The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated a key federal environmental law when it approved an easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under the Missouri River and now must complete a full environmental impact statement, a federal appeals court in Washington, DC ruled Jan. 26.
But the court overruled a lower court that the $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline had to stop operating and empty its oil until that review was done. The decision partially upholds the March 2020 ruling by D.C. District Court Judge James Boasberg, but the shutdown he ordered was not enacted pending the appeal.