The U.S. Supreme Court says it won’t hear the appeal of Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline stemming from a lawsuit.
Dakota Access had appealed a lower court ruling which said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had to carry out more environmental reviews of the impact of the line. The Corps had issued an easement for the line’s Missouri River crossing in 2017.
But in 2020, a federal judge ruled an environmental analysis of the line was inadequate and revoked the permit. The new environmental review started in the fall of 2020 and could determine if the Corps will reissue the permit.
The lawsuit was brought five years ago by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe which contends a pipeline break and oil spill would ruin its water supply. The line passes under the Missouri River upstream from the tribal reservation.
In rejecting the appeal, the justices did not offer an explanation according to the Associated Press.
