Chris White Tech Reporter July 06, 2020 12:21 PM ET
A federal judge Monday ordered the shut down of the Dakota Access Pipeline while federal regulators conduct a review of the multi-billion dollar pipeline.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and three other Native American tribes requested the shutdown, arguing that the pipeline harms the environment and tramples on tribal lands. North Dakota officials believe shuttering the pipeline could damage the state’s economy, which is highly dependent on gas and oil production.
The pipeline has been shipping North Dakota oil to Illinois for the past three years. President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders in 2017 advancing the construction of the pipeline, along with another oil project that former President Barack Obama scuttled in 2015.
Trump asked the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline to resubmit its application for a cross-border permit bringing oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. (RELATED: Here’s The Actual Text Of Trump’s Executive Orders On Keystone XL, Dakota Pipelines)
Obama argued that approving the pipeline would tarnish the U.S.’s image as a global warming crusader. He blocked the Dakota Access Pipeline in November 2016 shortly before leaving office for similar reasons.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing Standing Rock’s lawsuit, ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March to complete a full review. The pipeline’s future has been in limbo ever since, stuck between an activist-led lawsuit that threatens to disrupt the flow of oil and a presidential decree keeping the project online.
“Given the seriousness of the Corps’ … error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of oil must cease,” Boasberg wrote in his opinion Monday.
The judge acknowledged that the move “will cause significant disruption to DAPL, the North Dakota oil industry, and potentially other states.”
Boasberg is directing the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a thorough Environmental Impact Statement on the pipeline, which could take upward of 13 months to complete and is more time consuming than the Environmental Assessment the corp completed before the project was completed.
The Dakota Access Pipeline carries more than half-a million barrels of oil across the country, representing roughly 40% of North Dakota’s daily productive capacity before the pandemic resulted in an oil crunch and economic destruction, according to a Monday report from the Bismarck Tribune.
Supporters of the project lashed out at the judge Monday, with Grow America’s Infrastructure Now (GAIN) spokesman Craig Stevens hitting Boasberg’s decision to “side with environmental activists to shut in our nation’s critical natural resources.”
“While we are disappointed with the judge’s decision, the GAIN Coalition is hopeful that common sense will prevail and this decision will be stayed or overturned,” Stevens wrote in a press statement addressing the move. “We remain confident the Corps’ additional review will affirm its previous findings on DAPL.”
Activists and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe staged months of protests against Energy Transfer Partners, the company building Dakota Access, and law enforcement officials. The demonstrations gained celebrity support even while turning violent at times.
Progress: one step forward, two steps backward.
Couldn’t that pipeline operating be declared a National Security issue?
A nation dependant on other less friendly nations for their energy supplies is definitely a less secure nation
Obama strikes again. Judge Morris another Obama appointee, shuts down Keystone.
” “We remain confident the Corps’ additional review will affirm its previous findings on DAPL.””
So I find it hard to believe that the ACoE didn’t conduct the proper steps to build the pipeline across the river and according to the infrastructure group they did. This is what happens when judges have zero liability for anything they decide. They can outright lie and make decisions based on delusions.
Give it up. You guys arn’t getting a kickback.
You already screwed your local economy the first time and cost North Dakotans tens of millions to clean up the mess your rent-a-mob left in a flood plain.
Lawfare has more deadly weapons than the Norks … and has done far more damage
Another activist Obama appointed judge doing everything in his power in an attempt to make Trump look bad by damaging the economy. Agonizing. I’m sure Obama is having a proud full day. Absolutely nothing to do with the environment. No justice only politics.
Just like in Canada, enviro money is bribing aboriginal tribe “leaders”; most of these pipeline deals profit the tribes whose land they cross.
My expertise is energy and climate. 85% of global primary energy is fossil fuels, and that will not change for many decades to come.
Pipelines are the cheapest and most environmentally responsible method of moving oil. The judge is wrong and probably knows it.
In Canada, native tribes have been bribed by greens to oppose pipelines – it’s all about the money for them – it’s a huge scam. Probably the same in the USA.
The leftists are sabotaging the economy is the USA and Canada. The USA will be finished if the Marxist-Dems get elected – that will spell the end of freedom.
Yes, the degreee to which these people will go to unseat Trump is going to go down in history as treasonable. One notices that the judges have a guaranteed income; they will not be made unemployed by their rulings.
and therein lies the problem, judges simply do not have to answer for their decisions, along with almost all bureaucrats. Until we solve the problem of holding folks like this accountable we’ll never have a competent system.
Big green, socialist int’l, NGOs, have bought off so many politicians (especially at local level) and judges, bureaucrats that (as we have seen) simply changing the leadership at the top is not enough.
People have no idea how many of these tribal leaders have been paid by big green. This is not a native land issue or cultural sensitivity, it is straight up corruption, extortion, and bribery. There was a reason that Harper’s plan to audit indian reserves a few years ago raised up such a storm. It would have shown that there was an additional money trail tying it all together. Same things is happening in the US tribes. Indians leaders are paid off to enslave their tribes for big green, they are only going to end up much worse off because of it, along with us.
We are being subverted at every level.
A good start would be to insist that Congress pass no law that doesn’t also apply to them. an expansion could be some form of “responsibility for decision” law that does not exonerate those who make heinous decisions from their consequences.
Robert: Yes, this judge is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, he’ll be forced to pay 10% more for gasoline. That 10% will hurt the poor, but he doesn’t know any poor folk, so no worries there.
An Obama time appointee.
The Honorable James Boasberg,
Make us shut it down. Can you order up the National Guard? No? Maybe you can persuade President Trump to send in the National Guard. No? Oh well. We’ll proceed with business as usual and keep pumping oil. Meanwhile, refer to Arkell v. Pressdram for our response on this judicial order.
Sincerely,
Dakota Access Pipeline and the Citizens of North Dakota
Yes, up his! Ignore him.
Arkell vs. Pressdram, would be a perfect response by Dakota Access, (We are ignoring your order except to the extent that we are suing you) but too good to be true. Something has to be done to stop A single activist judge’s from, at a whim at anytime after the fact, setting aside any action by any agency for any reason. Government approved permits need to have the same sanctity as contracts. in the current lawless environment it’s no wonder Dominion Energy withdrew from the Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project. Faced with the threat of being shutdown years after going into operation makes the investment impossible. Exactly what the “sunshine and breezes” energy crowd wants to achieve.
That was always my question. What powers does he wield to enforce the decision?
How many environmental reviews have already been done on this pipeline? Common sense would dictate that the judge need only reference them, another review will only come to the same conclusion.
It has nothing to do with environment.
It was an Obama appointed judge. What a surprise, NOT.
Yes, Art.
The main point also being that if the Judge thing orders a review taking 15 months, then that is more than just a “flesh-wound” to the project. Anti nuclear protesters long ago learned that delay is almost as good as cancellation for projects with high up-front investment costs.
Let’s not be naïve about this: This judge knows it full well. His main achievement was to avoid laughing out loud in public before he got back to his chambers.
Incredibly, in Canada, our Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal against the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion approval. That’s the one the feds bought when Kinder Morgan basically gave up after fighting the activists for 13 years
https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/supreme-court-dismisses-indigenous-appeal-of-trans-mountain-pipeline-approval/wcm/32185b64-5ccb-4f51-9179-b437851c988a/
Construction is under way. It’s not out of the woods yet, but it does offer some hope that more of the so-called “dirty oil” from the Alberta oil sands could reach tidewater, and we could have some relief from south-of-the-border activists (including their friends on the judicial bench).
It was widely suspected that Trudeau hoped that Trans Mountain would be shut down after he bought it, but so far it looks as though he’s been hoist by his own petard (whatever the heck a petard is).
As I understand it, condensate from Alberta gas wells is mixed with the ultra-heavy oil so it can flow through pipelines. They call it “diluted bitumen” (dilbit for short).
I think petard is French for those dangly things under Trudeau’s skirt. I assume he has a pair, but I could be wrong.
Here’s a good explanation of petard:
This is expletive deletd nuts. How many times is this issue going to be revisted?
“Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and three other Native American tribes requested the shutdown, arguing that the pipeline harms the environment and tramples on tribal lands.”
What Tribal lands ? we beat them, they don’t have any Tribal lands … they lost the war … just like the South … winners rules …
Some good pipeline news.
The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected an attempt by two indian bands to stop the Trans Mountain Pipeline. link
commieBob,
That won’t stop the roadblocks and marches and grannies chained to bulldozers….actually they know the big federal government payday to avoid bringing in the army is coming….
“The Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise …” the Conservatives are going to select their new leader in August. link Right now, it looks like Peter MacKay. I have no idea how the Conservatives are going to handle that kind of crap but I do think they will either thwart the minority government Liberals’ attempts to give away the farm, or failing that, there could well be an election and the Conservatives could well win.
McKay is almost as soft as Trudeau. We desperately need a real conservative. The tide is going out on 60 years of worldwide Socialism and globalism. It’s very much time for a new approach. Shutdown the CBC and reform higher education for starters.
Yet another attempt to damage the economy along with COVID. TDS or OMB knows no bounds.
It doesn’t cross any Indian reservations. It follows another pipeline that has been in place for decades. This is ridiculous. The judge should be personally responsible for all monetary losses for pulling (fecal matter) like this.
So oil flowing through a pipeline is an environmental hazard compared to the same pipeline with oil not flowing!
Politics screws us again!
Send the oil by truck. Put lots of pollution in the air. That will show them. And it will drive up prices. Indian nations will end up paying more in the long run. Let them suffer for the corruption and stupidity of their leaders. They follow their hate and keep on suffering. Too bad. I feel sorry for the people and I wish they would give their corrupt leaders the punishment they deserve.
Over 200,000 acres on the Standing Rock Reservation and the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota were flooded by the Oahe Dam designed and approved by the Army Corps of Engineers. Now the man-made lake is sacred and must be protected.
Poverty remains a serious problem for the displaced populations of the Dakotas, who are still seeking compensation for the loss of homes submerged under Lake Oahe and impacts to their traditional ways of life.
And how do they get the $millions for lawyers to take these cases into Federal Courts while so many remain in poverty?
Gee, I don’t know. If only creative lawyers could come up with some way around the problem of legal costs for poor people.
We could even come up with a fancy name, like “contingency fees”, for this concept!
Shutting down USA oil production is a prime goal of the Putin’s Russia. That is why he supported Hillary – keeping the price of oil high is crucial to Russian foreign exchange income.
Some News Articles About Russia Interference
Russian Money Suspected Behind Fracking Protests, New York Times, NOV. 30, 2014
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/world/russian-money-suspected-behind-fracking-protests.html
Is Putin funding anti-fracking groups? Republicans think so — and so did Hillary Clinton
https://www.salon.com/2017/07/16/is-putin-funding-anti-fracking-groups-republicans-think-so-and-so-did-hillary-clinton/
These provocative images show Russian trolls sought to inflame debate over climate change, fracking and Dakota pipeline
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/03/01/congress-russians-trolls-sought-to-inflame-u-s-debate-on-climate-change-fracking-and-dakota-pipeline/
Intelligence: Putin Is Funding the Anti-Fracking Campaign
http://www.newsweek.com/intelligence-putin-funding-anti-fracking-campaign-547873
Time to Shine a Light on Putin’s American Propaganda Arm
http://www.newsweek.com/time-shine-light-putins-american-propaganda-arm-542642
Putin Is Funding Green Groups to Discredit Natural Gas Fracking
http://www.newsweek.com/putin-funding-green-groups-discredit-natural-gas-fracking-635052, Newsweek, 7/11/17
”The Sierra Club used the Chesapeake Energy money, donated mainly by the company’s chief executive from 2007 to 2010, for its Beyond Coal campaign to block new coal-fired power plants and shutter old ones..” New York Times, FEB. 13, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/earth/after-disclosure-of-sierra-clubs-gifts-from-gas-driller-a-roiling-debate.html
Russia’s Quiet War Against European Fracking, Foreign Policy, June 20, 2014
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/20/russias-quiet-war-against-european-fracking/
Gasland, Russia and Hysteria Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing, Ambassador Keith C. Smith (ret.) ,February 2014
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2014/0105/op/op02smith_frac.html
Russia in secret plot against fracking, Nato chief says, Telegraph, 19 Jun 2014
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jun/19/russia-secretly-working-with-environmentalists-to-oppose-fracking
Foreign Firm Funding U.S. Green Groups Tied to State-Owned Russian Oil Company Rosneft, owned by the Russian state, is the world’s largest oil company / AP Washington Free Beacon, January 27, 2015 5:00 am
http://freebeacon.com/issues/foreign-firm-funding-u-s-green-groups-tied-to-state-owned-russian-oil-company/
Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Allegations US Environmentalists May Have Secretly Taken Russian Cash
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/10/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-allegations-us-environmentalists-may-have-secretly-taken-russian-cash/
Russia in secret plot against fracking, Nato chief says–“Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Russia was mounting a sophisticated “disinformation campaign” aimed at undermining attempts to exploit alternative energy sources such as shale gas”,Telegrapph, 19 jun 2014 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/fracking/10911942/Russia-in-secret-plot-against-fracking-Nato-chief-says.html
Saudi Billionaire Prince: Fracking Competitively Threatens ‘Any Oil Producing Country in the World’ CNS News, January 6, 2014 – 5:35 PM
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/saudi-billionaire-prince-fracking-competitively-threatens-any-oil
Leaked emails show Hillary Clinton blaming Russians for funding ‘phony’ anti-fracking groups
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/10/clinton-blames-russians-anti-fracking-groups/
Russia’s Financial Support for Anti-Fracking Groups Is No Coincidence
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/07/anti-fracking-groups-russia-secret-funding-protects-kremlin-interests/
Lawmakers Cite Evidence Russia ‘Colludes’ With US Green Groups to Block Fracking
http://dailysignal.com/2017/07/10/lawmakers-cite-evidence-russia-colluded-with-u-s-green-groups-to-block-frackin/
Key Republicans call for probe to see if Russia funded anti-fracking groups, Washington Times, Sunday, July 9, 2017
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/9/lamar-smith-randy-weber-anti-fracking-groups-fundi/
Green Groups Go Red, Team With Putin To Fight Fracking
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/environmental-groups-take-russian-money-to-oppose-fracking/
Matt Damon’s Anti-Fracking Movie Financed by Oil-Rich Arab Nation
“Promised Land was also produced “in association with” Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, according to the preview’s list of credits. A spokesperson with DDA Public Relations, which runs PR for Participant Media, the company that developed the film fund backing Promised Land, confirmed that AD Media is a financier. The company is wholly owned by the government of the UAE.”
http://dailysignal.com/2012/09/28/matt-damons-anti-fracking-movie-financed-by-oil-rich-arab-nation/
The credits on Gasland say it partly financed by one of the Middle East oil producers.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2012/09/28/matt-damons-anti-fracking-movie-financed-by-oil-rich-arab-nation/
Stronger Law on Foreign Agents Eyed Amid Russia’s Links to Green Groups
http://dailysignal.com/2018/02/14/stronger-law-on-foreign-agents-eyed-amid-russian-links-to-green-groups/
Lamar Smith Claims Russians Are Backing Environmental Groups Attacking Fracking
https://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/06_29_2017%20CLS%20%26%20Weber%20-%20Mnuchin.pdf
Treasury Dept Asked To Investigate Reports That Russia Funneled Millions To US Environmental Groups
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/07/treasury-dept-asked-to-investigate-reports-that-russia-funneled-millions-to-us-environmental-groups/
Smith and Weber quote sources saying the Russian government has been colluding with environmental groups to circulate “disinformation” and “propaganda” aimed at undermining hydraulic fracturing. Commonly called fracking, the process makes it possible to access natural gas deposits.
http://dailysignal.com/2017/07/10/lawmakers-cite-evidence-russia-colluded-with-u-s-green-groups-to-block-frackin/
The Russian Collusion Story the Media Ignores – Russian funding of U.S. environmental groups shows how collusion is done.
https://spectator.org/the-russian-collusion-story-the-media-ignores/
U.S. Energy Markets: The Real Russian Meddling the Media Ignores – Still counting on the American left’s useful idiots.
https://spectator.org/u-s-energy-markets-the-real-russian-meddling-the-media-ignores/?
Hillary and Lamar: A Meeting of Minds on Russian Collusion – America’s anti-fracking enviros had a strange benefactor.
https://spectator.org/hillary-and-lamar-a-revealing-meeting-of-minds-on-russian-collusion/
The Centre for European Studies found that the Russian government has invested $95 million in NGOs campaigning against shale gas. Russia Today television ran endless anti-fracking stories, including one that “frackers are the moral equivalent of paedophiles”. The US Director of National Intelligence stated that “RT runs anti-fracking programming … reflective of the Russian Government’s concern about the impact of fracking and US natural gas production on the global energy market and the potential challenges to Gazprom’s profitability.” Pro-Russian politicians such as Lord Truscott (married to a Russian army colonel’s daughter) made speeches in parliament against fracking.
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/december-2019/the-plot-against-fracking/
That is really something I find weird with the US justice system. How is it that a judge whose jurisdiction is British Columbia is allowed to judge a case which concerns North Dakota, half a continent away? It really makes things so easy for opponents: they just have to pick and choose the right judge susceptible to decide in their favor among 94 district courts or 13 courts of appeals. It would certainly make sense to limit the competence of district courts to their own district.
Eh, the judge in question has nothing to do with British Columbia or any other Canadian jurisdiction. He’s in the District of Columbia court (IE Washington, D.C., you know where the federal government resides )
“oooh, that’s very different …… Never-mind ….”
Break out the trains and tanker cars…..so much safer (sarc).
When does Nordstream 3 get to America?
The courts, activists and an arbitrary primacy of environment are back in full view.
These days, laws only exist to make it possible for progressive, sophist lawyers to get rich pushing their agenda. Hopefully, I will die before the big crash finally happens. It won’t be fun. Maybe the fed up people will get bloody angry and go full French Revolution on the sophists who destroy our country.
Jim K, That’s an excellent case for explaining why Russia and Saudi Arabia oppose any domestic USA oil and gas investments. But, Putin and Saudi Prince’s aren’t in anyway responsible. It’s the “willfully uninformed American voters” that elect democrats. It is now abundantly clear that democrats (and a few RINO’s) support economy wrecking subsidy and mandate dependent wind and solar and republicans support affordable oil and gas. This hole we’ve dug ourselves into is entirely are own fault.
Makes the Duke and Dominion decision look prescient, doesn’t it. Now the oil will travel by train and truck. What a giant leap forward for public safety and the environment!
I am an AGW skeptic and likewise recognize the harms caused by many activist judges. Nonetheless I will offer a point of view overlooked by many.
The power to forcibly acquire private property is a prerogative of the state. It is commonly called the power of eminent domain or condemnation.
This extraordinary power is easily abused, yet in the case of pipelines is delegated to the pipeline companies. The checks on their power are state and federal regulatory agencies which must approve route selection and pipeline design and construction methods through discretionary approvals usually called “certificates of public convenience and necessity.”
The problem is that the regulatory agencies serve as rubber stamps. They will go through the motions of taking a hard look at environmental impacts and as well may tweak route selection, requiring that a pipeline be moved a little this way or that to avoid a wetland or historic structure, for example.
What is never addressed in an honest way is the greater good. Pipeline companies select routes for economic reasons. Usually, the greater good calls for pipelines following existing rights of way, such as railroads, interstate highways or even other pipelines. Rarely does one see this principle followed. Drive through rural areas and you will frequently see disfiguring rights of way criss-crossing most everywhere, even though many of them are not optimally sited.
Maybe DPAPL picked the best route. Maybe Judge Boasberg (a man I mistrust, btw) got it right for once. I don’t know the facts of this case. But there is a part of me which recalls past injustices wrought by greedy and two-faced developers, enabled by cowed and politically dominated regulatory agencies, and wonders if perhaps overreaching capitalists on a power grab for once got the rap on the knuckles that they deserve.
After all, you can’t hand over the power of government to corporations and not expect injustice. Do you support your government delegating regulatory power to corporations over your First Amendment, Second Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights? I don’t. We should be circumspect over the state’s delegation to the private sector of control over our due process and just compensation rights.
The DAPL route followed the pre-existing pipeline corridor in which the gas pipeline (which feeds the Standing Rock casinos) was laid in 1982. No “sacred sites” then, apparently.
The “water supply threat” was also completely bogus as a new $40 million dollar water system begun for Standing Rock in 2015 was already complete, the intake being moved 125km south from the Army Corp constructed Lake Oahe to the neighboring state, South Dakota. Most media coverage of the protest jamboree was total fantasy.
https://www.sayanythingblog.com/entry/dakota-access-pipeline-follows-existing-gas-line-protest-area/
Yea, Dave; we don’t need those greedy corporations. Place all development under the direct control of governmental entities. Any minor mistakes can be resolved in the next Five-Year Plan. Also, once we instal progressive governments we can get rid of those pesky contested elections.
Now, now, my observations were neither anti-corporate nor pro-big government, much less pro-communist. But two can play the exaggeration game. Are we to believe you support monopolies, monopsonies, thalidomide, methyl isocyanate clouds and allowing Jack Dorsey and Zuckerberg to decide all you hear and know? I think not. I, too, should not have been subjected to unfounded extrapolation.
Dave, Pipeline routing for the past few decades have been as you state “following existing rights of way” and that’s as it should be. DAPL is an example. The Missouri river crossing immediately upstream of The Indian Reservation follows an existing natural gas pipeline right of way. DAPL would have routed the crossing on the up river side of Bismarck, ND instead of the route down river from Bismarck. In consideration of all the factors involved the regulatory agencies collectively preferred the existing route. (In retrospect it may have been politically, but not environmentally, better to have routed the line North of Bismarck as doing so would have avoided again violating the frequently violated Laramie Treaty).
Pipelines, just like highways, can not economically be constructed without eminent domain authority. As a retired right of way manager I know from experience that pipeline companies go to extremes to avoid using the courts to acquire right of way. It’s more expensive, bad landowner relations, and horrible PR. (Note Oil lines and intrastate pipelines must use State courts while natural gas transmission lines are provided federal eminent domain authority). Your “can’t hand over power of the government to corporation…” and your “don’t know the facts of this case” are telling.
First, my compliments to your informed experience having shed light on the facts of DAPL. I do not doubt your account and thus my stated mistrust of Judge Boasberg is founded.
Your last sentence does chide me. In candor, I shared my lack of familiarity with the facts of how DAPL was sited. I have no reason to be embarassed about that. My point was based on principles with which you largely agree. In my state, in the northeast, I have seen eminent domain used extravagantly, for example, to enable a supermarket, to build tract housing, and the like. The common thread was developer influence, not economic development. A few decades ago I was involved with a natural gas pipeline dispute. None of the principles about utilizing existing rights of way were followed. I do believe there is a cultural difference, with rich liberal states being far more liberal about using eminent domain for projects with marginal economic development benefits.
In any event, I would like to think we largely agree on the subject and that we have both contributed to readers’ understanding about the important subject of what we should expect of our government in siting long, linear rights of way that rely upon eminent domain powers to be viable. Best wishes.
Part of a never-ending assault on a great nation– the USA!
I’m sick and tired of it–I’m voting for Trump just to stick my finger in the eye of these anti-American rabblerousers!!
I hope it hurts!
As an outside observer, being a Brit, I get the impression that the American legal system operates on a political roulette machine basis. Those that have the resources to load the wheel in their favour tend to win. Judges are the Joker in the pack having swum in this political environment for many years and their choice is paramount.
Meanwhile there is a great deal of money to be made, often at the expense of lesser mortals who often have greater wisdom.
Maybe I watch too much television!!
Executive Orders apparently cannot be undone without adequate process. Pipeline approvals should receive the same standard of logic.
Judge Boasberg should be told that turning off the pipeline cannot be done without adequate process (and that his opinion alone is not adequate to satisfy that process). Somebody needs to pay for an environmental assessment, showing that the “OFF” is safer than the “ON”. Those that brought the issue to the court should have to show that trucks & trains are safer than pipeline before allowing or requiring “OFF”.
“We cannot turn off the pipeline until we are shown that the outcome is not only safe, but SAFER”
Let the fracking bastards freeze in the dark!
Lets see what the appeals court says about a lower judge rescinding prior valid Federal permits for a currently operating facility, David.
They just hope to delay it to make it more expensive and maybe long enough for the next Dem president to stop it.
The Army Corps of Engineers should ask the judge who’s responsible for any environmental damage caused by the 48,000,000 pounds of garbage left by the protesters claiming to care for the environment.
Brian, that pile of garbage in completely 100% the full responsibility of one person. Barrack Obama. The pipeline was 100% approved and he personally had the Corps permit rescinded in catering to his “green” base , and oh boy did they respond in spades! We the people voted for that blight on the presidency and we’re still paying the price for that folly….and will continue to for decades as we suffer under the like minded judges he appointed. Sad.
Buffet strikes again. He funded the Canadian protests and he’s funding Standing rock. Note that 25% of the oil in DAPL comes from Indians. Just look at the map of the Bakken and you can see their reservation. With Google Earth you can see all the oil wells on their land.
Anyhow, once the pipeline is shutdown Buffet will get to run his death trains again.
JamesD, spot on. The Fort Berthold Indians love Bakken crude for the $millions every year from royalty payments. Hundreds of oil wells extending under the flooded Missouri River. Standing Rock Indians don’t have any oil production, much to their chagrin I’m sure, hence the BS about the environment. Follow the money.
JamesD, spot on. The Fort Berthold Indians love Bakken crude for the $millions every year from royalty payments. Hundreds of oil wells extending under the flooded Missouri River. Standing Rock Indians don’t have any oil production, much to their chagrin I’m sure, hence the BS about the environment. Follow the money.