Native American opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline and their allies celebrated after the Army Corps of Engineers denied a key permit to the pipeline builder on Sunday.
Citing concerns raised by the leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux nation that the pipeline would endanger tribal sovereignty and limit access to fresh water in the event of a spill, the Army Corps of Engineers denied Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline builder, a permit to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.
Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, one of several corporate partners in the pipeline’s construction, rejected the Army’s decision in a sharply critical press release published on Business Wire on Sunday night.
“This is nothing new from this Administration, since over the last four months the Administration has demonstrated by its action and inaction that it intended to delay a decision in this matter until President Obama is out of office,” the statement read.
