An expanded Dakota Access pipeline could go into operation by the third quarter of next year, Energy Transfer said in an investor presentation. The embattled project, which aims to transport crude oil from the Bakken shale play to the Gulf Coast, recently suffered a blow from a federal judge, who ruled in July that the pipeline had to be emptied and closed for the duration of a new environmental review. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia said that the Army Corps of Engineers had violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it gave a permit to the pipeline to build beneath Lake Oahe. Following that last unfavorable ruling, however, an appeals court overturned it, allowing Energy Transfer to keep Dakota Access in operation until that same court decided whether it needed to be closed for the environmental review. The Dakota Access pipeline has a […]