A federal appeals court prodded lawyers defending a disputed oil pipeline with a line of hard questions during oral arguments Wednesday.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline last month until it has time to make a decision on a case brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota appealing a lower court’s ruling allowing the project to move forward.
The three-judge panel pressed the pipeline’s lawyers Wednesday with pointed questions over why they think the project needs to move forward before the federal government has a chance to review the tribes’ concerns about a portion of the pipeline crossing its only source of fresh water.
“It looks like you’re forcing their hand,” said Judge Thomas Griffith.
Miguel Estrada, representing the project’s developers, said the company was told that the required permission was nothing more than a formality. “It’s not a formality now, is it?” Griffith said in response.
Estrada said the company had done everything to meet the needs of the tribe and “went the extra mile” to satisfy its concerns.
The Obama adminsitration halted the project last month after a federal district judge in North Dakota allowed the pipeline to go forward after reviewing the tribe’s drinking water concerns. The Army Corps of Engineers, Interior and Justice departments said the project would be stopped until they had time to review the tribe’s claims.
After that, the tribe and its supporters appealed the North Dakota court’s ruling at the D.C. Circuit, which is one step removed from the Supreme Court. The court took up the contentious pipeline case a little over one week after it heard arguments in a major case opposing regulations at the center of President Obama’s climate change agenda.
The pipeline developer argues that the Army Corps had signed off on the project and that the agency’s prior decision should stand.
The federal appeals court has not indicated when it will rule, but lawyers representing the Sioux and environmentalists said they are pleased the court is upholding its temporary injuction on the project until a decision can be made.
Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said after oral arguments that the court took up their case as “millions” of supporters from around the world, 300 recognized tribes, members of Congress and the heads of local government stand with them “in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.”
He said the pipeline “threatens the lives” of more than 17 million people who rely on the Missouri River for their drinking water, while it also threatens lands of cultural significance to the tribes.
“This pipeline has already destroyed the burial places of our Lakota and Dakota ancestors,” he added. “If construction continues, our people stand to lose even more of our sacred places and cultural objects.”
