“The joint statement by the DOJ and other agencies makes it clear that the process used to approve this pipeline’s construction was insufficient and did not fully take into account the environmental impact or the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native peoples”, she said in response.
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Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, and Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote a letter to the GOP leadership of the House Natural Resources Committee requesting an oversight hearing into whether federal agencies properly consulted with Indian tribes on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.8-billion, 1,172-mile pipeline that would carry oil from North Dakota to IL.
“If constructed, the Dakota Access pipeline would carry fracked oil from North Dakota to IL, cutting under the Missouri River less than a mile upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux’s drinking water supply as well as through the Tribe’s sacred and historical land”, stated Micah Parkin with 350 Colorado.
A letter from the company building the 1,172-mile project was sent to its employees and the media Tuesday morning with the signature of CEO Kelcy Warren.
Demonstrators in more than 30 USA states planned to gather on Tuesday for what activists dubbed on social media a national “Day of Action” against the pipeline.
Bellingham City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline immediately after several hundred people gathered outside of City Hall to call for action Monday, Sept. 12.
The company behind a controversial pipeline project near native American land in North Dakota has vowed to press ahead, despite the plan sparking protests across the world on Tuesday. Three federal agencies also asked Energy Transfer Partners for a “voluntary pause” in work for 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe. The company had planned to begin transporting crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to a refinery in IL by January 1, but analysts now expect the company to miss that target.
In response to Warren’s memo, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said it will continue exploring all legal, legislative and administrative options to stop Dakota Access construction.
Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren told employee the pipeline is almost 60 percent complete and that “concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the local water supply are unfounded”.
He worries that vocal minorities could halt new any new project. Sanders said blocking the construction of the Dakota Access is “gaining more and more support” and that the U.S. needs to “transform our energy system, not build more pipelines”. (The office of the state attorney for Morton County did not respond to an inquiry.) The conflict sparked after construction crews tore through two areas that the tribe had identified in court filings as sacred sites just a day earlier. “I am confident that as long as the government ultimately decides the fate of the project based on science and engineering, the Dakota Access pipeline will become operational, bringing a safer means of transportation to a much needed supply of oil to communities across the country”.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe supporter, Ben Berry said, “It’s just fantastic to see this level of unity come together nationwide”.
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The Army will not authorize constructing the Dakota Access pipeline on Corps land bordering or under Lake Oahe until it can determine whether it will need to reconsider any of its previous decisions regarding the Lake Oahe site under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other federal laws. Some protestors, who locked themselves to construction machinery, were arrested on Tuesday after causing construction to grind to a halt.
