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Political pressure led to permit delays for Dakota Access Pipeline, former exec testifies • North Dakota Monitor [1]
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Date: 2025-03-05
A former Energy Transfer executive on Tuesday blamed political pressure for the federal government’s decision to delay a key permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline eight years ago.
Joey Mahmoud, who oversaw the pipeline’s development, told a Morton County jury that the energy company was on track to get authorization to build the pipeline under Lake Oahe until fall 2016, when he claims protests interfered.
Thousands flocked to rural North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to support the tribe, which is opposed to the project. The tribe considers the Dakota Access Pipeline a pollution threat and an infringement on tribal sovereignty, and claims that the pipeline has disrupted numerous sacred sites. The pipeline crosses underneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River, less than a half-mile upstream from the reservation.
More Dakota Access Pipeline coverage
The Department of the Army on Sept. 9, 2016, announced in a joint statement with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior that it would hold off on granting an easement authorizing the pipeline to cross beneath the river, which is under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction. The agencies said in light of concerns voiced by Standing Rock and other tribes, the Corps would take a deeper look at whether the pipeline complies with federal law.
Mahmoud said that the pipeline has met all federal regulations from the beginning and that the issues raised by the tribe and its allies were based on misinformation.
“When we were first told that the easement was going to be postponed, it was a complete shock,” he said.
He speculated that said the Obama administration must have been persuaded by pipeline opponents, but that he did not know by whom.
Mahmoud said that over the course of his career, he’s sought approval for thousands of permits. He indicated this is the only time he’s seen federal agencies issue a joint statement on a permitting decision of this nature.
Mahmoud testified as part of an anticipated five-week trial between Energy Transfer and Greenpeace.
Energy Transfer alleges the environmental group co-opted a local protest effort led by Standing Rock to serve its own anti-fossil fuel agenda.
The company accuses Greenpeace of funding and training protesters to commit criminal acts to stop construction of the pipeline, as well as of circulating defamatory claims to tarnish Energy Transfer’s reputation.
Earlier in the case, Energy Transfer presented depositions and written statements from Greenpeace employees indicating they supported the demonstration with supplies, intel and training.
Greenpeace denies Energy Transfer’s claims. It has argued that its role in the protests was minimal, and that the federal government’s decision to delay granting the easement was in response to actions by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, not the environmental group.
Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire in a Monday statement called the lawsuit “frivolous.”
“The case is an attempt to silence our Tribe about the truth of what happened at Standing Rock, and the threat posed by DAPL to our land, our water and our people,” Alkire said. “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will not be silenced.”
Attorneys for Greenpeace on Monday showed jurors a January 2016 letter from Standing Rock leaders urging the Army Corps to conduct a more thorough environmental review of the pipeline, months before Greenpeace started supporting the projects.
The jury was also shown part of a memo Energy Transfer sent to the transition team for President Donald Trump after the 2016 election.
Energy Transfer in the memo called on the president elect to reverse the Obama administration’s decision to delay the easement, maintaining that complaints about the pipeline circulating in the news media were all false.
“Just like the people coordinating with President Obama, we were coordinating with President Trump,” Mahmoud said.
The memo also accused the Obama administration of denying repeated requests to send federal law enforcement to help protests.
It also references a “free speech zone” that the Army Corps of Engineers created to allow protesters to demonstrate on federal land adjacent to Lake Oahe.
The state of North Dakota has previously claimed that an alleged lack of federal assistance, coupled with the Army Corps taking actions to accommodate protesters, prolonged and intensified the demonstrations. Both claims were key to its lawsuit against the Army Corps, which went to trial in a North Dakota federal court about a year ago.
North Dakota seeks $38 million of dollars in damages from the federal government. A judge has yet to issue a final ruling in that case.
Standing Rock also has an active lawsuit against the federal government related to the Dakota Access Pipeline. The tribe filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers in October, arguing that the pipeline is operating in violation of federal law and must be shut down.
Energy Transfer said Wednesday it expects to finish presenting its case this week.
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[1] Url:
https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/03/05/political-pressure-led-to-permit-delays-for-dakota-access-pipeline-former-exec-testifies/
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