The Dakota Access Pipeline, has shipped oil from North Dakota to Illinois for nearly four years, but has been operating without a valid federal easement since last summer when district court Judge James E. Boasberg invalidated the prior authorization for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) after a lawsuit by environmental activist group Earthjustice who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Tribe. That means the project is technically encroaching on federal property as it crosses the Missouri River in North Dakota.

Boasberg already ordered the pipeline to stop operating once, but the D.C. Circuit overruled the lower court’s decision and kept the pipeline operational, stating that the lower court judge had ignored Supreme Court precedent that injunctions aren’t always appropriate in cases of NEPA violations.

Despite its open hostility to domestic energy production in general and pipelines in particular, the Biden administration announced last Friday that it won’t take action against the oil pipeline “at this time,” but left open the possibility of a future shutdown. The district court is now weighing the Indian Tribe and environmental activist’s latest request for a court-ordered shutdown.

Read the whole article HERE.

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