Indiana AG Curtis Hill Leads Coalition of State Attorneys General Calling for DAPL to Remain Operational
The Center Square recently reported Indiana Attorney general Curtis Hill worked jointly with the State of Montana to file an amicus brief with a U.S. appellate court last week asking the court to reverse a lower court’s order that would shut down operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Nine other states joined the brief as well.
Shutting down the pipeline, however, would create public safety hazards, threaten the environment and deliver an economic blow to grain farmers in the Midwest, Attorney General Hill said.
“The courts should allow the pipeline to continue transporting oil while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares an environmental impact study,” Attorney General Hill said. “The order by the U.S. district court largely ignores the damage that a shutdown would cause to our economy, environment, food supply and personal safety.”
Attorney General Hill and his colleagues contend that the negative consequences of shutting down the pipeline far outweigh any concerns related to a procedural delay in an environmental impact study. Hill believes shipping by rail would force oil to compete for train space with agriculture, harming Indiana farmers and threatening the food supply during the global pandemic.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline has already been constructed, the oil is flowing and the American economy has come to rely on its benefits as an alternative to rail or truck transport,” Hill’s brief states. “The disruption that will result from vacating the easement is not merely economic. It will affect the food security of all who rely on Midwestern grain producers to ship affordable food through rail transport.”
Transporting oil and gas by pipeline has been proven to the safest and most environmentally-sustainable method of delivering the resources that millions of Americans rely on each and every day.