Public Service Commission Approves Expansion of the Dakota Access Pipeline

Today, the North Dakota Public Service Commission voted to grant a permit to Energy Transfer to build a new pump station. The permit will allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to nearly double its capacity from 570,000 barrels of oil per day to about 1.1 million barrels.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe released the following in response to the decision.

“Today the Public Service Commission made the decision to approve the expansion to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is disappointed in today’s outcome. As citizens of the State of North Dakota, we hoped that the Agency charged with examining the safety of the proposed DAPL expansion and its impacts, would do exactly that. The Public Service Commission is required to consider what effect the doubling of the flow of oil in an existing pipeline would have on family farms, ranches, and the health and safety of the North Dakota Citizens. Unfortunately, today’s decision demonstrates little or no consideration of these impacts. Today the Public Service Commission failed to do its job for the people of North Dakota.

We believe one reason for this is because the PSC did not have all the information it needed to make its decision. We think it is egregious that the PSC did not demand the safety information from DAPL that our expert witness identified as crucial to the PSC’s safety analysis. Commissions in both Iowa and Illinois have asked for this safety information because they see evaluating this information first hand as critical to the safety determination they must make. Now, the record is incomplete and the PSC’s unfortunate decision is based on only what an outside business wanted to tell North Dakota.

We will continue to examine what additional legal recourse we have to protect our people, our water, and our lands from this dangerous decision.”