Pipeline Construction

AUSTIN, Texas – Although Kinder Morgan violated the conditions of a biological opinion and incidental take statement designed to protect a federally protected bird species during its construction of a natural gas pipeline in the Texas Hill Country, a federal court in the state ruled , plaintiffs seeking to prohibit the company from engaging in clearing and construction are still not entitled to a preliminary injunction.

Kinder Morgan cleared “potential warbler habitat in all but three areas of the pipeline’s route” before the preliminary injunction hearing and these “past harms cannot be prevented by a preliminary injunction,” the court determined.