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Appeals court lifts Bayou Bridge Pipeline's stop work order

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Appeals court lifts Bayou Bridge Pipeline's stop work order

Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC can resume construction of its second phase, a 163-mile crude oil pipeline connecting terminals at Lake Charles, La., to St. James, La., after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court's injunction stopping work while a case pitting environmental groups against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proceeds.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled 2-1 on March 15 that Bayou Bridge was likely to win its case against an injunction stopping work, a case which is on expedited appeal to the Fifth Circuit. A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana granted the injunction the environmental groups had sought Feb. 23. (U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit docket 18-30257)

The appeals court set an accelerated schedule of briefings with oral argument tentatively slated for the week of April 30.

The district court judge's order was part of a case in which the Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, other environmental groups and the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West sued the Army Corps over a permit for the project, which would cross wetlands in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana. The groups said the Army Corps had violated environmental laws in issuing the permit. At issue is whether the Corps' approval of a Bayou Bridge plan to purchase "in-kind" acres of hardwood trees to make up for hardwoods destroyed in construction is legal under the National Environmental Policy Act. (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana docket 3:18-cv-00023)

The project, a 60/40 joint venture of Energy Transfer Partners LP and Phillips 66 Partners LP with Energy Transfer as the developer, is designed to move North American crude oil from Texas to Gulf Coast refineries. A first phase of the pipeline went into service in April 2016, delivering crude oil from terminal hub facilities in Nederland, Texas, to terminals and refineries in Lake Charles. The new phase would put in place the 24-inch-diameter pipeline between Lake Charles and St. James, where crude will be redistributed to refineries on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Bayou Bridge said 88% of the $750 million pipeline will run parallel to other infrastructure such as roads, powerlines and other pipelines.

In a statement on its website, Bayou Bridge said local organization Louisiana Rise purchased property along the pipeline route to establish a "cultural learning and ceremony space" and to hold protests. Large, sustained protests in North Dakota and litigation by Sioux tribes and environmental groups held up another Energy Transfer oil transportation project, the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which went into service in June 2017.