Energy Transfer Partners, the project developer, is building a pipeline linking a large shale oil deposit in North Dakota with oil refineries on the Gulf Coast.
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Also missing from what is so far the entirety of broadcast TV news’ coverage of the Dakota Access protest is any mention of the threat the pipeline poses to water resources-the pipeline crosses the Missouri River just half a mile north of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation-or the climate destruction facilitated by pipelines created to ship fracked oil out to consumers. These issues resonate with Klamath Tribal Council chairman Donald Gentry.
“We are standing with Standing Rock, and with people throughout Indian Country in calling on President Obama to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline now, before more irreversible damage occurs to the ancestral sites, as well as the water that nourishes this entire region”, said LeBlanc. The Associated Press reports construction of the pipeline is also being challenged in federal court. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits to the Dallas, Texas-based operators of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and IL. Monty Williams is with Nevada’s Statewide Native American Coalition.
Dakota Access said in its reply to the requested restraining order that the protesters “stampeded” the building area and attacked the dogs and security officers with makeshift weapons, and that the bulldozers did not destroy important historical sites. None of the arrests stemmed from Saturday’s confrontation between protesters and construction workers.
The local law enforcement department is bracing for a decision that would allow the project to proceed while a spokesman for Gov. Jack Dalrymple said “the governor has always said the National Guard is an option”.
Stein was charged Wednesday in Morton County with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief. A handful of soldiers will help provide security at traffic checkpoints near the protest site, and another 100 Guard members will be on standby if needed to respond to any incidents.
No law enforcement personnel were present Saturday when violence broke out between private security guards and protesters.
North Dakota chief archaeologist Paul Picha plans to inspect the area, likely next week.
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North Dakota’s economy experienced a 2014 boom, but suffered a downturn after an influx of cheap oil. Construction equipment at several sites in Iowa was set on fire earlier in August, causing more than $1 million in damage.
