Locals stand in protest with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Protesters celebrated a standoff near Cannonball that ultimately led to the announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers to deny the easement that would allow the nearly complete pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

The Dallas-based company financing the $3.7 billion project does not look to be backing down.

While a spokesman for Donald Trump said Monday that the president-elect is in favor of building the Dakota Access pipeline, and will revisit the Obama administration’s decision to halt construction until it can be routed around land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

The pipeline is largely complete except for the section under Lake Oahe, about a mile upstream of the reservation.

How do companies decide where to build a pipeline in the first place?

According to CNBC, Trump has held between $15,000 and $50,000 of stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, and the company’s CEO donated to Trump’s campaign. Many feared a pipeline leak could cause an environmental disaster.

As Mic’s Zak Cheney-Rice noted, “the victory depends on a friendly federal government being in power”. The planned route of the pipeline follows an already-existing natural gas pipeline installed in the 1980s. They believe the pipeline threatens the tribe’s drinking water, and cultural sites.

The Army Corps of Engineers could also suggest an alternative to the current plan, a suggestion originally floated by President Obama last month.

But Energy Transfer Partners cited problems with that route alternative.

If this is the case, another Standing Rock protest could be in our futures.

The Sunday announcement by Assistant Army Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy does not actually deny an easement for the project, but says additional review is needed.

The senator also emphasized the need to respect the rule of law and take a fact-based approach to the Dakota Access Pipeline situation in moving forward.

Energy Transfer Partners, which runs the pipeline, has called the decision not to grant the permit “purely political”.

Art Woodson is a disabled Gulf War veteran who served in the Army and drove to the main protest encampment from North Dakota with two others – a 17-hour nonstop drive. How feasible is it to move the route at this point?

The Army Corps reports directly to the President. Corps officials want to make sure the pipeline route is thoroughly analyzed.

“I don’t trust a word from those people”, Duarte said. That may be because the company, at least right now, would have a weak case in court, said Deborah Sivas, an environmental law professor at Stanford University.

A pipeline is a great aid for oil industry.

Olympia Beltran, a student nurse, returned from Standing Rock where she helped with medical needs.

Since April, thousands of demonstrators have been camping at the proposed site – expressing their concerns about protecting the Missouri River and sacred burial sites near the pipeline’s route.

The spokesman, Jason Miller, told The Associated Press on Monday that Trump supports the construction of the pipeline but he can not say whether Trump would reverse the Army’s decision.

And the “long haul” is likely to be laced with icy winds as a new winter storm moves across North Dakota.