Adding insult to injury in a bad week for environmental causes, the Dakota Access pipeline began shipping oil this week.
Blake Nicholson Reports: "The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline began shipping oil for customers on Thursday, as Native American tribes that opposed the project vowed to continue fighting."
"Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners announced that the 1,200-mile line carrying North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois had begun commercial service," explains Nicholson. Together, the Dakota Access pipeline and the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline from Illinois will deliver some 520,000 barrels of oil to the Gulf Coast every day.
Meanwhile, four Sioux tribes are still fighting the pipeline in federal court, "hoping to persuade a judge to shut down the line." In December, it seemed water defenders had won a decisive victory. Then President Trump reversed the Obama Administration's decision on the pipeline and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers soon followed suit.
FULL STORY: $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline begins service
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A federal judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers failed to fully comply with NEPA in allowing the controversial pipeline to cross under the Missouri River. The judge did not order Energy Transfers Partners to cease operations of the pipeline.
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Elections have consequences. Per a Jan. 24 executive memo, the Army Corps of Engineers indicated that it will grant Dakota Access LLC the final permit to tunnel under the Missouri River and complete the controversial pipeline.
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