At the far end of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners is proposing to build the Bayou Bridge pipeline to carry fracked oil from North Dakota to the Gulf Coast. Cutting through the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun Country, the pipeline would traverse the Atchafalaya Basin, a national heritage area which is already criss-crossed by hundreds of pipelines and littered with thousands of abandoned wells. 

The pipeline’s supporters tout the economic benefits and relative safety of moving oil by pipeline. Meanwhile, its opponents cite concerns about the threat of an oil spill and further damage to the Atchafalaya Basin, and warn that the Bayou Bridge battle could escalate to the levels against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock.