Posted on 03/16/2018 2:50:56 PM PDT by BBell
A federal court of appeals on Thursday (March 15) put construction of the controversial Bayou Bridge oil pipeline back on track.
By a two-to-one vote, judges in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans struck down a ruling by a federal judge in Baton Rouge that had halted the pipeline's construction through the environmentally-sensitive Atchafalaya Basin.
In Thursday's appeals court decision, Judge Edith Brown Clement wrote that the district court "abused its discretion in granting a preliminary injunction" halting the pipeline's construction. The district court should have allowed the case to proceed with the Army Corps of Engineers providing its reasons for permitting the pipeline, she wrote.
Environmental groups opposed to the pipeline say they'll appeal Thursday's decision.
"The Bayou Bridge Pipeline would pose an unacceptable risk to the wetlands, water, and communities along its route, and should never be built," Julie Rosenzweig, director of the Sierra Club Delta Chapter, said in a statement.
An attorney for the pipeline's owner, Energy Transfer Partners, said the construction delay is costing the company nearly a half million dollars per day.
In her decision last month halting construction, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick wrote that the Army Corps had not adequately considered the environmental impacts of building the pipeline through the basin's fragile cypress swamps and crawfish harvest areas.
Dick also took issue with the Corps' decision to require Energy Transfer to offset ecological damage by preserving a wooded area nearly 60 miles from the basin.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
“environmentally-sensitive” = horsecrap.
Long ETP.
Yep - and they would NEVER be able to satisfy this one of the tree huggers are opposed:
“...not “adequately” considered the environmental impacts...”
These pipeline permissions still have to jump through 150 hoops, and they take years, but at least this is a step forward.
Piplines make sense. F**k the left.
meh! “of = if”
ETP stock has been down lately. They could use the bump.
I don’t like Kelcy Warren, but it’s good to see the environmentalists take one on the nose.
Two words for all these frivolous, environ-MENTAL lawsuits: Loser Pays.
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