Court Says Dakota Access Pipeline Can Keep Running, Reversing Prior Decision—For Now

The court also declined the company's request to block the lengthy environmental review of the project, which could take over a year to complete.

Native Americans and their supporters rally in front of the Trump International Hotel April 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images
Native Americans and their supporters rally in front of the Trump International Hotel April 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. | Getty Images

A federal appeals court has reversed a judge’s July decision that the long-contested Dakota Access Pipeline must shut down while a lengthy environmental review of the project is conducted.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday said that owners Energy Transfer Partners could keep the pipeline open, and that the judge that handed down the July decision “did not make the findings necessary for injunctive relief.”

However, the court also declined the company's request to block the environmental review, which could take over a year to complete, saying that it expects the appellants to “clarify their positions before the district court.”

Permits for the last leg of the pipeline project were originally rejected by the Obama administration, who in December 2016 said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would conduct a full environmental review and look for alternate routes for the pipeline in order to avoid construction under the Missouri River, which could negatively affect the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation less than one mile away. In July 2016, the tribe filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, arguing that the pipeline “threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.”

But shortly after President Trump took office, the Corps scrapped the review at his direction and granted permits for the project.

In March of this year, nearly three years after the pipeline began carrying oil, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg determined that the Corps easement of the review and approval for the pipeline remains “highly controversial” under federal environmental law, and ordered the agency to prepare a more in-depth environmental impact analysis—but Judge Boasberg hadn’t yet decided whether oil could continue to flow through the pipeline while the review was conducted. On July 6, he determined that the pipeline must be shut down and emptied while the environmental impact review is completed.

The decision provided a major, if temporary, victory to those who have continually protested against the oil pipeline over the years, including members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

EarthJustice attorney Jan Hasselman, who represents Standing Rock and other tribes in the longstanding legal battle, told the Associated Press that the court decision on Wednesday wasn’t a setback.

“There is more to like than dislike in this ruling,” he said. “There will be a review and a new permit during the next administration.”

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith also said that they “aren’t giving up this fight.”

“As the environmental review process gets underway in the months ahead, we look forward to showing why the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate,” he continued.