ICYMI: Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines stalled in courts
by Allison Phillips
In March and April of 2020, amidst the uncertainty and turmoil of COVID-19, there was triumph. Rulings on two separate cases altered the fates of the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines.
Figure 1: Map of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The orange polygon is the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe reservation.
Led by Energy Transfer Partners, the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was initially announced in June of 2014 with the intention to carry oil from northwest North Dakota to south-central Illinois. It began commercial operation in June of 2017, but during the intermittent years of construction, the pipeline faced heavy backlash from environmental groups and indigenous communities, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe whose reservation is adjacent to the pipeline (Figure 1).
The Keystone XL pipeline has faced similar resistance throughout its existence. TC Energy completed the first phase of the pipeline in 2010 with plans of additional phases to ultimately connect Alberta, CA, to refineries in both Illinois and Texas (Figure 2). Phase 4, the most recent proposal, has really caught the eye of environmentalists and has faced heavy backlash in recent years. Concerns over spills in Nebraska and the proximity to multiple indigenous reservations have been heard in protests across the country. The Obama administration blocked the plans to complete the pipeline in November 2015, only to be quickly overturned by President Trump in March 2017, where he issued a permit for the pipeline to be expedited The pipeline began operating in June of that year. Through it all, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental groups have repeatedly brought the pipeline to court over the rushed permitting process.
Figure 2: Map of the Keystone XL Pipeline and its construction phases.
On March 25, 2020, in a case between the U.S. Corps of Engineers and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, a federal court ruled that the DAPL and Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in three ways, including the inadequate analysis of 1) the effects the “human environment”, 2) the impact of an oil spill on indigenous land, and 3) “whether Standing Rock would be disproportionately harmed by a spill”. The Corps must now produce an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) which analyzes and prepares for the impacts that the pipeline could have. This could take months, maybe even years. There will be another decision determining whether or not the pipeline will stay operational while the statement is being prepared.
On April 15, 2020, a federal judge canceled an important permit for the Keystone XL pipeline due to the failure of the U.S. Corps of Engineers to analyze the effects that the pipeline would have on endangered species, such as the pallid sturgeon -- listed in 1990, this species resides in rivers that the pipeline plans to cross. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Plains Resource Council, Bold Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in July of 2019 that led to this hearing. Though the pipeline continues to be constructed, these groups, along with indigenous communities, hope that without the permit the project will be halted when it reaches waterways.
Through small victories in decade-long battles, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, indigenous peoples across the Western United States, environmental groups, and everyday citizens are celebrating the successful stallings of the pipelines.