Alerts
Kelsey Rose Juliana, the lead plaintiff on the Juliana v. United States case, speaks at a rally in 2019.
Photo: Steve Dipaola (AP)
Since taking office, President Biden has positioned himself as the antidote to Trump on climate, passing sweeping executive ordersreversing the previous administration’s actions and launching aggressive infrastructure projects meant to bring the country into a low-carbon future. But moves made by the administration in two high-profile legal cases last week are more in line with Trump and his support of polluters and deregulation.
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The actions center around two high-profile climate cases that the Trump administration looked to quash and which the Biden administration appears bent on crushing, too. One involves a group of kids and young adults suing the government for not acting on climate, with lawyers arguing it infringes on their constitutional rights. The other centers around the legality of the Dakota Access pipeline, a fossi
Photo: Jim Mone (AP)
Unless you’re living in Huntersville, North Carolina, you may be blissfully unaware that the U.S.’s biggest gasoline spill since 1997 happened this past summer. The slowly-unfolding, little-reported-on saga in the state involves a company controlled by special interests like the Koch brothers and Shell, and a pipeline that has been transporting dirty energy for decades. And the crisis of the Colonial pipeline points to one of the next big issues for American fossil fuel infrastructure: what to do about dangerous, aging pipelines as we move to clean energy.
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In August, two teenagers riding ATVs around in a nature preserve outside of Huntersville, a suburb north of Charlotte, noticed gasoline gurgling out of the ground and told the town fire department. (State lawmakers say Colonial at first told them a different story, initially claiming that they’d shut down the pipeline after noticing a pressure drop at another point in the line.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) first reported the news on Sunday after it obtained an apparent briefing note from Biden’s transition team. On the list of executive actions meant for Biden’s first day in office Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit reportedly shows up.
As the outlet notes, Biden indicated months ago that he planned on canceling the pipeline, though supporters of the project had been hoping he would change his mind. The project crosses over the U.S.-Canada border and has the support of the Canadian government.
ADVERTISEMENT The Government of Canada continues to support the Keystone XL project and the benefits that it will bring to both Canada and the United States, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said in a statement.