The Dakota Access pipeline would carry oil across four states from North Dakota to IL through South Dakota and Iowa, cost $3.8 billion to construct, and enable higher production from the Bakken Formation.
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Stein was part of a group of 150 to 200 people who protested at the construction site, where two protesters attached themselves to bulldozers and some construction equipment reportedly was vandalized. However, Green Party candidate Jill Stein arrived today to show support for the protest.
About 25 law enforcement officers responded to the protest site, where no Dakota Access Pipeline workers were working. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said.
It halts construction on some, but not all, of the 1,172-mile pipeline that would pump oil from the fracked shale deposits in North Dakota to an oil hub in IL.
The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline, which is slated to cross the Dakotas and Iowa to IL.
In a statement, Standing Rock Sioux chairman David Archambault II said, “We are disappointed that the U.S. District Court’s decision does not prevent DAPL from destroying our sacred sites as we await a ruling on our original motion to stop construction of the pipeline”.
The Standing Rock Sioux argue that the pipeline threatens sacred sites and poses a risk to the tribe’s drinking- water supply.
Authorities say law enforcement officers responding to protesters at a Dakota Access Pipeline construction site on private property in North Dakota pulled back because they determined it wasn’t safe to respond.
In a Facebook post, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said it responded to the site to find a broken fence, a protester attached to heavy machinery and equipment vandalized.
On Saturday, Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the 1,200 Dakota Access Pipeline, destroyed a scared Native burial site at Standing Rock in North Dakota.
The order came as a result of an emergency hearing called by Judge Boasberg after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe filed a temporary restraining order over the weekend.
He also said he’ll rule on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s challenge of federal regulators’ decision to grant permits to the Texas-based operators of Dakota Access pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and IL, by the end of Friday.
“We’re still going to occupy each site”, she said.
“The incident is actually still ongoing as we speak”, Kirchmeier said Tuesday afternoon.
Tensions reached new highs over the weekend as things turned violent among police and protestors over the four-state $3.8 billion project. And if building the pipeline would be better for the environment, will the protection of Native American sacred sites be a strong enough reason for USA courts to revoke the pipeline’s construction permits?
“I’m here on lockdown to send a message that our water is sacred, our women are sacred, our children are sacred”, said Jules, who is founder of the Mothers Against Meth Alliance. He alleges, “This was more like a riot than a protest”.
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The tribe had hoped to block construction along a bigger stretch of land, but Boasberg ruled the Army Corps of Engineers – the subject of the tribe’s underlying lawsuit – doesn’t have jurisdiction over those lands.
