Dakota Access Pipeline Decision May Come by Week’s End
- Justice Department updates judge on timeline at hearing
- President Trump ordered Army Corps to speed up review
Winter has arrived in Standing Rock at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in North Dakota, the day after the Army Corps of Engineers denied the easement needed to build the pipeline. Despite driving snow and 40-plus mile an hour wind a group of 700-plus veterans and water protectors marched toward the barricade on highway 1806.
Photographer: Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe U.S. Army may decide by week’s end whether to approve construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline across North Dakota’s Lake Oahe and lands claimed sacred by Sioux Indian tribes.
Justice Department lawyer Matthew Marinelli outlined the planned timeline for the Army’s decision to a federal judge in Washington hearing a three-way dispute over the planned path of the Energy Transfer Partners LP-led project. Marinelli didn’t say which way the decision might go.