The Obama administration said it would not allow work on federal land along the route of Energy Transfer Partners’s controversial crude oil pipeline, less than an hour after a judge ruled construction could proceed on the $3.8 billion project.
The Army Corps of Engineers has not yet authorized construction near Lake Oahe along the border of North and South Dakota, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. As a result, the department asked Energy Transfer to voluntarily pause building 20 miles east or west of the lake until the Corps makes a decision.
Earlier, a federal judge ruled construction could proceed on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a decision seen as a blow to critics who said the project would damage culturally significant sites and create an environmental hazard where it crosses the Missouri River.
The project likely complies with the National Historic Preservation Act, wrote U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, Friday in a memorandum accompanying his opinion. “The Tribe has not shown it will suffer injury that would be prevented by any injunction the Court could issue,” he said.
Construction on a segment of the pipeline in North Dakota was stalled after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a lawsuit challenging the federal permits for the project in July. Bold Alliance, an activist group that includes members who successfully fought the Keystone XL pipeline, has been organizing events and reaching out to politicians.
Energy Transfer says it’s taken appropriate safety measures and that the pipeline will create 8,000 to 12,000 jobs during construction. A spokesman for the Dallas-based company declined to comment.
The 1,172-mile project would run through four states from North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois, where it would join another Energy Transfer line that carries oil to refineries in Nederland, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer is overseeing the project, which is jointly owned with Sunoco Logistics Partners, a joint venture between Marathon Petroleum Corp., Enbridge Energy Partners and Phillips 66.
The pipeline has also come under fire in Iowa where a request to stay the project from landowners who objected to its use of eminent domain was denied by the Iowa Utilities Board.
Even so, opposition has intensified. Thirty protesters were arrested in August for trespassing on the project’s construction site in Iowa, and eight were arrested in North Dakota. Morton County’s sheriff’s department in North Dakota has issued an arrest warrant for Jill Stein, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, for trespassing and spray-painting construction equipment on private property.
North Dakota Gov. John Dalrymple authorized a restricted emergency declaration last month, making state resources available to manage safety amid ongoing protests. The state National Guard was called in to support local law enforcement.
Hollywood has chimed in as well: Rallies have included actresses Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley. Cast members of the upcoming movie “The Justice League,” including Ben Affleck, spoke out against the pipeline in a video posted on Instagram. Actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio has also voiced support for the protesters.
The line would help cut costs for Bakken region drillers, which have had to turn to more expensive rail shipments when existing pipelines filled up. Dakota Access, with a capacity of about 470,000-barrel-a-day, would ship roughly half of current Bakken crude production and allow producers to access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. It’s expected to be in service by the fourth quarter.
Featured Image: Andrew Cullen/Reuters
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(c) 2016, Bloomberg · Meenal Vamburkar
