The Biden administration released a draft of an environmental study that a judge ordered for Energy Transfer LP’s controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
The study by the US Army Corps of Engineers stopped short of recommending whether to grant an easement the pipeline needs to continue operating. Instead, it said officials should wait for a final version that will include comments from the public.
A federal judge ordered the environmental analysis of the pipeline’s route under Lake Oahe in North Dakota in 2021, casting uncertainty over the future of the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) conduit that carries 200 million barrels of crude a year from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields to Illinois’ Patoka oil terminal.
READ: Dakota Access Loses Supreme Court Appeal, Leaving Future Unclear
