A judge has rejected a request by two American Indian tribes to halt construction of the remaining section of the Dakota Access oil pipeline until their lawsuit over the project is resolved.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, in Washington, D.C., issued his ruling Monday.
He says he’ll consider the request more thoroughly at a February 27 hearing.
The Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux requested the temporary injunction last week after Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners got federal permission to lay pipe under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota. That’s the last big section of the $3.8 billion pipeline that would need to be constructed before it could carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
The tribes say the pipeline would endanger their cultural sites and water supply. They added a religious freedom component to their case last week by arguing that clean water is necessary to practice the Sioux religion.
The company called the religion argument a “last-minute delay tactic.”
American Indian activists say they will not be deterred by the judge’s ruling.
(AP)