Skip to content
  • About the Project
  • Meet the Team
  • Partners
Support Us
  • Support Us
  • Inside Energy
  • Inside Energy
  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Data
  • Educators
  • IE Questions
  • IE Investigations
    • Energy According To Trump
    • Protesting The Pipeline: Standing Rock And The Dakota Access Pipeline
    • Your Natural Gas Boom Is Leaking
    • Feasting On Fuel
    • Reclamation Blues: The Lingering Legacy Of Fossil Fuels
    • Blackout: Reinventing The Grid
    • Denmark’s Road To Renewables
    • The Future Of Coal
    • The Fallout From Falling Oil Prices
    • The Oilfield Spill Problem
    • Energy And The New Congress
    • Boom 2.0
    • Dark Side Of The Boom
    • The Solar Challenge
    • The Pipeline Network
    • Coal Watch
  • Newsletter
  • Support Us
  • Get To Know Us
    • About the Project
    • Meet the Team
    • Partners

Inside Energy - Bringing energy reporting down to Earth

Inside Energy (https://insideenergy.org/2017/06/15/tribes-win-key-victory-in-suit-over-dakota-access-pipeline/)

  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Data
  • Educators
  • IE Questions
  • IE Investigations
    • Energy According To Trump
    • Protesting The Pipeline: Standing Rock And The Dakota Access Pipeline
    • Your Natural Gas Boom Is Leaking
    • Feasting On Fuel
    • Reclamation Blues: The Lingering Legacy Of Fossil Fuels
    • Blackout: Reinventing The Grid
    • Denmark’s Road To Renewables
    • The Future Of Coal
    • The Fallout From Falling Oil Prices
    • The Oilfield Spill Problem
    • Energy And The New Congress
    • Boom 2.0
    • Dark Side Of The Boom
    • The Solar Challenge
    • The Pipeline Network
    • Coal Watch
  • Newsletter
Dakota Access pipeline

Tribes Win Key Victory In Suit Over Dakota Access Pipeline

By Alisa Barba and Amy Sisk | June 15, 2017
More
  • More on Dakota Access pipeline
  • Subscribe to Dakota Access pipeline

Andrew Cullen

People raise their fists in the air in solidarity as a group of canoes arrives in a protest camp in September 2016. The camp sprang up to demonstrate against Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

After a year of protests and controversy, oil began flowing through the 1,200-mile Dakota Access pipeline earlier this month. But the pipeline’s ultimate fate is now uncertain after a federal judge issued a ruling on Wednesday that challenges parts of the environmental review completed before the pipeline was permitted.

The pipeline can continue operating — for now. But it’s possible the D.C. District Court judge could soon shut it down. Lawyers must submit new arguments on whether the pipeline should continue transporting oil while a federal agency reconsiders parts of its environmental review.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has been challenging the pipeline in court since last summer. Two earlier challenges — one claiming that grading land for the pipeline threatened sacred sites, and another claiming the pipeline would desecrate sacred waters — were both dismissed by the court. This is the first significant legal victory for Standing Rock and other Sioux tribes that have filed suit over the project.

Judge James Boasberg’s ruling said the Army Corps of Engineers “did not adequately consider the impacts of an oil spill on fishing rights, hunting rights, or environmental justice, or the degree to which the pipeline’s effects are likely to be highly controversial.”

He found that the Corps had “substantially complied” with the National Environmental Policy Act in many areas. But he ordered the Corps to “reconsider those sections” of its environmental analysis the court found lacking.

The Obama Administration in December refused to issue a permit to allow pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners to build the pipeline under the Missouri River, a half-mile north of the Standing Rock reservation. The Administration ordered the Corps to supplement an earlier Environmental Assessment with a more in-depth Environmental Impact Statement on the pipeline.  Five days after his inauguration, President Trump reversed that decision and construction on the pipeline soon resumed. The pipeline was completed in May and oil began flowing June 1.

The Standing Rock tribe called Boasberg’s decision a victory. Chairman Dave Archambault II praised the Obama Administration for “painstakingly” considering the impacts of the pipeline.

“President Trump hastily dismissed these careful environmental considerations in favor of political and personal interests,” he said in a statement. “We applaud the courts for protecting our laws and regulations from undue political influence, and will ask the Court to shut down pipeline operations immediately.”

Boasberg found that the Trump reversal was well within the scope of the law.  But he agreed with the tribe that the Corps did not adequately evaluate the impact of an oil spill on the tribe’s hunting and fishing rights.

He also criticized the Corps’ assessment of the environmental justice issues in its original environmental assessment.  In that assessment, the Corps only considered impacts within a half-mile of the pipeline.  The Standing Rock reservation lies just outside that boundary.

“The court is hard pressed to conclude that the Corps’ selection of a 0.5-mile buffer was reasonable,” Boasberg wrote.

He said the Corps’ conclusion that Standing Rock would not be disproportionately harmed by a spill was “bare-bones” and the Corps needed to offer more.

It’s not just the tribe welcoming Boasberg’s decision. Supporters of the pipeline also praised it for rejecting much of the tribes’ arguments against the pipeline.

Energy Transfer Partners issued a statement on Thursday noting that the judge found the Corps has substantially complied with the law in its environmental review. The company said the court pointed out concerns with two discrete issues and, “Dakota Access believes the record supports the fact that the Corps properly evaluated both issues, and that the record will enable the Corps to substantiate and reaffirm its prior determinations.”

Likewise, the GAIN coalition, a pro-infrastructure group,  hailed the ruling for affirming much of the Corps’ review.

“The Dakota Access Pipeline remains one of the safest – if not the safest – pipeline ever constructed,” spokesperson Craig Stevens said in a statement.

Shutting down the pipeline while this further environmental review is completed would be the “standard remedy” for this kind of violation, Boasberg wrote.  But, he said, “such a move, of course, would carry serious consequences that a court should not lightly impose.”

A hearing is scheduled for next week to hear arguments from both sides.

The dispute over the Dakota Access Pipeline became a huge rallying point last summer and fall as environmental activists joined with Native Americans in protesting the construction.  Thousands gathered in a camp near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in an attempt to stop construction.

What’s Next?

  • Inside Energy has covered the Dakota Access pipeline story from the beginning. You can find all of our coverage here.
  • Inside Energy produced an hour long documentary about the Dakota Access pipeline controversy and other conflicts over Native American sovereignty. You can check out the trailer and see where and when it is broadcast in your area here.
  • Here’s a timeline of key Dakota Access pipeline events.
  • We worked with REVEAL on this hour-long podcast about Dakota Access and other tribal conflicts.
More
  • More on Dakota Access pipeline
  • Subscribe to Dakota Access pipeline

Related Series

Protesting The Pipeline: Standing Rock And The Dakota Access Pipeline

Native American tribes from across the country have gathered in North Dakota to protest the Dakota Access pipeline, a 1,200-mile pipeline that would carry oil from the Bakken to Illinois.

Tags
  • Inside Energy News
  • Army Corps of Engineers
  • Dakota Access pipeline
  • DAPL
  • dave archambault
  • NoDAPL
  • North Dakota
  • Standing Rock Sioux

About Alisa Barba

Alisa Barba is Inside Energy's Executive Editor. She worked for NPR as a regional bureau chief for 12 years and also edited Fronteras, a public radio collaboration along the southwest border.

  • More by Alisa

About Amy Sisk

Amy Sisk is a reporter for Inside Energy based in North Dakota.

  • More by Amy

Read Next

  • Dakota Access Pipeline Upends Oil Transport

    In its first month of service, the Dakota Access Pipeline is already causing major changes to the way oil is transported out of North Dakota.

Previous Post
A Boom In Oil Thefts In The Permian
Next Post
IE Questions: Where Does Fracking Water Go?
Inside Energy is a collaborative journalism initiative of partners across the US and supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  • Inside Energy
  • About The Project
  • Meet The Team
  • Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Terms Of Use

Search This Site

Browse Archives

© Copyright 2023, Inside Energy

Inside Energy is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑