More Than Three Years After The Standing Rock Protests, A Judge Ordered The Dakota Access Pipeline To Shut Down
A federal judge ruled the Trump administration violated federal law when it approved the pipeline without doing a full environmental study.
By Zoe Tillman
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington on Monday ordered a complete shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline after finding the US government violated federal environmental law, a major defeat for the Trump administration and the company that built the pipeline three years after it became operational.
The ruling is a long-awaited win for Native American tribes that have fought the pipeline in court for years, and who had lost when they tried to stop it from going online in the summer of 2017. They’ve argued that the pipeline could cause serious environmental harm to Lake Oahe, a large lake that spans the border of North and South Dakota
