The Dakota Access oil pipeline is poised to stay in service at least through December under a new court schedule, assuming the Trump administration doesn't force a shutdown.
Under the proposed briefing schedule filed Wednesday, a federal court in Washington won't be prepared to rule until late December, at the earliest, on a renewed bid to halt the line.
The proposed schedule would give tribes opposed to the Dakota Access until Oct. 16 to file a new request to shutter it. Lawyers for the Army Corps of Engineers and pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP would have until Nov. 20 to respond, and the tribes would have until Dec. 18 for final briefs.
The Army Corps is still reviewing whether it should order removal of the pipeline after the court scrapped a federal easement for the line, which delivers crude oil from North Dakota shale fields to an Illinois hub.
