Over the weekend, the Obama administration denied a key permit necessary to complete the controversial Dakota Access pipeline. This overtly political decision not only ignores the facts about the Dakota Access pipeline; more dangerous, the Obama administration has rewarded the violent tactics used by some of the pipeline’s most radical protesters. Since the protests began, […]
Read MoreThe Obama administration announced Sunday that it is denying an easement needed to build the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would run crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The project is mostly built on private land but requires approval from the Army Corps of Engineers to cross federally regulated waters, including Lake Oahe, a section […]
Read MoreA little more than two weeks ago, during a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement, an improvised explosive device was detonated on a public bridge in southern North Dakota. That was simply the latest manifestation of the “prayerful” and “peaceful” protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Escalating tensions were temporarily defused Sunday when the U.S. […]
Read MoreThe Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is more than just a pipeline. It is a political hot potato. There are a lot of issues underlying the DAPL conversation, including indigenous peoples’ access to ancestral lands, environmental concerns of a potential spill, water rights, and social justice. One false assumption is that rejecting the DAPL would result […]
Read MoreThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday delivered a symbolic victory to the environmental left by denying a permit to complete the 1,200-mile Dakota Access oil pipeline. The political obstruction illustrates why it’s so hard to build anything in America these days. Construction is almost complete on the Dakota Access, which aims to transport […]
Read MoreThe United States has 72,000 miles of crude oil pipeline. Yet each proposal to add 1,000 miles or so is viewed by opponents in almost apocalyptic terms. Activists spent years defeating the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported oil from western Canada and eastern Montana to the Gulf of Mexico. Now the focus is […]
Read MoreThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not be granting the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) the easement it needs to cross the Missouri River, despite the project being nearly complete. American Indians and environmentalists camped out at the project’s construction site hailed the decision a victory, while Energy Transfer Partners and pipeline […]
Read MoreAfter being immersed in more than three months of protests and riots over the Dakota Access Pipeline in Morton County, N.D., I feel compelled to share a few general observations. First, and most aggravating, the reasoning and stated positions of the protesters seem to have little to do with the citizens of Morton County, or […]
Read MoreMandan, N.D. — This fall, Dakota Access Pipeline protesters at the Sacred Stones Camp in North Dakota proudly highlighted the Defenders of the Water School as a camp success story. By October, they had changed their tune. In a letter addressed to tribal chairman Dave Archambault II, the North Dakota State Superintendent of Public Instruction […]
Read MoreThe 2016 election will go down in history as one of the more toxic and divisive in modern American history. Yet it is worth considering at least one issue that received near universal support from both candidates: the need to invest in infrastructure. Political leadership has long viewed infrastructure investments by the private sector as […]
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