Stick that in your peace pipe and smoke it.
The Dakota Access Pipeline should be approved and President-elect Donald Trump will review the decision to deny a permit for the project once it takes office, a spokesman for Trump’s transition team said.
After weeks of protests from Native Americans and environmental activists, the Army Corps of Engineers announced Sunday that it was denying Energy Transfer Partners LP approval to build a section of the project under Lake Oahe in North Dakota, and said the agency would begin a lengthy environmental review to determine whether the pipeline route should be changed.
The pipeline “is something we support construction of, and we will review the situation when we are in the White House to make the appropriate determination at that time,” Jason Miller, the transition spokesman, told reporters Monday.
Trump has pledged to overhaul the nation’s energy policy in a way that favors energy companies, and a reversal of the pipeline decision would fulfill that pledge. He has also said he will find a way to reverse the Obama administration’s rejection of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline.
Easement Issuance
The Trump administration can probably overturn the Corps’ decision in Dakota and issue the required easement soon after taking power, Elvira Scotto, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said in a note Sunday night.
Congress, too, may get involved. Asked Monday if lawmakers will challenge the Army Corps decision, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “I think we’ll get a new administration, we’ll get new eyes, and there’s always a possibility.”
Protests against the crude-oil pipeline have resulted in hundreds of arrests and drawn support from celebrities. But Trump has pledged quicker approval of pipeline projects, saying its key to unleashing more oil and natural gas production in the U.S.
The standoff over the Dakota Access pipeline is emblematic of a broader effort by environmentalists to stall those pipelines, which they say hurt the nation’s progress in reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. Protesters who have camped for months in North Dakota had been told the area would be closed on Monday and they would have to move to designated protest zones.