LEGAL US District Court orders Dakota Access Pipeline shutdown, emptied

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
www.foxnews.com us/us-district-court-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-shutdown-emptied

US District Court orders Dakota Access Pipeline shutdown, emptied
Stephen Sorace
2-2 minutes
A federal judge ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline and it be emptied, while a lengthy environmental review is conducted.

The pipeline must be emptied by August 5, the court ordered Monday, after finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated “the National Environmental Policy Act when it granted an easement” for the pipeline’s construction and operation of crude-oil running beneath Lake Oahe.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in a 24-page order that he was “mindful of the disruption such a shutdown will cause,” but said he had concluded that the pipeline must be shut down.

“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.

The environmental review for the pipeline, which has been in operation for three years, must be completed within 30 days, according to the judge's order.

The decision comes after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe requested the pipeline be shut down for fear of environmental harm.

The pipeline sparked months of protests, sometimes violent, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

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

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Do any folks with contacts know if this was the pipeline one of the Native American Tribes tried to stop from happening in the first place?
 
jazzy

jazzy

Advocate Discernment
melodi i thought that was originally the keystone pipeline but i could be wrong. this dakota was an underground pipeline proposed to be the safest of them all. shutting it off for 13 months to do another environmental study is no small thing.
 
Cacheman

Cacheman

Ultra MAGA!
A more in depth piece

bismarcktribune.com

Federal judge orders Dakota Access Pipeline shut down

The Dakota Access Pipeline must be shut down and emptied of oil within 30 days while a lengthy environmental review of the project is conducted, a federal judge ruled Monday.
bismarcktribune.com bismarcktribune.com

Federal judge orders Dakota Access Pipeline shut down
AMY R. SISK

9-11 minutes


Federal judge orders Dakota Access Pipeline shut down



A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline while a lengthy environmental review is conducted of the project opposed by environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The move was requested earlier this year by Standing Rock and three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas who fear environmental harm from the oil pipeline and sued over the project four years ago. North Dakota officials have said such a move would have “significant disruptive consequences” for the state, whose oil patch has been hit hard in recent months by falling demand for crude amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Standing Rock Chairman Mike Faith said the tribe is trying to prevent a potential environmental disaster should the line leak.

“For the tribe’s sake, it is good news,” he said of Monday’s ruling. “I think for downstream users, it’s good news also.”
The U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the Army Corps of Engineers in the lawsuit, had no immediate comment on the ruling, spokeswoman Danielle Nichols said. Pipeline developer Energy Transfer did not immediately comment.

The decision drew criticism from the MAIN Coalition, composed of businesses, trade associations and labor groups that benefit from infrastructure projects.

“Today’s order to shut down Dakota Access jeopardizes our national and energy security and raises significant concerns for the future of American energy infrastructure investment," spokesman Craig Stevens said.

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said "this terrible ruling should be promptly appealed." Cramer is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, who just days after taking office in January 2017 green-lighted construction of the pipeline that had become stalled toward the end of the Obama administration.

The $3.8 billion pipeline has been moving Bakken oil to a shipping point in Illinois for three years. But U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing the lawsuit, in March ordered the Corps to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement. The question of whether the pipeline would be shut down in the meantime had lingered since.

An EIS is a much more stringent review than the Environmental Assessment the Corps completed earlier. Such a study is expected to take 13 months, Boasberg wrote in the ruling he issued Monday.

After arguments by both sides and other interested parties, Boasberg revoked a key Corps permit for the pipeline and ordered that "Dakota Access shall shut down the pipeline and empty it of oil by August 5, 2020."

The pipeline has been carrying as much as 570,000 barrels of oil out of the Bakken each day -- about 40% of the state's daily production before the pandemic hit. Boasberg acknowledged that his order "will cause significant disruption to DAPL, the North Dakota oil industry, and potentially other states." But he also said "the Corps has not been able to substantiate its decision to publish only an EA and not an EIS."

"Given the seriousness of the Corps' ... error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of oil must cease," Boasberg wrote.

The judge in 2017 ordered the Corps to revisit several issues pertaining to the easement it granted the pipeline, but he allowed the pipeline to continue operating. The Corps completed the work in August 2018, leading to more legal wrangling when the tribes maintained the additional study was flawed. The company over the years has maintained that the pipeline is safe, a contention backed by the Corps.

The lawsuit has lingered since July 2016. The tribes fear a pipeline spill into the Missouri River -- which the line crosses beneath just to the north of the Standing Rock Reservation -- would contaminate water they rely on for drinking, fishing and religious practices.

Thousands of pipeline opponents from around the world who took up their cause flocked to southern North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 to protest the project. Some clashed with police, resulting in more than 760 arrests.

Faith, the Standing Rock chairman, on Monday said the Corps has not approached the tribe about the EIS. He is calling for “true consultation” that is “face to face.” He said the tribe “is going to do its best to work with the Corps to take a hard look during the EIS process.”

“The bottom line of all this is that the EIS will probably tell us that they should have used a different route in the first place that did not affect Sioux Nation treaty rights,” he said.

The Corps did consider alternate routes for the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing, including one north of Bismarck, but ultimately permitted the pipeline to cross under the water just north of Cannon Ball on the reservation.

The ruling comes as Energy Transfer seeks to nearly double the capacity of the pipeline to carry 1.1 million barrels per day of oil. It has secured permits from regulators in North Dakota and Iowa but still needs to acquire permission from Illinois, where it faces opposition by environmental groups. In North Dakota, the company plans to build a pump station west of Linton in Emmons County to boost the line’s horsepower.

Standing Rock leaders, meanwhile, hope to continue working with state officials and several private companies to conduct a spill response exercise along the Missouri River. The idea came up during a meeting at the state Capitol in December and was endorsed by Gov. Doug Burgum.

“Let’s say it does reopen, we still have to have that plan in place of a quick response team, at least to try to get the oil off the river and off the sides,” Faith said, adding that the tribe still wants to see the pipeline shut down permanently.

Now the oil will have to hauled by Warren Buffets Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, I'm sure he has no involvement in this lawsuit though.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Protesters and native rights, that is a great cover story. I have several cousins that are pipeline welders that work in the oil patch and apparently this pipeline has some serious issues and has experienced multiple leaks, leaks that don't make the national news.
 
Groucho

Groucho

Has No Life - Lives on TB
"Faith said, adding that the tribe still wants to see the pipeline shut down permanently."


I wonder if normal people will re-institute cowboys and Indians.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
jazzy said:
melodi i thought that was originally the keystone pipeline but i could be wrong. this dakota was an underground pipeline proposed to be the safest of them all. shutting it off for 13 months to do another environmental study is no small thing.
Click to expand...

It's cheaper to go with this narrative, aka cover story, than to admit that there's a problem that needs to be resolved... think Prudo Bay (Sp?) or that major leak with the tanker at Valdez. The first narrative costs very little money, the second narrative could cost hundreds of millions if not billions.
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
Owner during his engineering career investigated TRIPLE WALL PIPE for use on the Island Of Nantucket for a proposed oil transfer situation. Nantucket is tough because of the wealth there (rich people have INFLUENCE), the environment (sand is one of those mediums you don't want to have an oil spill), and its physical location a distance away from the supply centers. The pipe is plastic, is air pressurized so that any leaks are "inward" into the oil, and have had ZERO incidents in established uses that were not detected first.

Also easily repaired. Owner said repair has never been needed.

One wonders if they used this pipe, given the issues. If so this claim is um, agricultural amendment.

Dobbin
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Groucho said:
"Faith said, adding that the tribe still wants to see the pipeline shut down permanently."


I wonder if normal people will re-institute cowboys and Indians.
Click to expand...

Once the blacks gain control of the FUSA the first to be eliminated will be all native americans and then the whites. Blacks want what they perceive as that NA's are getting for free, not realizing that not all of us are on the Roles or are even recognized by the fed gov.
 
C

Coco82919

Veteran Member
I wonder if Trump will stop this. Since we are in a state of emergency, I believe he has the legal right to do this.
 
marymonde

marymonde

Veteran Member
My son hardly ever works on the DAPL line, but heard they hired some inexperienced pipeliners that didn’t know what they were doing. He’s not sure of the story, just going by what a guy he works with that was on that line, saw.

I’m not sure if this is connected to this pipeline, but when Obama was in office he stopped the US Steel pipeline contracts, and contracted the pipeline to be made to, I believe it was Malaysia. The steel was sub par and caused leaking problems. When Trump came in office, he put the US steel workers back to work. The leaking Malaysian pipeline had to be replaced.
 
S

Sub-Zero

Veteran Member
Melodi said:
Do any folks with contacts know if this was the pipeline one of the Native American Tribes tried to stop from happening in the first place?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Obama had all 1,100 plus miles built under his administration minus the last thousand yards or so. He left it as a parting gift so the activists could blame President Trump. President Trump then ordered the Army Corp of Engineers to make a decision (go around, under, over). Then the activists came and protested, leaving the EPA to clean up a literally toxic site when they were done.

Obama approved the pipeline largely as an "F" you to Warren Buffet, who wanted to use his railroad to haul the oil.

The tribe wants a bigger cut. That's all. Don't make the mistake of thinking they're all a bunch of tree-hugging pacifists.
 
MinnesotaSmith

MinnesotaSmith

Membership Revoked
Bicycle Junkie said:
Are the members of the Standing Rock tribe rich?
Click to expand...

I understand that they want to be, that they originally got pissed off at the pipeline company solely BC the latter said FU to the featherheads' exorbitant money demands for access, and routed the pipeline around them on land the FHs did not own. That's all this is about.
 
P

Papa

Senior Member
Dennis Olson said:
www.foxnews.com us/us-district-court-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-shutdown-emptied

US District Court orders Dakota Access Pipeline shutdown, emptied
Stephen Sorace
2-2 minutes
A federal judge ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline and it be emptied, while a lengthy environmental review is conducted.

The pipeline must be emptied by August 5, the court ordered Monday, after finding that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated “the National Environmental Policy Act when it granted an easement” for the pipeline’s construction and operation of crude-oil running beneath Lake Oahe.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote in a 24-page order that he was “mindful of the disruption such a shutdown will cause,” but said he had concluded that the pipeline must be shut down.

“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.

The environmental review for the pipeline, which has been in operation for three years, must be completed within 30 days, according to the judge's order.

The decision comes after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe requested the pipeline be shut down for fear of environmental harm.

The pipeline sparked months of protests, sometimes violent, during its construction near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

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

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Click to expand...
Midnight blanket party for this judge.
 
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