Pipeline company seeks permission to proceed with plan

Associated Press

CANNON BALL, N.D.

The company building a $3.8 billion oil pipeline sought a federal judge’s permission Tuesday to circumvent President Barack Obama’s administration and move ahead with a disputed section of the project in North Dakota, as opponents protested across the country urging it to be rejected.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and a subsidiary asked the court to let them lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir, a plan the Standing Rock Sioux says threatens its drinking water and cultural sites. The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday it needs more time to study the impact of the plan.

While President-elect Donald Trump, a pipeline supporter, likely would greenlight the project when he takes office in January, the company is trying to win federal approval – or a court order – to allow it to go forward now. The delay has cost nearly $100 million, the company said, “and further delay in the consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more each month in costs which cannot be recovered.”

Tuesday, the company blamed the Obama administration for “political interference” in the pipeline review process.

Protests took place Tuesday across the country. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental attorney and president of the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to protect watersheds worldwide, visited the camp near Mandan, N.D., on Tuesday, speaking out against the arrests of protesters.