Judge orders Dakota Access pipeline shut down pending review

Judge orders Dakota Access pipeline shut down pending review

SeattlePI.com

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FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday sided with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to shut down until more environmental review is done.

In a 24-page order, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that he was “mindful of the disruption" that shutting down a pipeline that has been in operation for three years would cause, but that it must be done within 30 days. His order comes after he said in April that the pipeline remained “highly controversial” under federal environmental law, and a more extensive review was necessary than the assessment that was done.

“Clear precedent favoring vacatur during such a remand coupled with the seriousness of the Corps’ deficiencies outweighs the negative effects of halting the oil flow for the thirteen months that the Corps believes the creation of an EIS will take,” Boasberg wrote Monday.

Boasberg had ordered both parties to submit briefs on whether the pipeline should continue operating during the new environmental review.

The pipeline was the subject of months of protests, sometimes violent, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. The Standing Rock tribe presses litigation against the pipeline even after it began carrying oil from North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa and to a shipping point in Illinois in June 2017.

Jan Hasselman, an attorney for the Standing Rock tribe, tweeted news of Boasberg's ruling and said: “Stunning.”

Texas-based Energy Transfer, the pipeline owner, didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile (1,886 kilometer) underground pipeline crosses beneath the Missouri River, just north of the Standing Rock reservation. The tribe...

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