A federal appeals court has not indicated when it might issue a ruling after listening to arguments for and against the nearly $4 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline being fought by environmentalists and members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. Some of the environmentalists and opponents include Oklahomans who traveled to North Dakota to join in the protests.
The three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit fired some tough questions Wednesday at opponents who want to continue a temporary stop in place. The hearing came after they had already stopped work for 20 miles either side of the Missouri River at Lake Oahe while the tribe appealed a lower-court ruling from September that allowed work on the four-state pipeline to continue.
Government agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decidd last month they would not allow construction on government land bordering or under Lake Oahe until they re-evaluated their own decisions to originally approve the project.
Tribal leaders, led by Dave Archambault, chairman of the Standing rock Sioux Tribe contend the pipeline will lead to pollution and also harm their sacred lands.
But the judges had some pointed questions. The Associated Press reports Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard sought clearer answers about the required consultation the government did with the tribe and the boundaries of where the tribe wants work stopped.
“If we’re going to issue an injunction we need to say where it stops,” said the judge who told the tribal lawyer she was “flummoxed” trying to understand his argument.
Judge Janice Rogers Brown suggested the tribe should have filed its underlying lawsuit before July. Another judge, Thomas B. Griffith asked why the pipeline company, Dakota Access, wouldn’t stop work near the lake before seeing whether they get the government’s permission to continue construction on government land.
“It looks like you’re forcing their hand,” said Judge Griffith.