Where We Stand On The DAPL -- August 14, 2020

Note: in a long note like this there will be typographical and content errors. In addition, the original information was edited for various reasons. In the editing, additional errors may have been made. 

Note: There's much more to the background how the reader came across this information. Suffice it to say, it's all from credible sources.

From a reader via the Progressive Farmer, by Todd Neeley:

With the loss of a federal permit to operate the Dakota Access pipeline, a federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come up with a resolution by the end of August. 

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Corps of Engineers to provide a status report to the court by August 31, 2020, detailing steps taken by the Corps to resolve concerns with the pipeline. 

"In the interim, the parties shall discuss in good faith mitigation measures that could lessen the likelihood and severity of any oil leak in or around Lake Oahe," the order said.

"In the interim, the parties shall discuss in good faith..." LOL.

Now the court will schedule another hearing.

The "minute order" from Judge James E. Boasberg:

MINUTE ORDER: As discussed in today's telephonic hearing, the Court ORDERS that: 1) The Corps shall submit a status report by August 31, 2020, detailing the options it is considering on vacatur, steps taken by that point, and those that remain; and 2) In the interim, the parties shall discuss in good faith mitigation measures that could lessen the likelihood and severity of any oil leak in or around Lake Oahe. 

So ORDERED by Judge James E. Boasberg on 8/10/2020. (lcjeb1)

Note: A Minute Order is a legal document which is recorded in the minutes of a court session rather than in formal court order format. A minute order is often the court's answer to a party's request.

How are the analysts taking this? The same reader also sent this from Jeremiah Shelor at NaturalGasIntel.com:

The appeals court’s decision Wednesday arrived as Energy Transfer was rolling out its 2Q2020 financial results. During a conference call with analysts, general counsel Tom Mason said as a result of the decision “no court order stops Dakota Access from continuing to operate the pipeline.

“…The Court of Appeals also ordered an expedited schedule for determining the merits of the appeal by the Army Corps and Dakota Access as to whether an Environmental Impact Statement will be required,” Mason said. “…We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate.”

Analysts, including those at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, concluded that DAPL is “not free and clear yet” in its legal battle. The order “upholds the vacatur of the authorizations by Judge Boasberg but sets aside his ruling to empty the pipeline…as failing to meet the requirements for ‘injunctive relief,’” the analysts said in a note to clients Wednesday. “That said, we would caution that a future stay of operations is not off the table this fall.”

According to Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts, “The likelihood of DAPL remaining operational has increased significantly…By our read, it will be pushed to the Army Corps to allow the pipeline to continue operations (or not) during the review. As such, we expect DAPL will remain in operation in the interim.”

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC analysts called it “crisis averted” for DAPL, though they identified potential threats to the pipeline’s continued operation in the not-too-distant future.

If presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. “is elected president, we believe there is a significant probability that he would, through appointments made to the Army Corps, direct the Army Corps to conduct an extensive review of the environmental impacts relating to DAPL,” the Morgan Stanley team said. “It is possible that such a review will result in the Army Corps not issuing an EIS, in which case DAPL would be required to shut down.”

While the court proceedings continue to play out, analysts at Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) said the continued operation of DAPL in the interim “screens favorably” for the sponsors, as well as for “midstream operators with significant Bakken throughput exposure.” The decision is also favorable for the Bakken production outlook “given reduced basin takeaway concerns.”

From the "Business Wire," February 9, 2007:

Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. today announced that Thomas P. Mason has joined the company as General Counsel. 

Mason joins Energy Transfer Partners from Vinson & Elkins, where he was a senior energy and securities law partner. 

He has over 25 years of experience and has been working with Energy Transfer for the past several years on numerous transactions. Mason represented Energy Transfer Partners in its recent acquisition of Transwestern Pipeline Company, an interstate pipeline, and also represented Energy Transfer Equity, the owner of ETP's General Partner, in its initial public offering last year.

The reader who put all this together, upon completing this exercise, was moved to pen a poem:

Court order, docket, could be an Opinion

Plaintiff, spokesman, some other minion? 

Which judge, what Court, what news of my DAPL?

Please show me, oh woe's me, how hard I do grapple. 

It haunts me, it daunts me, and gives me conniptions

To track down the story, to get a good grip on

The facts, the scoop, vast legalese Legion

After all, I'm hard-headed - Yup, I'm a Norwegian. 

So, thanks to Todd Neeley, a reporter admired,

Mind freed from quicksand in which I'd been mired. 

He sent the source document... Boasberg penned

Quenched - at last, my search at an end.