Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and its partner company Sunoco Logistics Partners released a statement today that condemned Sunday's federal announcement that shuts down the final work on the Dakota Access pipeline.
The statement says Sunday's four-paragraph announcement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was "a purely political action." Energy Transfer Partners, the company handling the 1,172-mile and $3.78 billion project, had received all state and federal approvals except for a short section under the Missouri River in North Dakota.
Dallas' Kelcy Warren is CEO of Energy Transfer Partners.
In September, the pipeline construction plan gained federal approval from a federal judge in Washington but the same day the Army Corps and departments of Justice and Interior released a statement stopping construction on the tiny under-river section near the reservation of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Sunday's statement did not provide much specific about what changes the Army would like. And it's entirely possible that the new federal leadership under next-President Donald Trump would eliminate the restrictions approved on Sunday.
But that would add delay on the pipeline construction, which would take between 90 and 120 days to do the drilling and installation of the pipeline under the river. Energy Transfer had estimated earlier this year that it figured to be ready to flow crude oil -- and make money from the flow -- by early next year.
Sunday's short announcement from Corps spokesperson Moira Kelley and Interior spokesperson Jessica Kershaw said this:
"The Army has determined that additional discussion and analysis are warranted in light of the history of the Great Sioux Nation's dispossessions of lands, the importance of Lake Oahe to the Tribe, our government-to-government relationship, and the statute governing easements through government property."
What exactly would be the solution? The statement says absolutely nothing about any conversation with company officials.
Monday's company reaction was an attack on the delay:
"The White House's directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency."
In November, Warren had released a similar response:
"This action is motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules it was given," Warren was quoted in a letter sent out by his company. "To propose, as the Corps now does, to further delay this pipeline and to engage in what can only be described as a sham process sends a frightening message about the rule of law."
