Several environmental groups filed lawsuits [complaint, PDF; second complaint] against the Trump administration Thursday over the Keystone XL pipeline [corporate website]. In their complaints, the groups argued that the State Department [official website] violated the National Environmental Policy Act [text, PDF] by approving the pipeline without the up-to-date assessment and public input. The groups filing the lawsuits are the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Northern Plains Resource Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, Bold Alliance, and Friends of the Earth; and the Indigenous Environmental Network and North Coast Rivers Alliance [advocacy press releases]. The groups are seeking an injunction relief preventing any action that would harm the “physical environment in connection with the project pending a full hearing on the merits.”

In January Trump signed [JURIST report] an executive order to advance the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. In December the Army Corps of Engineers had announced [JURIST report] that they would find an alternative path for the Dakota Access Pipeline. In January 2016 TransCanada filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging former president Barack Obama’s veto [JURIST report] of the Keystone XL pipeline.