The Dakota Access Pipeline is finished and delivering thousands of barrels of oil, but the legal battle to stop it continues. Today, the Iowa Utilities Board denied a request by two environmental groups to stop the flow of oil by revoking the pipeline’s permit. From the Des Moines Register:

Iowa regulators have rejected a request by two environmental groups to revoke a state permit and shut down oil shipments on the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline.

The Iowa Utilities Board said Friday it was clear a federal court has not withdrawn the pipeline’s authority to operate and the groups’ motion was based on an incorrect premise. The decision was signed by Chairwoman Geri Huser and board member Nick Wagner.

Last month the Sierra Club of Iowa and the Science and Environmental Health Network filed a motion demanding the permit be revoked after a U.S. District Judge ruled the Army Corps of Engineers would need to reconsider its environmental review. The Des Moines Register reported at the time:

The two groups contend that [Judge] Boasberg’s ruling invalidates the Iowa permit, which was conditioned on Dakota Access obtaining all necessary state and federal authorizations for the pipeline…

“The house of cards built by Dakota Access has come tumbling down,” Raffensperger said in a prepared statement. “The Iowa Utilities Board granted a permit to Dakota Access on the condition that it obtain all of the necessary permits, chief among them the permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. There is no federal permit. The IUB must shut this pipeline down.”

Lawyers for the pipeline developers reacted strongly to those claims, suggesting lawyers for the environmental groups should be sanctioned:

Dakota Access, LLC, filed a resistance with the Iowa Utilities Board this week which accused lawyers for anti-pipeline groups of making statements so “shockingly dishonest” that  the board should consider whether it can sanction attorneys who misrepresent facts to state regulators.

“The activist groups can engage in whatever wishful thinking they like when they are trying to rally their supporters, but in a legal proceeding words have actual meanings,” Dakota Access said.

So this attempt to shut down the pipeline has failed. Judge Boasberg is expected to decide in September whether the pipeline can continue to operate while the Army Corps performs a new environmental review. Yesterday Judge Boasberg announced that state trade groups, i.e. groups supporting the pipeline, could weigh in on his decision. National groups on both sides of the issue may be allowed to have a say as well, though that hasn’t been decided yet.