Tribal officials challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is meant to carry oil from North Dakota to IL.
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According to Mother Jones, members from over Native American 100 tribes have been camping together near the disputed build sites, which, the Standing Rock tribe says, are sacred tribal burial grounds.
The move came shortly after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington rejected a request from Native Americans for a court order to block the project.
He ordered the parties to appear for a status conference on September 16, the Associated Press reported.
The Obama administration blocked the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, at least temporarily, on Friday after a court had ruled that its construction was legal. Native peoples have suffered generations of broken promises and today the federal government said that national reform is needed to better ensure that tribes have a voice on infrastructure projects like this pipeline.
A federal judge is set to deliver a key ruling on the four-state Dakota Access pipeline that has drawn thousands of protesters to a construction site in North Dakota in recent weeks.
The agencies will now decide whether they need to reconsider permitting decisions for the pipeline under the National Environmental Policy Act.
He noted – as federal lawyers did – that the Standing Rock Sioux did not respond to Corps requests for comment early on in its assessment of the route, or for meetings with federal officials.
Energy Transfer said the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments.
State authorities announced this week that law enforcement officers from across the state were being mobilized at the protest site.
Dave Archambault II, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, hailed the decision, and vowed to continue fighting against the project.
Miller-Lewis said the announcement accomplishes the same goal as Sanders’ amendment-to stop pipeline construction-but the senator’s proposal goes further than the federal agencies’ decision by requiring an environmental review.
Acting on the tribe’s behalf, the environmental group Earthjustice filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Army will move expeditiously to make this determination, as everyone involved – including the pipeline company and its workers – deserves a clear and timely resolution.
Since April, there’s been a tribal protest – held mostly by members of the Standing Rock Sioux -at the confluence of the Cannonball and Missouri rivers.
About a dozen North Iowans showed their displeasure Friday afternoon with the Dakota Access pipeline that could transport 500,000 barrels a day of crude oil from North Dakota through Iowa to IL. Protestors say construction violates federal law, and will destroy land important to their heritage.
The ruling said Dakota Access hired professional archaeologists to survey the entire route through the Dakotas and much of Iowa and IL for cultural resources.
Opposition to the pipeline has grown from tribal protests on the North Dakota prairie to a national fight over fossil fuel development and pipeline projects generally.
The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association asked U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday to send federal monitors to the protest site, alleging racial profiling and other transgressions are happening.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others are trying to stop the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, saying it threatens their drinking water and has disturbed sacred sites.
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On Friday, it appeared the Army changed its tune over the construction project to side with the tribe.
