Posted on 07/06/2020 9:50:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline while a lengthy environmental review is conducted of the project opposed by environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The move was requested earlier this year by Standing Rock and three other Sioux tribes in the Dakotas who fear environmental harm from the oil pipeline and sued over the project four years ago. North Dakota officials have said such a move would have “significant disruptive consequences” for the state, whose oil patch has been hit hard in recent months by falling demand for crude amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Standing Rock Chairman Mike Faith said the tribe is trying to prevent a potential environmental disaster should the line leak.
“For the tribe’s sake, it is good news,” he said of Monday’s ruling. “I think for downstream users, it’s good news also.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which permitted the pipeline, referred a Tribune request for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the Corps in the lawsuit. Justice had no immediate comment on the ruling, spokeswoman Danielle Nichols said. Pipeline developer Energy Transfer did not immediately comment.
The decision drew criticism from the MAIN Coalition, composed of businesses, trade associations and labor groups that benefit from infrastructure projects.
“Today’s order to shut down Dakota Access jeopardizes our national and energy security and raises significant concerns for the future of American energy infrastructure investment," spokesman Craig Stevens said.
U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said "this terrible ruling should be promptly appealed." Cramer is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, who just days after taking office in January 2017 green-lighted construction of the pipeline that had become stalled toward the end of the Obama administration.
The $3.8 billion pipeline has been moving Bakken oil to a shipping point in Illinois for three years. But U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing the lawsuit, in March ordered the Corps to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement. The question of whether the pipeline would be shut down in the meantime had lingered since.
An EIS is a much more stringent review than the Environmental Assessment the Corps completed earlier. Such a study is expected to take 13 months, Boasberg wrote in the ruling he issued Monday.
After arguments by both sides and other interested parties, Boasberg revoked a key Corps permit for the pipeline and ordered that "Dakota Access shall shut down the pipeline and empty it of oil by August 5, 2020."
The pipeline has been carrying as much as 570,000 barrels of oil out of the Bakken each day -- about 40% of the state's daily production before the pandemic hit. Boasberg acknowledged that his order "will cause significant disruption to DAPL, the North Dakota oil industry, and potentially other states." But he also said "the Corps has not been able to substantiate its decision to publish only an EA and not an EIS."
"Given the seriousness of the Corps' ... error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of oil must cease," Boasberg wrote.
The judge in 2017 ordered the Corps to revisit several issues pertaining to the easement it granted the pipeline, but he allowed the pipeline to continue operating. The Corps completed the work in August 2018, leading to more legal wrangling when the tribes maintained the additional study was flawed. The company over the years has maintained that the pipeline is safe, a contention backed by the Corps.
The lawsuit has lingered since July 2016. The tribes fear a pipeline spill into the Missouri River -- which the line crosses beneath just to the north of the Standing Rock Reservation -- would contaminate water they rely on for drinking, fishing and religious practices.
Thousands of pipeline opponents from around the world who took up their cause flocked to southern North Dakota in 2016 and 2017 to protest the project. Some clashed with police, resulting in more than 760 arrests.
Faith, the Standing Rock chairman, on Monday said the Corps has not approached the tribe about the EIS. He is calling for “true consultation” that is “face to face.” He said the tribe “is going to do its best to work with the Corps to take a hard look during the EIS process.”
“The bottom line of all this is that the EIS will probably tell us that they should have used a different route in the first place that did not affect Sioux Nation treaty rights,” he said.
The Corps did consider alternate routes for the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing, including one north of Bismarck, but ultimately permitted the pipeline to cross under the water just north of Cannon Ball on the reservation.
The ruling comes as Energy Transfer seeks to nearly double the capacity of the pipeline to carry 1.1 million barrels per day of oil. It has secured permits from regulators in North Dakota and Iowa but still needs to acquire permission from Illinois, where it faces opposition by environmental groups. In North Dakota, the company plans to build a pump station west of Linton in Emmons County to boost the line’s horsepower.
Standing Rock leaders, meanwhile, hope to continue working with state officials and several private companies to conduct a spill response exercise along the Missouri River. The idea came up during a meeting at the state Capitol in December and was endorsed by Gov. Doug Burgum.
“Let’s say it does reopen, we still have to have that plan in place of a quick response team, at least to try to get the oil off the river and off the sides,” Faith said, adding that the tribe still wants to see the pipeline shut down permanently.
(Check back for updates.)
Full court press, and not enough patriots willing to fight 24/7 to keep these assh0les from continuing the destruction of our country.
Ping.
Ignore and proceed.
“Judge Boasberg also serves on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts in May 2014, he was named Presiding Judge of the FISC on January 1, 2020. “
Are the tribal leaders in teepees smoking long pipes?
Or maybe in the executive offices above the gambling floor of casino resorts, or at home in gated mansions bought with gambling money?
Judge is an uber-leftie Obama guy.
I’m sure they have a lot of fears but since they have no facts and there is no environmental impact that they can cite this judge needs to be reversed, tarred and feathered.
And Dominion Energy is also pulling the plug on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline because of environmental opposition.
They’re angry because the line went around instead of through their land.
They tried blackmail to be paid by the barrel for oil going UNDER the land and failed.
Boasberg is a fanatical Democrat Resistance judge.
ClownBammy has got his POS guy in the right place.
Wow! Roberts is complete poison!
Hoe do foreign entities (Sioux) have standing to sue?
Sorry bub, I gotta work!
Now if a conservative George Soros were to send ME a check, well then...
Its sacred land, which the Great Spirit has deemed can only contain a large Casino and 250 bedroom hotel.
Well, three or four years of energy independence was nice.
Exactly- They need facts- they need proof it is causing damage-
IF all we have to do is say that a place ‘might cause’ damage, in order to get businesses shut down, then conservatives could lodge complaints against all democratically run businesses And vice versa, and it would take years of studies to determine whether or not the claims were true- and that would be the end of them-
James Emanuel Boasberg is a United States District Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, also serving as the Presiding Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [appointed by John Roberts, the Deep State's guy on SCOTUS]
This May Be the Most Important Federal Judge You’ve Never Heard Of
February 2018
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3629327/posts
Judge James E. Boasberg ruled Friday against making public former FBI Director James Comey’s seven memos describing his conversations with President Donald Trump. And by doing so, the jurist protected — at least for now — a key potential witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of allegations of collusions between the president’s 2016 campaign and agents of the Russian government.
While Everyone Was Focused on SCOTUS Pick, US Judge [James Boasberg] ELIMINATED Work Welfare Programs (Kentucky)
July 2018
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3669990/posts
FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer Will Step Down--Chief Justice Roberts Taps Obama-Appointed Judge To Replace Her
December 2019
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3802521/posts
FISA court "mistakenly" says Fusion GPS was digging up dirt on Hillary Clinton, not Trump
March 2020
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3822134/posts
A ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Wednesday mistakenly said Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm which hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele in 2016, was looking for dirt on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rather than on then-candidate Donald Trump.
The court fixed the glaring error only after the Washington Examiner brought it to its attention.
Judge James Boasberg, the court’s presiding judge, cited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page in a Wednesday opinion and, in the midst of pointing out the multitude of flaws, omissions, and factual errors in the electronic surveillance filings uncovered by the Justice Department’s watchdog, he made a mistake himself.
Trump should immediately process a Executive Order to continue the pipe line Time to ignore these communists judges.
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