The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is launching the latest round of its legal fight to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline for continuing to operate without a valid easement.
On Tuesday, the tribe told a federal judge it was appealing his ruling that their lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was premature.
The agency has been in the process of conducting a supplemental environmental review of the oil conduit, which passes beneath Lake Oahe in the Dakotas, after a federal appeals court tossed out the existing National Environmental Policy Act analysis as inadequate.
In the meantime, the Army Corps has allowed the pipeline to continue to carry oil beneath the lake, which is located close to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, provided pipeline operator Energy Transfer complies with set safety requirements.
