Indian Country Cheers Historic Decision on Dakota Access Pipeline
In a major victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its many allies, the Obama administration ordered a new and more complete review of the final portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The announcement, which came on Sunday afternoon, brought cheers throughout Indian Country. It fulfills a long-standing request to examine the impacts of the controversial project on sacred sites, burial grounds and water resources on and near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.
"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama administration for this historic decision," Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement.
Chairman Harold Frazier of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe was equally thankful. He praised the thousands of pipeline resisters who have endured the brutal tactics of law enforcement for the past four months and, more recently, extreme weather conditions, for playing a key role in influencing the latest development.
"I thank President Barack Obama and the United States for this historic decision that will do much to restore the faith of the Lakota people in the country that has treated us so dishonorably for so long," Frazier said in a press release.
Officially, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement for Dakota Access to cross Lake Oahe at the Missouri River. The site -- where the backers of the pipeline have insisted they can drill despite lacking final approval -- lies less than a half-mile north of the Standing Rock border. Potential new routes will be considered through a more complete environmental impact statement.
"Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it's clear that there's more work to do," Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Assistant Secretary for Civil Works at the Department of the Army, said in a press release. "The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."
A memo offered more details on the last-minute events leading up to the historic decision. According to Darcy, the tribe and Dakota Access met for five hours with Army Corps staff on Friday.
Darcy said the lengthy meeting did not result in "any definitive mutual agreements" between the parties. But the concerns that were discussed -- such as oil spills, treaty rights and alternative routes -- will now be a part of the new environmental analysis
And just a day after the gathering, Darcy said a "revised proposed easement" was presented to the Army. Based on the "totality of circumstances," potential reroutes should be examined, she wrote.
"I want to be clear that this decision does not alter the Army's position that the Corps' prior reviews and actions comported have comported with legal requirements," Darcy stated in the four-page document, a copy of which was filed in federal court on Sunday.
The wealthy backers of the pipeline seized on that statement as they blasted the Army Corps for denying an easement they believed was all but a formality. They traced the decision to interference at the highest levels of the Obama administration.
"The White House’s directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency," Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners said in a joint statement on Sunday.
The two firms did not say what they would do in response to the denial of the easement but they have already asked a federal judge to issue a ruling that would allow them to complete their costly project. According to a top Dakota Access executive, "less than 1 mile" of pipe remains to be laid at Lake Oahe. The rest of the 1,172-mile structure, which crosses four states, is essentially finished.
And while the firms asserted that "two federal courts" have ratified the Army Corps' handling of the matter, they were in fact warned about the danger of proceeding without the easement. A well-connected Washington attorney even acknowledged that the review process anticipates potential reroutes.
"If you're not going to get the permit to cross at the critical point, you're going to have to redirect the pipeline, right?" Judge Thomas B. Griffith of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asked during the October 5 hearing in Washington, D.C.
"Yes," responded Miguel A. Estrada, a well-connected attorney who was hired by Dakota Access.
"So it's a gamble," Griffith said. "You're gambling you're going to win."
With President Barack Obama heading out the door in just 45 days, Dakota Access might not have to gamble much longer. Republican Donald Trump, who has invested his own money in Energy Transfer Partners and owns stock in Phillips 66 Company, a publicly-traded company with a stake in the pipeline supports completing the project, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
"We are asking our supporters to keep up the pressure, because while President Obama has granted us a victory today, that victory isn't guaranteed in the next administration," Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a press release from the Sacred Stone Camp, the original #NoDAPL encampment. "More threats are likely in the year to come, and we cannot stop until this pipeline is completely and utterly defeated, and our water and climate are safe.”
Trump takes office on January 20, 2017, and previously he vowed to lift "roadblocks" to large infrastructure projects like Dakota Access within his first 100 days in office. A memo obtained by the AP confirmed that the incoming president plans to stick to that pledge.
Trump's support of Dakota Access "has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans," the memo -- which was distributed to supporters and Republican members of Congress -- states, according to the AP.
"I'm encouraged we will restore law and order next month when we get a President who will not thumb his nose at the rule of law," Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), who is one of Trump's advisers, said in a press release.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the new environmental review and the incoming administration, the mood was celebratory at Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) , the largest #NoDAPL encampment, on Sunday. The denial of the easement brought of wave of relief to the thousands who were worried about being considered trespassers and being subject to local, state or federal prosecution.
Many have vowed to remain at the camp, which sits on public land, throughout the winter. Their celebrations on Sunday were boosted by the arrival of thousands of participants in Veterans Stand For Standing Rock, an event that was organized prior to the latest developments.
"While we celebrate today's news, we cannot be complacent," Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), an active duty service member, said from Standing Rock on Sunday. "We must continue to protect our water and preserve our land."