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Court gives limited win to opponents of Dakota Access pipeline

The controversial Bakken shale oil pipeline went in service in early June after an order from the Trump administration.

By Daniel J. Graeber
Court ruling in favor of a challenge from opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline is limited, district court judge said. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Court ruling in favor of a challenge from opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline is limited, district court judge said. File photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

June 15 (UPI) -- While declaring a major victory in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline, a court ruling finds the fight was met with only "some degree of success."

In one of his first acts in office, U.S. President Donald Trump expedited the process for the Dakota Access pipeline so that the consortium behind the project, Energy Transfer Partners, could put the line into service on June 1. The $3.8 billion project has the capacity to pump as much as a half million barrels of oil per day from the shale oil basins in North Dakota.

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Tribal groups in the United States have drawn on grassroots support to block project development and a district court in the nation's capital found the Army Corps of Engineers failed to adequately assess the impacts of a possible spill on "fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice."

"This is a major victory for the tribe and we commend the courts for upholding the law and doing the right thing," Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement. "The previous administration painstakingly considered the impacts of this pipeline, and President Trump hastily dismissed these careful environmental considerations in favor of political and personal interests."

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Acting under the authority of former President Barack Obama, the Army Corps of Engineers said further review of Dakota Access was needed in order to assess tribal interests associated with the construction of the last few hundred feet of the pipeline.

Under Trump's order, the Army scrapped plans to finish its environmental review of the project.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, said many of the project delays were politically driven. After meeting with pipeline opponents in late January, he pledged to continue the dialogue "in the interest of reaching a safe and peaceful resolution."

The latest court challenge is the third effort against the pipeline.

"This volley meets with some degree of success," U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said in his 91-page ruling.

The court found the Army "substantially complied" with national environmental rules in "many areas."

The pipeline remains in service. Energy Transfer Partners had no public comment on the court ruling and more hearings are scheduled to consider what happens next.

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