Army says final leg of Dakota Access pipeline is a go

WASHINGTON - The controversial Dakota Access pipeline is set to win the final go-ahead needed for completion, following a Jan. 24 memo from President Donald Trump seeking speedy approval.

The U.S. Army said in a court filing Tuesday it will grant Energy Transfer Partners the easement it needs to finish the line that will ship almost half a million barrels of crude a day from North Dakota - and across Iowa - to a distribution hub in Illinois.

Approval of the North Dakota easement follows Trump's memorandum that advised expediting review of the project. Trump took office promising to favor oil and natural gas development and support for new infrastructure, such as the Keystone XL pipeline.

The move is a blow to opponents who have argued in massive protests that the line would damage sites culturally significant to Native Americans and pose a hazard where it crosses the Missouri River.

The $3.8 billion pipeline has been stalled since September when the Obama administration halted work on the missing link in North Dakota to reconsider prior decisions to allow it.

But the Army said its Corps of Engineers will no longer prepare an environmental-impact statement for the work to cross under Lake Oahe on the Missouri River as President Barack Obama ordered before leaving.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe said it would fight the easement, asserting that the environmental study was 'wrongfully terminated.”

'The Obama administration correctly found that the tribe's treaty rights needed to be respected, and that the easement should not be granted without further review and consideration of alternative crossing locations,” Standing Rock Sioux lawyer Jan Hasselman said in a statement. 'Trump's reversal of that decision continues a historic pattern of broken promises to Indian tribes and violation of treaty rights. They will be held accountable in court.”

The project originally was scheduled to be operational by the end of 2016. Lisa Dillinger, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer, said it now would be in service in the second quarter.

'Our nation needs new energy infrastructure, which means we must have a process to build safe, efficient and environmentally sound projects like pipelines and power lines,” North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven said in a statement following a meeting with Robert Speer, acting secretary of the Army.

The Army is expected to formally grant the easement Wednesday.

Aside from the North Dakota link, the pipeline mostly is complete.

The Bloomberg and Reuters news services contributed to this report.