Just minutes after a federal judge rejected her tribe’s request to halt construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline, the Obama administration stepped in.
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As construction continued, the tribe filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order, but the U.S. District Court Judge overseeing the motion denied it and construction continued.
“People are sick of being run roughshod over by corporations”, Tracey Hill, 46, a Cleveland resident said.
Officers carry away a protester from the site of Dakota Access pipeline work near Glen Ullin north of Interstate 94 on Tuesday.
The 1,172-mile, 30-inch diameter underground pipeline will originate in western North Dakota, cut across South Dakota and 18 counties in Iowa before ending at an existing pipeline in Patoka, Ill.
The pipeline, built by the Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, would cross the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s sacred land and burial places, as well as more than 200 water ways on its path through four states. Three federal agencies also asked Energy Transfer Partners for a “voluntary pause” in work for 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe.
McGarvey said that federal action went back on the typical procedure, which could have a “chilling effect” for future construction and infrastructure projects beyond oil or gas pipelines.
The 1,172-mile project would carry almost a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota’s oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois.
Pipeline protests in North Dakota reached local communities in Montana. ETP has said it expects to complete the full pipeline by the end of the year.
“We won’t stop until they stop”, wrote the Sacred Stone Camp, where the Standing Rock Sioux and allied Indigenous nations and supporters have gathered in protest of the pipeline’s construction.
On Friday, the departments of Justice, Army and Interior said construction of the pipeline should stop until the environmental concerns are fully investigated. Kelcy Warren, chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the project, said in a statement to employees that the pipeline will be safer than rail and trucks for transporting oil.
Bernie Sanders is scheduled to appear at a rally Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and solidarity protests are expected around the country.
Approximately 150 people gathered in front of the Boulder County Courthouse on Tuesday to show solidarity with Dakota Access pipeline protesters in North Dakota.
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In his memo, Warren claims that his pipeline company “worked to meet with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe leaders on multiple occasions”.
