Capstone Project - Room for Python?

[nilamo]

SQL (SQL Loader primarily) and perl scripting.

If the data is in a database, then using sql is the right choice.
If you know perl better than you know python, then perl is the right choice.  If you don't know perl, then why bring it up?  :p

Python and Perl serve the same purpose in this space.  We can argue semantics, and libraries, but ultimately, anything you wouldn't do in sql, you can do in either just fine.  Python gives you access to certain dataprocessing libraries, such as Pandas, but I'm sure Perl has something similar.

Use what you know.  Sounds like you've got a big project on your hands, so learning something new is just another step.  Unless you don't already know perl, in that case learning that would likely be more difficult than learning python.