Federal court closes Dakota Access case, but allows for fresh challenges

Reuters

Published Jun 22, 2021 06:54PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. district court closed a long-running case against the Dakota Access oil pipeline on Tuesday, but allowed for Native American tribes and other opponents of the line to file additional actions against it, court documents showed.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in May denied a request by the Standing Rock Sioux and other adversaries of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to shut the pipeline, saying the tribes had failed to prove the line's continued operation would cause irreversible harm.

The decision allowed the 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline out of North Dakota's Bakken shale basin to continue operating at least until an environmental review of the line is completed, a process that is expected to take until March 2022.