Federal judge orders Dakota Access Pipeline shut down

[Dennis Donovan]

Source: Bismarck Tribune

A federal judge has ordered the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline while a lengthy environmental review is conducted of the project opposed by environmentalists and American Indian tribes.

The move was requested earlier by four Sioux tribes in the Dakotas who fear environmental harm from the pipeline and sued over the project four years ago. North Dakota officials have said such a move would have "significant disruptive consequences" for the state, whose oil patch has been hit hard in recent months by falling demand for crude amid the coronavirus pandemic, as well as a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The $3.8 billion pipeline built by Energy Transfer subsidiary Dakota Access LLC has been moving North Dakota oil to a shipping point in Illinois for three years. But U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing the lawsuit, in March ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement. The question of whether the pipeline would be shut down in the meantime has lingered since.

An EIS is a much more stringent review than the Environmental Assessment the Corps completed earlier. Such a study can take up to two years to complete, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.



Read more: https://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/federal-judge-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-shut-down/article_2cc387a3-f003-5557-b356-4063123a62ad.html

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(on edit: changed source from trade publication to newspaper)

Link to tweet

[Bayard]

1. YAY!!

This is indeed good news to start the morning!

[True Blue American]

2. The Atlantic pipeline

Was just shut down, too.Major problems.

[lunasun]

3. Thanks for some good news

[rdking647]

4. i expect this will be overturned on appeal quickly

and if its not I have a coupe of questions

1) DAPL ships 40% of the oil from north dakota. the shutdown will have a huge impact on ND and other states. what do you say to the poepl who lose their jobs.

2) we need piplines. like it or not we are still tied to oil and gas for energy. If we cant ship the fuel that could lead to shortages. i know in new york people are having trouble getting new gas hookups since theres a shortage of gas supply pipelines

3) what do you replace nat gas with for things like heating in winter. heating with electricity is MUCH more expensive than nat gas. 3x as expensive. and if you switch to electric you still need fossil fuels ot produce it. nat gas or coal are 60% of us electric production

[2naSalit]

5. This is not an NG pipeline...

this is shit oil that should stay in the ground. There is a current glut of oil right now and no place to store the shit. Different commodity than you are thinking about.

[rdking647]

6. im aware tha DAPL is oil

but between this order and the atlantic coast pipeline being abandoned due to opposition there is a war on pipelines.

theres an oil glut right now but that is going to quickly diminish (a matter of month to a year).
we still need oil. that just a fact of life. how much are you willing to pay for gasoline. thats the real question. oil right now is $40 a barrel. at that price US production will crater leading to a big spike in prices. gas which is now $2 or so a gallon will probably spike to closer to $3 in 9-12 months especially as demand picks up.

[2naSalit]

7. Well...

Considering that prior to the glut I was already paying $3.20/gal... ?

We need to wean ourselves off of the stuff, much like crack, there will be vehement opposition.

[Ford_Prefect]

8. What you missed is that this pipeline along with others was not built safely, nor in compliance with

established environmental rules. We cannot presently operate without pipelines but that is no reason to allow bad ones to operate nor to build new ones improperly either as to function or to location.

The oil patch boom in ND is entirely based on Fracking and will run its course in 5 years or so. After a certain point, it becomes much more expensive and difficult to get the oil out of the existing wells. More chemicals and steam need to be pumped into the earth to release it.

[rdking647]

10. i disagree its not a safe pipeline

a company has no real incentive to build an unsafe pipeline.

if the pipeline ruptures the damage claims would cost the company multiple times whatever extra cost there is to building it properly

[Ford_Prefect]

11. Past performance of the company running it and the suit itself state otherwise.

Oil companies figured out long ago that it was much more cost-effective to defend a failure of any scale. They have been ruthless in exploiting any opportunity. They make far more money per minute, even at today's prices, than you can imagine.

You underestimate the savings to the company on build costs and how effectively it can distance itself from any liability versus earnings and depreciation. This is also about how the route of the pipeline was determined.
You cannot replace a poisoned aquafer with cash, nor can you un-pollute the soil and what grows there. Nor can you replace sacred lands with other property, or cash.

[bluestarone]

13. YOU are sooo WRONG

This pipeline is total BULLSHIT!!!

[Yeehah]

9. The ACP concept was an unmitigated nightmare

The opponents are the good guys.

Dominion's ultimate plan was to EXPORT natural gas. All the "energy needs of the Southeast" is a bunch of bullshit. Just like the Ruby pipeline out West -- the developers screeched "energy needs of the Northwest" and after the pipeline was in the ground, applied for export. Dominion was playing the same game.

There is no need for TWO gigantic natural gas pipelines serving the Southeast. The Mountain Valley pipeline project, which seems to me less environmentally hazardous, is moving forward.

[rdking647]

14. wood mackenzie an independent enery consultant disagrees

they said the real losers from the cancellation would be power consumers in the U.S. Southeast, including units of Duke, Dominion and Southern Co that will need to find other gas supplies to fuel the region's coal-to-gas switching efforts.

[Yeehah]

16. That's nice

A lot of other smart people disagree.

[rdking647]

17. which would you rather use for fueling power plants coal or nat gas

and im not talking about in the future. i mean in the year or 2

[Yeehah]

18. LOL! Because those are the only two choices.

Are you unaware the Mountain Valley pipeline is under construction?

The southeast will have all the nat gas they need w/o the ACP.

[StarryNite]

12. Finally some good news!

[rdking647]

15. energy prices in the midwest are goign to rise

“There could be a big problem in the Chicago market,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar in Austin, Texas.

“Refiners having to pay more because they’re scrambling to find crude will translate into higher products prices.”


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-energy-transfer-refiners-idUSKBN2472X5