“We certainly hoped for a ruling today”, said Jahn Hasselman, an attorney with EarthJustice, representing the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who is suing federal regulators for approving permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline that will move oil from North Dakota to IL.
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U.S. District Judge James Boasberg listened to arguments and said he’d rule next month.
Board members said they rejected the request because they think the landowners’ lawsuit is unlikely to succeed, and because any lengthy delay in the project may cause “substantial harm” to Dakota Access, the Texas-based company building the pipeline.
In a letter to Obama on Thursday, 31 green groups said the White House should deny and revoke the permits necessary to build the Dakota Access pipeline, a 1,168-mile project that would carry 450,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to IL. The Standing Rock tribe fears a leak could contaminate their drinking water, which comes from the Missouri River. “They were just taken from us”, he said.
A Dakota Access spokeswoman said earlier this week that the company has “temporarily deferred grading activities” across a short section of the right-of-way, while “law enforcement works to contain the unlawful protests”. “When it gets into the water supply and that water supply leaves the reservations, eventually it gets into the water supply of everyone”.
Pipeline developers last week agreed to pause construction until the decision.
“This is a very serious issue and it’s one that can be challenged in a number of different ways”, said Houska, one of several attorneys at the camp Thursday. North Dakota authorities-who are in essence a subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry-have insisted that the Sioux are violent, that they have “pipe bombs”. She previously said that the agency’s review of the pipeline found “no significant impacts to the environment or historic properties”.
“Divergent” actress Shailene Woodley was part of the protests last week, and actress Susan Sarandon was at Wednesday’s federal hearing. “I join with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many tribal nations fighting this risky pipeline”. “Come stand with those gathered here to see just how peaceful, unifying, and attractive this movement is. if this pipeline breaks, it will effect EIGHTEEN MILLION PEOPLE who depend on the Missouri River for drinking water. check yo’self. this is about protecting ALL water.do you depend on the Missouri for drinking water? look it up. chances are a lot of you do, and just don’t know it. united, we will win”.
“We want to make sure that things are handled peaceably”, she said.
The three-member board voted Thursday afternoon against a lengthy stay of construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on parcels of 14 landowners while a court considers a lawsuit they’ve filed.
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“As (the district court judge) pointed out, the only emergency is of their making”.
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