Dakota Access Pipeline Builders Threaten To Continue Construction After Gov’t Refuses Key Permit

Energy Transfer Partners, the builder behind the Dakota Access pipeline, vows to continue construction under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump. ‘Nothing [the Obama administration] has done today changes that in any way,’ according to a Sunday statement.

By Kit O'Connell  @KitOConnell and
Derrick Broze | December 5, 2016

STANDING ROCK RESERVATION, North Dakota — Native American opponents 

of the Dakota Access pipeline and their allies celebrated after the Army Corps of 

Engineers denied a key permit to the pipeline builder on Sunday.

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Citing concerns raised by the leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux nation that the pipeline 

would endanger tribal sovereignty and limit access to fresh water in the event of a 

spill, the Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder,

 a permit to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

“Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the

 Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it’s clear that there’s more work to do,” 

Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, said a statement issued 

on Sunday.

“The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore

 alternate routes for the pipeline crossing.”

Alternate routes will be considered based on a new environmental impact 

statement that will include input from the public and the tribe, Darcy added.

Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, one of several corporate

 partners in the pipeline’s construction, rejected the Army’s decision in a sharply critical

 press release published on Business Wire on Sunday night.

“This is nothing new from this Administration, since over the last four months 

the Administration has demonstrated by its action and inaction that it intended

 to delay a decision in this matter until President Obama is out of office,”

 the statement read.

Dismissing the Army’s “further delay” as a “transparent political action,” the 

companies vowed to continue construction on the same route under the

 incoming administration. “Nothing this Administration has done today 

changes that in any way.”

Antonia Juhasz, a journalist specializing in oil news, tweeted that the statement is an

attempt by the pipeline builders to placate investors in the face of a decision that

 significantly increases their financial risk.

contd 

http://www.mintpressnews.com/dakota-access-pipeline-builders-threaten-to-continue-construction-after-govt-refuses-key-permit/222870/