The companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline have asked a US court to intervene in the fight over its completion as demonstrators across North America on Tuesday protested the project over fears it would pollute water supplies and destroy sacred Native American tribal sites.
In what could be the largest protests to date, people gathered outside Army Corps of Engineers offices, banks and energy companies, a day after the US government delayed granting an easement for the pipeline’s construction in North Dakota.
Energy Transfer Partners, the main company behind the pipeline, and its subsidiary, Sunoco Logistics Partners, filed papers on Monday night in district court in Washington, DC, seeking declaratory relief to “end the administration’s political interference in the Dakota Access Pipeline review process”.
On Monday the Army Corps delayed granting an easement, or the right to cross someone else’s land for a specified purpose.
More than 200 protests were called by indigenous leaders in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Native American tribe and to get the Army Corps of Engineers and US government to stop the pipeline, according to Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the organisers.
The companies are seeking the easement to tunnel under Lake Oahe, the water source at the heart of the protests. The decision was seen as a partial victory for the protesters.
The $3.7bn Dakota Access project has drawn steady opposition from the tribe as well as environmental activists who claim it could pollute nearby water supplies and destroy sacred historical tribal sites.
The Army Corps said it plans to get more input from the Standing Rock Sioux in light of the tribe repeatedly being “dispossessed” from its lands in the past.
Government officials have not said how long the process will take, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Construction of the 1,885km pipeline is about 85% done, Phillips 66, a pipeline investor, said last week.
The only work left in North Dakota is the segment to run under the lake, Energy Transfer said last week.
The company says the pipeline would be a more efficient and safer way to transport oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the Midwest and onto the US Gulf Coast.
Late Monday, the company criticised the government’s decision, noting that the Corps acknowledged that its original decision to grant the permit was consistent with legal requirements.
“To propose, as the Corps now does, to further delay this pipeline and to engage in what can only be described as a sham process sends a frightening message about the rule of law,” said Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer’s chief executive officer.
Organisers said Tuesday’s protests will be outside Army Corps offices throughout the country, and at major banks financing construction of the pipeline, such as TD Bank and Citigroup.
Norwegian bank DNB this month said it would reconsider financing the project if the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux were not addressed.
In Houston, Texas, demonstrators will gather outside Energy Transfer’s office.
The protests come as the Dakota Access is expected to have the support of President-elect Donald Trump.
He has expressed strong support for development of energy infrastructure projects, including oil pipelines. Warren donated more than $100,000 to the Trump presidential campaign, and one of Trump’s top energy advisers, North Dakota congressman Kevin Cramer, supports Dakota Access and is being considered for the job of energy secretary in the new administration.