"Less than two weeks after the State Department gave the go-ahead for a major new pipeline to carry Alberta oil sands crude into the United States, a network of environmental and Native American groups filed a lawsuit to stop it.

The suit, filed today in United States District Court in San Francisco, accuses President Obama’s administration of significantly accelerating the importation of “dirty oil” from Alberta.

“This seems to be a step backward,” said Sarah Burt, a lawyer for Earthjustice, a group that brought the suit and is based in Oakland, Calif. Ms. Burt said the new pipeline infrastructure would “lock in” American consumption of bitumen for another fifty years, though the administration had pushed to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2008, the United States imported 1.5 million barrels a day of Canadian bitumen, and that figure is expected to grow to 4.3 million by 2030, according to the State Department’s record of decision."

Get the Story:
Green Inc: Lawsuit Filed to Block Pipeline Project (The New York Times 9/3)

Relevant Documents:
Complaint: Indigenous Environmental Network v. Clinton (September, 3, 2009)

Related Stories:
Public Radio: Leech Lake group fights oil pipeline (7/24)
Ojibwe activists in Minnesota fight oil pipeline (6/29)
Battle over pipeline through Minnesota reservations (5/7)
Winona LaDuke: Leech Lake braces for oil 'invasion' (4/27)