It’s been a day of mixed messages when it comes to the Dakota Access Pipeline – the partially-constructed oil pipeline that’s galvanized thousands of Native Americans to protest in North Dakota.
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– NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) September 9, 2016 U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington denied the tribe’s request for a temporary injunction in a one-page ruling that included no explanation. However, The Army and the Departments of Justice and the Interior released a statement to Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, requesting a temporary pause in order to find an accord with the aggrieved tribe, citing the need to make decisions “with respect to considering tribes’ views on these types of infrastructure projects”. Acting on the tribe’s behalf, the environmental group Earthjustice filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Archambault has said the tribe intends to continue looking for legal options to fight the pipeline.
Nonetheless, the judge wrote, the tribe “has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here”. If construction of the pipeline is ceased, Energy Transfer Partners could potentially lose $1.4 billion in the first year.
He ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on September 16.
It would carry oil from just north of land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to IL, where it would connect with an existing pipeline and route crude directly to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.
“We are going to take it as far as we can”.
“Today, three federal agencies announced the significant decision to respect tribal sovereignty and stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Army Corps land”.
The language which the Obama Administration used in halting the construction, though, is essentially a request to the company, but whether or not they choose to comply and voluntarily stop their project has yet to be seen.
“We have laws that require federal agencies to consider environmental risks and protection of Indian historic and sacred sites”, Dave Archambault II, the elected chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said in a statement to CNN.
U.S. government officials are now reportedly promising to temporarily halt construction of the pipeline on federally owned land, which makes up a significant chunk of the land on which the pipeline would be built.
Theres never been a coming together of tribes like this, she said of Fridays gathering of Native Americans, which she estimated could be the largest in a century. People came from as far as NY and Alaska, some bringing their families and children.
One Oklahoma man said he’s planning to let his voice be heard by returning to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Robedeaux said, despite the decision made by the judge, the fight must continue.
The US Department of Justice has not weighed in at this point.
A weekend confrontation between protesters and private security guards on private land near the protest site left some guards injured and some protesters with dog bites.
The protests gained national attention and those who were against the building of the pipeline argued their concern for the environmental impact it would have on the land, and also that the proposed location for it is sacred ground for the tribe.
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He said he became aware of the protest’s high visibility on social media when he saw portions streamed live on Facebook during the trip to North Dakota.
