Iowa regulators are under pressure to stop a proposed oil pipeline through the state and three other states. It is the Dakota Access pipeline, a 1,150-mile long project pushed by a Texas company that planned to start construction this week in the Bakken oil fields in northwest North Dakota. The pipeline is to stretch through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
But Iowa regulators are being urged to stop the project. The Dakota Access company said it needs to lay pipe starting Tuesday in order to finish before winter. It plans some of the construction this week in Illinois.
Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company, filed a request last week with the Iowa Utilities Board to begin construction but not decision has been made to allow work to get underway.
The Sierra Club is fighting the project and made a filing with the Iowa Utilities Board stating that the board should remain firm to withhold construction approval until all permits are approved. The filing came after Ed Fallon, director Bold Iowa, another group fighting the pipeline made the claim that Dakota Access has started bullying the Iowa board to relent and allow the start of construction.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is involved too and it was recently notified by the Interior Department that its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act were not met. The Interior Department maintains that more study is required into the impact on the endangered Dakota skipper butterfly. At the same time, the Corps has been threatened with a lawsuit by the North Dakota-based Standing rock Sioux Tribe.