Judge's order to empty Dakota Access pipeline is latest reversal of efforts to expand U.S. energy infrastructure

Wikimedia Commons map, labeled by The Rural Blog

In the latest and perhaps most surprising setback for pipelines, a federal judge has ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to be emptied while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducts "a more thorough analysis of how a leak . . .could affect Lake Oahe, which collects water from the Missouri River and lies half a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation," The Washington Post reports.

The pipeline opened in 2017 and "carries about half a million barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin across 1,100 miles to Illinois," the Post notes. "Several tribes, including the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux, first challenged the pipeline in 2016. While the Obama administration slowed the pipeline’s development as it consulted with the tribes, Trump expedited its construction immediately after taking office."

Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, "who has led the legal battle on behalf of the Standing Rock Sioux, said in an interview, 'I can’t think of another example where a major piece of infrastructure was shut down after being in operation a couple of years'," the Post reports. "Energy Transfer Partners, which owns the largest stake in the Dakota Access line, called the court order 'an ill-thought-out decision' and said it would immediately seek a stay so that oil could continue to flow. If the stay is not granted, company officials said, they will file an expedited appeal."

The ruling and other recent "reversals demonstrate both the enduring power of environmental laws that the Trump administration has been trying to weaken and the tenacity of environmental, tribal and community activists who have battled the projects on forested land and in federal courtrooms," the Post reports. "An April decision by a federal judge in Montana dealt a blow to the Keystone XL pipeline," and "Monday the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s petition to lift the stay."