Keystone XL Pipeline’s Demise Leaves Graveyard of Legal Issues

U.S. courts are poised to wipe out a series of Keystone XL-related lawsuits after developer TC Energy Corp. announced it was officially abandoning the embattled oil pipeline.

It’s an anticlimactic end to high-stakes litigation that dominated headlines for years and raised urgent questions about environmental permitting, property rights, and even constitutional law.

“It seems unlikely that we’ll get them resolved,” said James Coleman, an energy law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “It has really been an incredible saga for those of us who are focused on energy transport and trade.”

Keystone XL was proposed more than a decade ...