Judge to consider completion of Dakota pipeline in February
WASHINGTON — A federal judge Friday set a tentative court hearing for February in the Dakota Access pipeline's bid to force the government to approve finishing the contested project.
Citing losses of $20 million a week, David Debold, an attorney for pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, said that without a expedited decision the matter could "drag out forever" after construction was halted Sunday by the Obama administration.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg acknowledged that the company's challenge could be rendered moot following next month's inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose incoming administration has expressed support for the fraught project, which for months has been shadowed by protests involving the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
Last weekend, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would not approve an easement for the pipeline to cross a reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota at the Standing Rock reservation, where protesters have been camped. The contested portion represents the final section of the 1,172-mile line.
"None of us have any idea of whether the incoming administration will make this matter moot,'' Boasberg told a packed courtroom, which included a number of protesters who traveled to D.C. for the hearing and a demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
"They are desperate to get this pipeline under the river,'' said DiDi Banerji, 51, who serves as a nurse at the protest camp. "We are worried about what a change in administration could do. If Trump approves this, the (protest) actions are going to start again.''