WASHINGTON – Federal Court Judge James Boasberg grants the state of North Dakota’s motion to dismiss the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s latest lawsuit to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Boasberg ruled the tribe couldn’t show it would suffer irreparable harm from the pipeline saying there’s a low likelihood of a spill.
The judge says for four years the pipeline has allowed oil to flow from North Dakota to Southern Illinois without an easement issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. The agency has been preparing a court-ordered environmental impact statement which could allow the Corps to grant Dakota Access a new easement for the pipeline. Boasberg goes on to say the Corps hasn’t chosen to authorize the pipeline’s operation or to exercise its enforcement powers to shut it down leading to the tribe’s frustration.
Boasberg rules even though the Corps hasn’t finished its environmental impact statement, the tribe is already saying it would be harmed if the pipeline were to continue to operate.
Click here to read Boasberg’s ruling.
Flag Family News has reached out to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for comment.
“Considering DAPL has been operating for years without incident and the layers of environmental review that this pipeline has already gone through, this decision is clearly overdue but the right call. We will continue our efforts to advance the Army Corps’ final EIS to provide certainty both for this important project and our state’s energy industry,” North Dakota Senator John Hoeven said.
“Even Judge Boasberg could barely make sense of the latest spaghetti against the wall lawsuit seeking a shutdown of a vital part of our nation’s energy backbone. Today’s dismissal is a win for rationality and sanity. Thank you to the state of North Dakota and Energy Transfer, who have fought for years to put an end to this legal nonsense,” North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer said.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline has been operating safely for almost eight years now and is a critical piece of infrastructure for North Dakota and our nation’s energy security. We are pleased with the court’s decision, and we will continue pressing the Army Corps of Engineers to issue a final EIS that puts an end to this drawn-out matter once and for all,” North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said.
