Dakota Access pipeline gets official OK; tribe files first legal challenge

• Energy Transfer Partners (ETP +0.3%) says it received the easement from the Army Crops of Engineers needed to complete construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, and the company says construction work already has started.
• The Cheyenne River Sioux, one of two American Indian tribes fighting the pipeline, filed a legal challenge this morning to try to block its completion, saying a pipeline leak could contaminate its drinking water; the Standing Rock Sioux tribe also has vowed to fight the construction in court.
• ETP says it will take about two months to complete drilling under Lake Oahe, but any timetable looks iffy when considering the legal and physical obstacles opponents will use to block it.
• For investors in energy MLPs, controversy around new pipeline construction - and volatility in MLPs - is not going away, but existing pipelines are growing more valuable, says Cohen & Steers portfolio manager Tyler Rosenlicht, "because it has gotten so difficult to build a new one, [so] the existing asset base is naturally worth more."
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