The Obama administration is holding up the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, despite the project’s court victory Sunday night over a North Dakota Indian tribe opposing the oil pipeline.
The company building the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, said Tuesday morning that in light of the court victory it “looks forward to resumption of construction activities” on either side of the contested Lake Oahe, which was the source of the tribe’s challenges.
But by the afternoon, a large coalition supporting the pipeline pointed out that even with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ favorable ruling and some work on the pipeline starting, the Obama administration is still holding up the construction of the last 1,100 feet of the pipeline.
The Army Corps of Engineers, with the Interior and Justice departments, halted the project after a lower court in North Dakota rejected the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s claims regarding its freshwater supply at Lake Oahe. That decision is causing continued problems for the oil project, even though the coalition said the developer had met with tribes and the Army Corps over two years to work out all concerns.
“There is no reasonable reason for the federal government to continue its delay of the necessary easement to allow for the ultimate completion and operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline,” said Craig Stevens, spokesman for the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, or MAIN.
“The Army Corps of Engineers and Dakota Access LLC have labored for more than two years, meeting with hundreds — if not thousands — of individuals and groups to plot out the safest, most sensible route for the pipeline,” Stevens said.
Stevens added that the 1,172-mile pipeline has received approval by the four states it passes through and the federal government, receiving all necessary easements and permits to move ahead with construction.
All of the permitting had been completed “except for the mere formality of an easement for approximately 1,100 feet abutting and under Lake Oahe, which would parallel an existing natural gas pipeline and which has already been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers,” the MAIN spokesman said.
Stevens said the Army Corps is instead beginning a new round of discussions Tuesday with tribes to review the concerns brought by the Sioux and other native groups regarding energy projects. The Army Corps will conduct meetings through the end of November to consider reforms to the infrastructure permit approval process that would better account for tribal concerns and needs.
“We recognize the importance of consulting with all interested parties and applaud the government for holding its meetings with tribal leaders to discuss appropriate processes for future projects,” Stevens said. “However, the government cannot reasonably say that any disagreement equates to a veto.”
He warned: “If that becomes the standard, then no infrastructure project of consequence will ever again be completed in this country.”
