Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. REUTERS/Andrew Cullen
(Washington, DC) — The federal government is stopping construction of the controversial oil pipeline that has spurred months of protests in North Dakota.
The Army Corps of Engineers will not approve an easement that would allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have been leading protests, claiming the pipeline would endanger water resources and sacred Native-American sites.
The company building the pipeline says the decision is a “purely political action.”
Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, in a joint statement with Pennsylvania-based Sunoco Logistics Partners, says it fully expects to complete construction without any rerouting.
It did not say how that would be accomplished.
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