When the surveys revealed previously unidentified resources, the company changed the route on its own 140 times in North Dakota alone to avoid them, the judge said, and the corps ordered the company to change the route where it crossed the James River to avoid burial sites there.
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The US federal government has temporarily halted a controversial oil pipeline in North Dakota, moments after a judge approved the project.
Dakota Access says no sacred sites were destroyed and claims that six of the sites identified by the tribe were directly over the existing Northern Border natural gas pipeline and “could not possibly be original artifacts”. Shares of that company’s stock fell 3.6 percent on Friday, sliding after the Justice Department’s statement.
On Friday, following ongoing protests from environmentalists and Native American tribes, the U.S. Justice Department asked operators of the Dakota Access pipeline to suspend construction along a 40-mile (64 km) stretch in North Dakota, just minutes after a U.S. district court said construction could resume.
“In the short term, it’s gonna be a more consideration of the consultation process and then following that it’s up to the tribe to decide whether the camp is still necessary or not”.
“Important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain”, the statement said. Stein had been photographed while spray-painting construction equipment when she joined the Native Americans in their protests against the $3.8 billion pipeline earlier this week.
On Friday, the tribe called the intervention by the Obama administration “stunning”, saying it set the stage for nationwide reform.
Wilson, a Choctaw Indian, said the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest movement has been growing since April.
“The tribes’ attempts to stop construction have been denied”, the Red Warrior Camp said in a Facebook statement, immediately after the judge’s ruling. He said it has gained momentum largely due to social media, which is the way many Americans have learned about the tribal resistance to the pipeline proposal.
Almost 40 people have been arrested since the protest began in April, including tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, though none stemmed from Saturday’s confrontation between protesters and construction workers.
This pause is only a temporary respite, and Judge Boesberg believes that the “tribe has not demonstrated that the injunction is warranted here”.
At its peak, Dakota Access would transport about half of the oil that North Dakota produces per day, or around 570,000 barrels per day. The state’s Private Investigation and Security Board received complaints about the use of dogs and will look into whether the private security personnel at the site are properly registered and licensed, board attorney Monte Rogneby said Friday, adding that he would not name the firms. Energy Transfer Partners denied the allegations.
Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners that is building the pipeline, declined to comment.
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In Bismarck, North Dakota’s capital, hundreds of protesters celebrated. Shippers with long-term contracts have already started buying the oil for delivery later this year – known as line fill – ahead of the expected startup, according to a source familiar with pipeline operations.
