SC attorney general joins lawsuit against Biden over Great Plains oil pipeline

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined another lawsuit initiated by other states against President Joe Biden, this time protesting the cancellation of a pipeline project 1,000 miles from South Carolina.

Wilson, a Republican active in party politics, signed onto the lawsuit against Biden that challenges the president’s decision to halt the Keystone XL Pipeline. Biden stopped the project after taking office in January because of environmental concerns.

The pipeline would pump Canadian tar sands across the Great Plains to Nebraska, connecting to an existing pipeline to the Gulf Coast. Tar sands material, or natural bitumen, is a heavy, thick type of oil that some studies indicate is more likely to leak from pipelines. It has been obtained in Canada by clear-cutting forests and strip-mining the ground.

““The pipeline is a key component of the national economy and national security, but regardless of how you feel about the pipeline, the fact is that the president doesn’t have the authority to cancel it,” Wilson said in afternoon news release.

Wilson’s action Thursday is the second in the past 10 days by states challenging Biden Administration executive orders.

Wilson was among a dozen Republican attorneys general who sued Biden earlier this month over an order that could eventually lead to tighter controls on greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. He drew criticism from a leading air pollution expert for what was described as a politically motivated decision.

Wilson again generated criticism for joining the Keystone XL Pipeline suit.

““All I can assume is it is a political thing,’’ said Shelley Robbins, who follows pipeline issues for the environmental group Upstate Forever. “The keystone has no relationship to South Carolina whatsoever: None.’’

Wilson has been involved in pipeline issues in South Carolina before.

As irate property owners criticized plans for an oil pipeline through the western part of the state about six years ago, Wilson’s office offered a legal opinion indicating that oil pipeline companies could not condemn property. Like in South Carolina, some landowners in the Great Plains complained about property condemnation for the Keystone.

The Keystone lawsuit, headed by attorneys general in Texas and Montana, said Biden overstepped his authority by revoking a permit for the pipeline, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The pipeline had been started under Republican President Donald Trump after it stalled under Democratic President Barack Obama, according to the news service.

The suit said Congress, not the president, has the authority to withhold approval to construct and operate an oil pipeline.

While the suit was initiated in western states, Wilson’s office said stopping the pipeline would hurt the economy of non-pipeline states. The news release said the pipeline would “bolster U.S. energy independence.’’

“I will always fight to defend the Constitutional separation of powers no matter who is in office and President Biden’s order is clearly unconstitutional,’’ Wilson’s news release said.

Biden’s action in January enraged Keystone pipeline supporters, who said it would cost the country jobs. But critics applauded the decision, saying the pipeline raises chances of oil leaks across the Great Plains and Midwest.