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Up until that point, TransCanada had mowed 1,500 acres in the U.S. to prepare the pipeline right-of-way, begun constructing three work camps and had prepared 11 of 14 pipe yards. The company had to lay off 650 workers on the project when the Montana court decision came down.

The judge issued the injunction in Nov. 2018 because the project’s environmental impact assessment from 2014 was insufficient and fell short of a “hard look” at factors including a change in oil prices and cultural artifacts along the pipeline’s alternative route through Nebraska.

“Absent a stay, thousands of jobs will be lost, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and contractors payments will not occur, and TransCanada will lose earnings of over $900 million,” the motion filed Monday states.

It requests that the injunction “should be stayed in its entirety, or at least insofar as it prohibits pre-construction and construction of the pipeline outside of Nebraska.”

The “urgent motion” also requests action by March 15.

In a previous affidavit, filed in early January, Norrie Ramsay, TransCanada’s senior vice-president, technical centre and liquids projects, said that if the company did not get relief from the injunction by March 15, it would not be able to begin construction as planned in August and would therefore miss the 2019 construction season.

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images files

Ramsay also detailed the financial consequences of missing that deadline.

“TransCanada estimates that a one-year delay would result in lost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of approximately $949 million between March 2021 and March 2022, based on the minimum take-or-pay shipper commitment,” he said in the court filing.