| DAKOTA ACCESS KEEPS MOVING FORWARD: A federal judge on Monday denied a tribe’s request to immediately halt construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
The Cheyenne River Sioux tribe of South Dakota says allowing an oil pipeline to run underneath Lake Oahe on the Missouri River would tarnish the lake’s sacred status with the tribe.
The tribe asked federal judge James Boasberg to freeze construction on the segment of the pipeline that runs under the lake, but he denied the request on Monday, saying there is no threat to the lake’s water during the construction phase, before oil runs through it.
Boasberg vowed to rule on the tribe’s religious challenge to Dakota Access before oil begins pumping through the pipeline. He set a hearing on the matter for later this month.
“If you are worried it’s going to flow before I rule on the injunction, that’s not going to happen,” he told the tribe’s lawyers.
Also Monday, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said it would ask Boasberg to formally rule on the validity of the pipeline’s permitting process.
To this point, Dakota Access opponents have sought to delay construction of the project, but Standing Rock lawyer Jan Hasselman said the judge should rule on whether the project itself is even valid under federal environmental laws.
“Construction has started, we are going to try to get these issues resolved before oil can flow, and so we’re moving very aggressively to put the legal questions in front of the judge and get a determination as soon as we can,” Hasselman told reporters after the hearing.
Boasberg said a decision on that question could come after the pipeline is built and begins operation.
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