Energy Transfer Partners, the developer behind the so-called DAPL, is scheduled to start delivering oil on May 14 to Illinois, according to filings from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The oil project is expected to transport more than 500,000 barrels of oil a year across the eastern section of the country.
The $3.8 billion pipeline drew the ire of protesters and local Native American tribes such as the Standing Rock Sioux, whose members sued to block completion of a small section of the line near the reservation. Activists believe the pipeline’s construction trampled on tribal lands and could poison the tribe’s waterways, including rivers such as the Missouri River and Lake Oahe.
The Obama administration rejected the previously approved pipeline last December through the Army Corps of Engineers. Former President Barack Obama argued at the time that the route needed further environmental reviews and assessments before construction could proceed.
President Donald Trump eventually issued orders approving the DAPL in January, resulting in a cascade of lawsuits by tribes suggesting the president violated federal law by denying proper review of environmental and religious rights issues surrounding the $3.8 billion pipeline.
Members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe saw their final attempt at scuttling the project thwarted in March when Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court said that forcibly preventing oil from coursing through the pipeline would run against public interest. His decision effectively left the anti-DAPL movement in shambles.
Boasberg ruled that the court “acknowledges that the tribe is likely to suffer irreparable harm to its members’ religious exercise if oil is introduced into the pipeline, but Dakota Access would also be substantially harmed by an injunction, given the financial and logistical injuries that would ensue.”
The shale oil from North Dakota is very light, as volatile as gasoline. A train load of it went off the rails in Quebec and killed more than 50 people. It’s no threat to anyone, especially in a new x-rayed pipe. Pipelines don’t kill people, unless you’re a Nigerian with a drill and cigarette filling a jerry can.
don’t give ’em any ideas
Lets hope the price for gasoline drops and the eco-wackos who left the big mess be made to clean it all up or make them clean up after one of their silly Earthday Celebrations
One step closer to true North American energy independence. This is the REAL threat to eco-leftists. They actually WANT the United States and Canada to be prostrate on their knees before the world when it comes to the life blood of any economy – energy.
Socialists sell failure to those they cannot control. We should not be buying.