Dallas firm's 162-mile pipeline through nation's largest river swamp gets its day in court

One of the federal judges considering whether to allow construction of a crude oil pipeline to continue in an environmentally fragile Louisiana swamp seemed to downplay concerns Monday about the project's impact on forested wetlands.

The pipeline is a joint venture of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners and Houston-based Phillips 66. Energy Transfer Partners built the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, a project that sparked a string of violent clashes between protesters and police in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.

The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the last link in a pipeline network connecting the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota with Louisiana refineries and export terminals.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Houston over whether to permanently throw out a lower court's preliminary injunction that initially stopped construction in the Atchafayala Basin.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2018/04/30/dallas-firms-162-mile-pipeline-nations-largest-river-swamp-gets-day-court

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.