environmental groups to challenge President Trump’s issuance in 2019 of a Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. President Biden revoked the Presidential Permit in January 2021. In May 2021, the court determined that the case was not moot because the court could still grant relief such as the removal of constructed portions of the project. Since that time, the project’s developer had removed the border-crossing segment of the pipeline at issue in this case and would relinquish a remaining right-of-way grant once reclamation measures were deemed successful. In addition, there was no longer a possibility that a federal court in Texas would reinstate the Presidential Permit because the Texas court had ruled that that the challenge to its revocation was moot and there was no appeal.