The latest step in the Dakota Access Pipeline’s years-long saga saw on Friday a U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. deny DAPL’s petition for a rehearing that would have ended the pipeline’s troublesome legal issues. Energy Transfer Partners LP, the owner of the pipeline project, has struggled for years against Native American tribes resulting in protests, violence during construction, fierce legal battles, and court-directed shutdown orders. Uncertainty surrounding the pipeline even delayed a Bakken crude oil production ramp-up last summer as companies were nervous about investing in additional production crude that may not find transportation out of the basin. Prior to Friday’s defeat, the pipeline dodged its latest bullet earlier in April when government lawyers told U.S. District Judge Brian Boasberg that they would not order the pipeline to shut down while DAPL undergoes an environmental review—a process that could take as long as a year. But just because […]