The construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline has been protested every step of the way by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose water supply is threatened by the pipeline, and they have even taken the federal government to court over the plans.
Advertisement
The Standing Rock Sioux’s effort to block a four-state oil pipeline got a lifeline when the federal government temporarily stopped the project, a move some say likely may forever change the way all energy infrastructure projects are reviewed in the future.
The Obama administration stepped into a dispute on Friday over a planned oil pipeline in North Dakota that has angered Native Americans, appealing for calm while blocking construction on federal land and asking the company behind the project to suspend work nearby.
A joint statement from the Army and the Departments of Justice and the Interior, revealed that the pause would be applied to the pipeline’s path across a sliver of federal lands and under a dammed section of the Missouri River known as Lake Oahe.
Energy group Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN) called Obama’s decision to halt development troubling, and a move that could ultimately cost the jobs and livelihoods of thousands of oil workers.
We will have to pursue our options with an appeal and hope that construction isnt completed while that (appeal) process is going forward, he said.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposes the pipeline because the route crosses sacred sites and burial places.
The protests against the pipeline have been called one of the largest gatherings of indigenous people in American history. “We shouldn’t need a GAO report, but we clearly do”, Grijalva said Thursday prior to the judges decision and the three department announcement.
Meanwhile, Dakota Access opponents say they intend to continue camping north of the reservation while the legal matters are ongoing. Almost 40 have been arrested as the protest has grown size, including Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II.
The underground pipeline will transport 470,000 barrels of oil from the Bakken oil formation in North Dakota, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimates holds 7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered oil.
On Friday, the federal government halted construction of the pipeline on federal land, and also asked the company building it to suspend work on private land, Fortune reports.
Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said he consulted with the Army Corps of Engineers “pretty regularly.to make sure that they were doing everything they needed to do as per the law”.
The Standing Rock Sioux are the original inhabitants of what is now North Dakota, and we applaud this administration for recognizing their inalienable right to self-determination of their tribal homelands.
Dallas Goldtooth – who has emerged as one of the camp’s leaders – said the mood among protesters was one of celebration.
Advertisement
On the morning of September 7th, protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline gathered near the law offices of Fredrikson & Byron, located in US Bank Plaza in downtown Minneapolis, to demand Dakota Access, LLC be dropped as a client.
