Following a boost from the Trump administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) on Tuesday returned to its original assessment and granted an easement to the backers of the controversial $3.8 billion, 1,200-mile Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) for its final leg, a water crossing in south-central North Dakota.
Although opponents said they would file in court to try to block construction of the nearly complete DAPL project, construction could begin almost immediately on a crossing under a dammed portion of the Missouri River forming Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The Sioux and a collaborative of environmental activists and other Native American tribes have been opposing the final crossing for months.
Native American officials plan to fight the action in the courts and with massive protests.
“Donald Trump will not build his Dakota Access Pipeline without a fight,” said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “The granting of an easement, without any environmental review or tribal consultation, is not the end of this fight — it is the new beginning. Expect mass resistance far beyond what Trump has seen so far.”
Although DAPL sponsors, led by Houston-based Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), had gained all regulatory approvals and won all legal challenges in federal court last year, the Obama administration reversed the Corps’ earlier action and late last year ordered further environmental review of the project, which had already gone through an extensive regulatory process by state and federal authorities going back to 2014.
Supporters of the project, the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN), said the Trump administration and the Corps “followed the letter of the law” in freeing up the four-state project for transporting the bulk of Bakken Shale crude oil production in North Dakota to domestic and foreign markets through a hub in central Illinois.
Tuesday’s “action sends a strong positive signal to those individuals and companies seeking to invest in the United States, and will help strengthen our economy and create jobs,” said MAIN spokesperson Craig Stevens.
Lawyers for the Standing Rock Sioux have been insisting that the Trump administration could not overturn the decision to begin a new environmental assessment on the project in the waning days of the Obama administration.
The easement now allows ETP to build the passage under the federally owned lake. On Monday, the company told a federal judge the work could be completed in about 60 days.
rockman on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 6:40 am
And to just touch on the FACTS many of which the MSM seems to have missed:
“Dakota Access Pipeline does not cross the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, even at the portion of the pipeline that is the subject of dispute at Lake Oahe. In developing the route, the United States Army Corps of Engineers alone held 389 meetings with 55 tribes regarding the Dakota Access project. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps reached out to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe nearly a dozen times to discuss archaeological and other surveys conducted before finalizing the Dakota Access route.”
And rather curious that the tribe didn’t do much protesting over the previous other 8 PIPELINES that cross under the lake: “Notably, Lake Oahe already contains eight other pipelines uneventfully operating adjacent to the path of the Dakota Access Pipeline.”
Speaking of limited coverage saw only one report of the tribe requesting the sheriff to remove a group of protestors because the were trashing the land so badly.
R1verat on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 11:18 am
Hate to tell you Rockman but your
“facts” version is vastly different from my “boots on the ground” experience with the Native Sioux. I was there, speaking with & living among the locals & protesters. They have a very different version of this same scenario.
You are correct that the pipeline is just outside the Sioux reservation. However do you really think that if the Corp had done all the reaching out to the tribe that there would now be so much push back?
Additionally news reports were highlighting all the trash & effluent that was supposedly being dumped into the waterways. This too was incorrect. Trash bins were used for all trash & numerous potta potties were available. Both were emptied daily.
More important than our differences in opinion are that this is just one of many doomed projects to continue oil, tar sands, etc… extraction. AND that regardless of the locals’ opinions, BAU & environmental destruction will continue as long as the greedy control the gov’t.
Apneaman on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 11:35 am
BUFFET, GATES FOUNDATION, BONO’S RED AND THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE
HOW BONO’S RED BECAME THE COLOR OF PHILANTHROWASHING DONE RIGHT FOR THE DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE
PART 1
WHO’S INVESTED? COMPLICIT CORRUPTION AIDING AND ABETTING THE BAKKEN SHALE BOOM (#BOMBTRAINS)
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2017/02/08/buffet-gates-foundation-bonos-red-and-the-dakota-access-pipeline/
rockman on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 11:59 am
Riverat – First, the facts are the facts regardless of your experiences. Second, the videos of the garbage piles being clean upped by front end loaders filmed by the MSM are available. OTOH I don’t really hold the mess against them. This wasn’t exactly a KOA. LOL.
But: “However do you really think that if the Corp had done all the reaching out to the tribe that there would now be so much push back?” Yes, because there would have been no protest let alone a push back had the pipeline company paid the tariff the tribe had wanted. There are no other “versions” of the story: the COE didn’t just leave a voicemail for the Standing Rock leadership. All those efforts to discuss the situation are documented.
Now I’ll let you explain why there were protest over the 9th pipeline and why there hasn’t been any issue let alone protest over THE EXISTING 8 PIPELINES. And while you’re at it you can explain why the other “Native Sioux” tribe with reservation lands just 50 miles away supported the pipeline. The tribal lands that had leased for drilling and will supply some of the oil carried by the DAPL.
Personally I actually don’t hold anything against the Standing Rock tribe for trying to make money on the deal. I’ve been involved in a number of efforts during my career trying to use some leverage to extort money from pipeline companies and others. What I find distasteful is the pretense that it wasn’t about money.
Apneaman on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 1:11 pm
Cancer industry needs to double down on externalities to kick the can a little further. Eventually there will be no regs followed. Regression to 18th century industrial non-regulation, except in the areas where the wealthy live. The sheeple that survive will be living in a Dickinson dystopian industrial hell – “Please sir, may I have some more cancer?”
Shell launches bid to leave massive, sludgy oil rig remnants in North Sea for 500 years
‘Oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea have a legal, as well as moral, obligation to clean-up their mess,’ says leading environmentalist
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/north-sea-oil-rigs-concrete-legs-oil-sediment-shell-decommissioning-a7567956.html
Midnight Oil on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 1:34 pm
US Army Corps to the RESUE! Bunch of flunkies that will dig a hole ANYWHERE, regardless.
Cloggie on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 2:07 pm
Netherlands to Host Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation
http://web.unep.org/newscentre/netherlands-host-global-centre-excellence-climate-adaptation
By signing the Paris Climate agreement countries have made climate change adaptation a top global priority and the Global Centre of Excellence on Climate Adaptation, a joint initiative of The Netherlands, Japan and UN Environment is an important step to deliver on that commitment.
Apneaman on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 5:49 pm
By Steve St. Angelo: The Blood Bath Continues in the U.S. Major Oil Industry
“The financial situation at ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips has become so dreadful, their total long-term debt surged 25% in just the past year.
However, the rapidly falling oil price, since the latter part of 2014, totally gutted the profits at these top oil producers. In just five short years, ExxonMobil’s net income declined to $7.8 billion, Chevron reported its first $460 million loss while ConocoPhillips shaved another $3.6 billion off its bottom line in 2016. Thus, the combined net income of these three oil companies in 2016 totaled $3.7 billion versus $80.4 billion in 2011.”
https://un-denial.com/2017/02/08/by-steve-st-angelo-the-blood-bath-continues-in-the-u-s-major-oil-industry/
paulo1 on Wed, 8th Feb 2017 7:56 pm
Maybe they’ll be sending General George Armstrong Custer to supervise the project?
Nony on Thu, 9th Feb 2017 2:41 am
Not all the tribe is against the pipeline. And even more think the protesters are bad news.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/29/us/dakota-pipeline-standing-rock-sioux/index.html
Nony on Thu, 9th Feb 2017 2:44 am
MSNBC recently ran a national news piece about the Indians getting their river-floated buffalos oily. Even after told the story was bogus (should have been obvious to anyone with a BS detector or a brain), they ran the story anyways.
http://www.valleynewslive.com/content/misc/Final-View-MSNBC-reporter-chooses-FakeNews-over-the-truth-412747403.html
DerHundistlos on Thu, 9th Feb 2017 3:30 pm
@ Mid Oil
Your comment about the Army Corp. is spot on correct. It exists to dig, dredge, drain, and all matter of earth scarring work regardless of consequences.
Boat on Thu, 9th Feb 2017 7:25 pm
The bad news is the money spent on US and Canadian oil infrastructure. When OPEC and Russia end their hopeless cuts and rejoin the fight for market share oil prices will drop yet again. Consumers win and oil producers will bite another bullet.