在共和党委员会主席的帮助下，联邦能源监管委员会在审查了对气候变化的影响后，批准了南达科他州和内布拉斯加州87英里的天然气管道替换。

Neil Chatterjee joined current FERC Chairman Richard Glick and Allison Clements, both Democrats, in the 3-2 decision. Commissionsers James Daily and Mark Christie, both Republicans, dissented in the March 22 decision.

“We find that the project’s contribution to climate change would not be significant,” the commission said in its review of Northern Natural Gas Co.’s request to replace a pipeline that was built in the 1940s and 1950s, the A-line that carries gas from South Sioux, Neb. to Sioux Falls, S.D.

In a significant change in policy, FERC will continue to consider all appropriate evidence regarding the significance of a project’s reasonably foreseeable greenhouse gas emissions and their contribution to climate change, the agency said in the decision. Glick, who took over as chairman after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, said FERC is committed to treating GHG emissions' contribution to climate change the same as all other environmental impacts.

“A proposed pipeline’s contribution to climate change is one of the most consequential environmental impacts and we must consider all evidence in the record to assess the significance of that impact,” he said.

The order noted, however, that the evidence the commission relies on to assess significance may evolve. On Feb. 18 FERC issued a Notice of Inquiry seeking new information and additional stakeholder perspectives to help it decide whetherto revise its approach for assessing the significance of GHG emissions. Future changes would not affect its Northern Natural Gas decision, the order said.

FERC将这项耗资1.738亿美元的可预见的温室气体排放与美国的气体排放量进行了比较。

该命令说：“该项目可能会根据2018年水平将二氧化碳排放量增加0.0003％，在随后的几年中，运营仅为0.000006％。”

The company wants to replace the existing pipeline because it has mechanical joints and acetylene welds that are more susceptible to leaks and hydrostatic pressure test failures. The existing pipeline will be sold to a salvage company and removed.

Danly agreed that the project should be approved, but dissented in part, saying the commission violated the law “by reversing its longstanding determination that it is unable to assess the significance of a project’s GHG emissions or those emissions’ contribution to climate change without sufficient reasoning.”

丹利说，该命令是“最合法和反复无常的监管渎职”，宣布的政策方向的变化在于“一项晦涩的案卷可能不会被提出上诉”。

丹利在他的12页持不同政见者中说：“这一命令可能会产生深远的后果。我重申我对所有会听的人的建议：每一个天然气管道公司，液化天然气公司和托运人应干预every singlecertificate item. Start now."

Trump replaced Chatterjee as chairman after the November election purportedly because of his openness to reducing carbon emissions in the power sector. Chatterjee told the Associated Press that “without compromise like this, needed infrastructure won’t get built” around the country.” Danley succeeded him from then until the Biden presidency.

Christie also dissented on the decision’s review of the project’s effect on climate change. “This is a major question of law and will be considered in a separate proceeding we initiated just one month ago at our February meeting,” he said.

拜登总统取消了Keystone XL管道，该管道将在就职典礼后立即将成千上万桶的加拿大石油从艾伯塔省运送到德克萨斯州，因为它对气候变化的影响。

In response, 21 states sued Biden and seven members of his cabinet over the decision to revoke the presidential permit allowing the pipeline to cross the Canadian border, effectively cancelling the entire project.

“多年来，美国政府研究了Keystone XL的安全，环境影响和经济利益。它一再得出结论，该管道对气候的影响会忽略不计，但对经济和美国能源独立性的影响很大。” 3月17日在加尔维斯顿的美国联邦法院提起的诉讼说。

Canadian firm TC Energy first applied for a permit for the pipeline to cross the border with Canada in 2008 but was rejected by President Obama in 2015.

The Trump administration issued a new permit in 2019. Biden concluded that climate change has had a growing effect on the U.S. economy and that approval of Keystone XL would undermine U.S. climate leadership by undercutting U.S. credibility and influence in urging other countries to take ambitious climate action. He supports accelerating the transition toward a clean energy economy.

But Biden lacks the power to enact his plan to “reshape the economy in defiance of Congress’s unwillingness to do so,” the lawsuit says, noting that the cancellation will eliminate about 3,700 Montana-based construction jobs and adversely affect the refining industry in Texas and Louisiana.

提起诉讼的各州包括得克萨斯州，蒙大拿州，怀俄明州，俄克拉荷马州，北达科他州，内布拉斯加州等。