Oil industry urges Trump to OK pipeline

CANNON BALL, N.D. — Industry leaders are urging President-elect Donald Trump to make approval of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline a “top priority” when he takes office next month, while opponents who have protested the project for months are vowing to stay put on their sprawling North Dakota encampment despite harsh winter weather and a tribal leaders’ call to leave.

The moves come after the Army Corps of Engineers declined to issue a permit for the $3.8 billion pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in southern North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. While the Corps’ decision doesn’t end the debate over the pipeline, industry analysts and the chairman of the Native American tribe that’s led the protests said Monday they don’t expect any developments for months.

Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault lauded the Corps’ decision as taking “tremendous courage,” and National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby said it showed “respect for tribal sovereignty.”

The Standing Rock tribe believes the 1,200-mile pipeline to transport North Dakota oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois threatens drinking water and cultural sites. Dallas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners has denied that and said the pipeline will be safe. The segment under Lake Oahe is the only remaining big chunk of construction.

“I am hopeful President-elect Trump will reject the Obama administration’s shameful actions to deny this vital energy project,” American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement late Sunday. The institute represents the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.

Trump supports construction of the pipeline, spokesman Jason Miller said Monday, but he wouldn’t say whether Trump would reverse the Corps’ decision.

“We will review the full situation when we’re in the White House and make the appropriate determination at that time,” Miller said.

The Sunday announcement by Assistant Army Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy does not actually deny an easement for the project, but says additional review is needed. That means the pipeline company cannot file an appeal because the project was not formally rejected.

Energy Transfer Partners slammed the decision as politically motivated and alleged that President Barack Obama’s administration was determined to delay the matter until he leaves office. The company is awaiting a decision from a federal judge it asked earlier to give it permission to drill under the lake.