William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

A federal judge in Des Moines has dismissed a case filed by lawyers for the Dakota Access Pipeline who had sought a court order restricting protesters who want to halt construction of the four-state pipeline, which will cross through 18 Iowa counties.

U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger approved the dismissal on Thursday after lawyers for Dakota Access asked the court a day earlier that their request for an injunction against the protesters be withdrawn. Dakota Access had previously asked the court to declare that the company “has the right to construct the Pipeline without physical interference and/or obstruction of construction by Defendants."

Lawyers for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the Bold Iowa, both of which strongly oppose the $3.8 billion pipeline project, had earlier asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit.

In explaining why Dakota Access is dropping the case, the company's lawyers said the business has an ownership structure that includes a publicly traded master limited partnership and it was unwilling to identify the citizenship of its unit holders, who number in the hundreds of thousands.

Defense lawyers for Iowa CCI and Bold Iowa had told the court that a failure to identify the citizenship or identify the partners required the dismissal. They had also challenged the grounds for seeking an injunction.

Goodgame Ebinger had denied a request in late August by Dakota Access for a temporary restraining order to prevent activists from interfering with construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in Iowa.

The decision last month by Goodgame Ebinger to reject the motion for a temporary restraining order concluded that Dakota Access was seeking a "extraordinary and drastic remedy" that should only be issued in exceptional circumstances. Based on the limited court record, Dakota Access failed to make a clear showing that "immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result" prior to a hearing on the company's motion for a preliminary injunction, she wrote.

Dakota Access, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, had asked the court to keep protesters at least 25 feet away from the pipeline project, suggesting it would still allow protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights of free speech. The petition also asked the court to prevent activists from physical contact, making threats or harassing construction workers and from interfering with construction.

The Dakota Access petition had noted that arson in Jasper and Mahaska counties has resulted in about $3 million in damage to heavy equipment used on the pipeline project. No arrests have been made and anti-pipeline activists have disavowed any connection to the arson.

As of Thursday, 92 arrests of pipeline protesters have occurred in Iowa, according to anti-pipeline protest leaders. Most of the arrests have involved activists trying to block construction in Boone County, where the pipeline will be bored underneath the Des Moines River, and in Lee County in southeast Iowa, where the pipeline will cross underneath the Mississippi River.

The Iowa groups opposing the pipeline have promised to engage only in non-violent civil disobedience and they have worked closely with Iowa law enforcement agencies in an effort to avoid problems.

The pipeline will transport crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution hub at Patoka, Ill.