An activist fights the wind as he walks through the Oceti Sakowin campground as blizzard conditions grip the area around the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 6, 2016. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The state of North Dakota has filed to become a defendant in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s new lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeking to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The tribe’s complaint, presented last month, accuses the Army Corps of violating federal law by allowing the pipeline to operate without an easement, an adequate environmental study or adequate emergency spill response plans, among other violations.

In a memo filed last week, North Dakota argued that shutting down the pipeline, often referred to as DAPL, would cost the state government hundreds of millions of dollars, jeopardize thousands of jobs and disrupt regional supply chains. North Dakota also argues that a federal court order shutting down DAPL could infringe on the state’s right to regulate its own lands and resources.

The Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over a section of the pipeline that passes under Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River, about a half-mile upstream from the Standing Rock Reservation.

Standing Rock opposes the pipeline out of fear that it violates the tribe’s sovereignty, has disrupted sacred cultural sites and jeopardizes the tribe’s water supply.

If a judge were to grant Standing Rock’s request to shut down DAPL, North Dakota state government would lose a projected $900 million in revenue in the first 12 months, Office of Budget and Management Director Susan Sisk said. in a statement filed in court.

The state relies on energy taxes to fund a significant portion of its operations, Sisk wrote.

He noted that more than 10% of North Dakota’s annual general fund revenue comes from oil and gas taxes, and nearly 60% of the state’s tax and fee revenue comes from oil drilling and production. and gas.

According to Sisk, DAPL is an important part of that equation. He wrote that half of the crude oil produced in North Dakota is transported via the pipeline. If the pipeline were to disappear, that oil could also be transported by rail or truck, but the existing infrastructure could not transport it at the same rate as the DAPL, he added.

State officials say energy workers would also be at risk. Closing DAPL would cause North Dakota to temporarily lose between 8,450 and 9,300 jobs, and permanently lose between 1,700 and 2,200 jobs, Department of Mineral Resources Director Nathan Anderson wrote in court records filed by the state.

Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring and Public Utilities Commissioner Julie Fedorchak also filed statements in support of North Dakota’s motion to intervene in the lawsuit.

Goehring wrote that if DAPL were shut down, railroads would have to make room for up to 800 additional cars each day to transport oil that would have otherwise traveled through the pipeline. This would give the rail system less room to transport North Dakota’s agricultural resources, which Goehring said would hurt the state’s agricultural economy.

The state also claims in court documents that transporting oil by rail and truck is not as safe, posing a greater risk of air pollution and accidents.

Fedorchak noted in his statement that the Public Service Commission invested a significant amount of regulatory resources in DAPL. The pipeline route was chosen to minimize environmental and safety risks, avoid native and federal lands, and align with existing infrastructure, he wrote. The Corps at the time agreed that the chosen route was the best, Fedorchak added.

The case is before U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who presided over the tribe’s 2016 lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers challenging the pipeline.

As part of that lawsuit, Boasberg in 2020 ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a more comprehensive environmental impact study of the pipeline, which is still pending. It also ordered DAPL to cease operations, although an appeals court overturned that decision.

The Army Corps of Engineers released a draft version of the environmental impact statement in September 2023.

In comments on the draft study, North Dakota urged the Army Corps of Engineers to allow the pipeline to continue operating. Many of the arguments the state made to defend DAPL in those comments also appeared in the state’s memorandum in support of its motion to intervene.

The Army Corps of Engineers has not yet filed a response to Standing Rock’s latest legal challenge. North Dakota in its memo states that the Army Corps does not oppose its request to intervene as a defendant.

The more than 1,000-mile pipeline carries crude oil from northwest North Dakota to Illinois and has been in operation since 2017. Its route includes unceded lands recognized as belonging to the Sioux Nation under an 1851 treaty with the government of the United States.

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