Taboo, center, and Native American musicians raise their fists
in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline as they arrive at the
MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in
Inglewood, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — American Indian tribes hoping to
persuade a federal judge to turn off the Dakota Access oil
pipeline maintain in last-minute court filings that the
project's developer has overstated the potential impacts of a
shutdown.
Standing Rock Sioux attorney Jan Hasselman and Cheyenne River
Sioux attorney Nicole Ducheneaux also argue that Texas-based
Energy Transfer Partners brought potential problems on itself by
forging ahead with construction despite the uncertainty of final
federal approval.
ETP "made reckless choices, and it must accept the
consequences," the attorneys wrote in documents filed Monday,
the deadline for arguments imposed by U.S. District Judge James
Boasberg in Washington, D.C.
The $3.8 billion pipeline began moving North Dakota oil
through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois on June 1, after
President Donald Trump pushed for its completion. The Army Corps
of Engineers, which permitted the project, had decided to do
more environmental study, but dropped that plan after Trump took
office.
The judge ruled in June that the Corps didn't adequately
consider how an oil spill under Lake Oahe in the Dakotas might
affect the Standing Rock Sioux, one of four tribes that have
challenged the pipeline in court. He ordered the Corps to
reconsider certain areas of its environmental analysis, and
could decide to shut down the 1,200-mile pipeline while this
work is done over the next several months.
ETP has maintained in court documents that a shutdown would
cost it $90 million monthly, and significantly disrupt the
broader energy industry as well as state and local government
tax revenue.
"There is no legitimate basis for arguing that suspending
DAPL will cause havoc," Hasselman and Ducheneaux wrote.
"Suspension of DAPL undoubtedly will have some impacts, but they
will be more modest and manageable than DAPL contends."
Company spokeswoman Vicki Granado on Monday declined comment,
citing the ongoing litigation.
Some energy trade groups including The American Petroleum
Institute, which the judge on Monday granted a say in the
dispute, said a shutdown "would result in substantial financial
loss and uncertainty for upstream producers, shippers,
downstream refiners, manufacturers, retailers and consumers."
The amount of oil being shipped through the pipeline each day
is worth more than $20 million, and "if DAPL were to be taken
out of service for even six months, the direct financial impact
of the stalled crude deliveries would be staggering," attorney
David Coburn wrote.
The tribal attorneys question the seriousness of a shutdown
impact, noting that the pipeline has been operating only a short
time but that Energy Transfer Partners "claimed that the oil
industry is already dependent on its continued operation."
"One can only imagine the arguments that DAPL would try to
make if operations continued for an extended period," they said.
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http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Tribes-say-Dakota-Access-pipeline-overstates-12159107.php