Feds deny easement for Dakota Access Pipeline

Activists celebrate at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 4, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota, after hearing that the Army Corps of Engine

(Image credit: Getty Images)

last updated 5 December 2016

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday announced it will not grant an easement permitting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline under North Dakota's Lake Oahe, the Missouri River reservoir which has led to months of protests organized by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

"Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it's clear that there's more work to do," said Army Assistant Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy. "The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."

The federal government also ordered the protesters to leave their main camp by Monday, though authorities do not plan to forcibly remove the protesters if they refuse to go voluntarily. The Corps will now conduct an environmental impact review to determine if the proposed pipeline can be rerouted so it does not cross the Missouri. Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the oil pipeline, did not immediately comment on the news.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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