The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline is officially in service. Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners announced the line carrying North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois has started shipping for customers.
Four Native American tribes in the Dakotas are still fighting in court, hoping to persuade a judge to shut down the line. Tribes and environmental groups fear it might cause pollution. More than half a year of protests in North Dakota resulted in 761 arrests.
President Donald Trump's administration and the courts allowed the pipeline to be completed earlier this year. Dakota Access and the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline from Illinois to the Gulf Coast make up the Bakken Pipeline system. ETP says the system has commitments for about 520,000 barrels daily.
