Federal judge skeptical about pipeline's impact on wetlands
HOUSTON (AP) — One of the federal judges considering whether to allow construction of a crude oil pipeline to continue in an environmentally fragile Louisiana swamp seemed to downplay concerns Monday about the project's impact on forested wetlands.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over whether to permanently throw out a lower court's preliminary injunction that initially stopped construction in the Atchafayala Basin.
A different panel of the appeals court last month suspended the injunction by Baton Rouge-based U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, who is presiding over the lawsuit filed by Sierra Club and other environmental groups against the U.S.