Oil will continue to flow through the Dakota Access Pipeline through the summer while authorities conduct additional review of the environmental impact, after a judge on Wednesday ordered more hearings in coming months. Last week, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in Washington ruled in favor of Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, who said more environmental analysis of the Dakota Access line should have been carried out.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has denied an easement for the highly controversial $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline project, the subject of months of protest by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which contends the project would affect its drinking water supply and destroy its sacred sites. In a statement Sunday, the Corps of Engineers said it would be undertaking an environmental impact study to look at possible alternative routes for the project.
More than 2,000 U.S. military veterans plan to form a human shield to protect protesters of a pipeline project near a Native American reservation in North Dakota, organizers said. Meanwhile, North Dakota law enforcement will not make spot checks on vehicles headed to the camp where activists are based, the governor's office said on Wednesday, backing away from a previous plan.