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The Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) has touted several recent federal court decisions as “wins” for America’s oil and natural gas.
The ENRD said late last week that recent federal court decisions in four legal cases centered on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline in Tennessee, an oil-export facility in Texas and the export of liquefied natural gas from a planned terminal in Alaska were legal “wins” that “underpin the intentions” of President Donald Trump’s executive order to “unleash” American energy.
A gavel rests on sounding block next to a brass scale of justice in front of a long row of law books on a desk in a law office. Photographed with a very shallow depth of field. (iStock / iStock)
The 1,100-plus-mile Dakota Access Pipeline runs from North Dakota to Illinois, going through two additional states. It has been live since 2017.
Last year, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued to stop the crude oil-transporting pipeline’s operations during the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ preparation of an environmental impact statement. However, a district court dismissed the suit late last month.
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Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group and a contributor, said he thought the decision was “going to bring more supply in line.”
“Many producers were put on hold because of uncertainty,” he said. “Smaller producers now can start to increase their production without the fear that they won’t be able to move the oil safely or efficiently.”
In the case of the proposed natural gas pipeline in Tennessee, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals “denied a petition for review of the Corps’ permit to the company and upheld its reliance on Tennessee’s certification of the project under the Clean Water Act’s Section 401,” according to the ENRD.
The pipeline, a project of Kinder Morgan subsidiary Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, will move natural gas from Dickson County to a planned natural gas power plant in Stewart County. The aim is to “support” the Tennessee Valley Authority’s “proposed retirement and replacement of an existing coal-fired power plant,” per Kinder Morgan.
According to the court’s April 4 decision, a pair of environmental groups had raised issue with the permit that the Army Corps of Engineers had given it on grounds the the Corps had allegedly not “properly assess[e]d the practicability of alternatives to open-cut trenching at waterbody crossings along the Pipeline’s route” and “violated the APA by improperly relying upon TDEC’s Section 401 certification to determine that TGP’s construction of the pipeline would be in compliance with applicable water quality standards,” among other things.
The court said the Corps “complied with the dictates of the APA” in granting its permit, leading it to deny the review.
Flynn called the legal challenge “ridiculous,” saying that the U.S. has natural gas pipelines “going all over the country” and that natural gas was “cleaner burning than coal.”
He also thought the decision would mean “more jobs, more business and the ability to meet the demand for artificial intelligence” for Tennessee.
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A recent move by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ to back the issuance of a permit to make an oil-export facility in Texas bigger was also highlighted by the ENRD, which said the court found the Corps “thoroughly analyzed the effects of issuing the permanent and properly assessed the project’s scope.”
A Texas flag and American flag flown together on a building in Austin, Texas, March 11, 2023. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images / Getty Images)
“With demand for U.S. shale oil being strong around the world and better suited to foreign refineries, this expansion makes sense,” Flynn said. “Not only is it good for the U.S. economy, it’s going to be good for the global economy as well.”
He also noted that many U.S. refiners “tend to like heavier grades of oil, so the ability to export our excess light oil is critical to keep the production in the U.S. thriving.”
In a separate case, a Department of Energy authorization for exporting LNG from a planned terminal in south-central Alaska had faced a challenge, according to the ENRD.
The environmental group plaintiffs had alleged the DOE did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, “misconceived ‘the public interest’” of the project and took issue with mentions of emissions uncertainties related to it, according to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Department of Energy headquarters is seen behind the sign marking the location of the building in Washington, D.C. The building is on a list of federal properties potentially for sale. (J. David Ake/Getty Images / Getty Images)
That court “denied plaintiffs’ petition for review of a Department of Energy action to authorize” exports of LNG from that site last week, the ENRD said.
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Having the ability “to export LNG from Alaska is going to be key in the race for global energy dominance,” according to Flynn.
He said demand for LNG is “going to be strong and the ability to have that supply it’s going to help with economic and geopolitical stability.”