Trump Advancing Keystone, Dakota Oil Pipelines

President Donald Trump intends to take action today to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, according to a person familiar with the matter.

TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline was rejected under former President Barack Obama, and Energy Transfer Partners LP’s $3.8 billion Dakota Access project was stalled when the Obama administration halted work on in on land near Lake Oahe in North Dakota amid protests by Native American groups.

Environmentalists fiercely battled the project, making it a flashpoint in broader debates about U.S. energy policy and climate change. Landowners in the pipeline’s path warned that a spill of dense crude could contaminate the Ogallala aquifer, a source of drinking water that stretches from Texas to South Dakota. And activists said it would promote further development of oil sands in Alberta, Canada that generally require more energy to extract.

Dakota Access opponents say the pipeline would damage sites culturally significant to Native Americans and pose an environmental hazard where it crosses the Missouri River. Earlier this month, the Department of the Army withheld the final easement necessary for construction beneath the lake.

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