Court cancels shutdown of Dakota Access Pipeline

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday reversed a lower court’s determination that the Dakota Access Pipeline should be temporarily shut down. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg had ordered the pipeline to be shut down last month while the Army Corps of Engineers works to prepare an environmental impact statement for a rule relaxation that allowed it to cross the Missouri river. However, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday that the lower court did not have the “findings necessary” for such a move. Still, Wednesday's ruling was not entirely a win for backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline, with the appeals court declining to halt a prior ruling saying the Army Corps of Engineers needed to conduct another environmental impacts assessment. Last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the pipeline to be temporarily shut down while the Army Corps. of Engineers conducts the additional assessment. That followed a prior ruling in which Boasberg determined that a previous environmental assessment was inadequate...MORE