A False Victory At Standing Rock

The 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 of the Missouri River. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe , which governs a reservation near the lake, objects that the project threatens its water and violates sacred land. The protest camp the tribe created has swelled with activists from across the country, who have clashed with local authorities. So, with the harsh Dakota winter descending on the camp, the Army Corps said Sunday it would examine new routes in consultation with tribal leaders.

It is hard not to have sympathy for the tribe. Driven off their territory and cordoned into a small reservation, the Standing Rock and other Native American communities were victims of grave injustice as white Americans moved relentlessly west in pursuit of land and fortune. The area outside the reservation still holds historical and cultural significance, which deserves careful consideration.

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Army Corps Gives the Left a Last Stand in North Dakota

The 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 a half million barrels of oil each day from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to Illinois for delivery to refiners on the East and Gulf coasts. About 99% of the pipeline doesn’t require federal permitting because it traverses private lands. But the Corps must sign off on an easement to drill under Lake Oahe that dams the Missouri River.

After an exhaustive consultation with Native American tribes, the Corps in July issued an environmental assessment of “no significant impact.” Construction is unlikely to harm tribal totems because the Dakota Access would parallel an existing gas pipeline. The route has been modified 140 times in North Dakota to avoid upsetting sacred cultural resources.

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Our View: Finish Dakota Access Pipeline

The 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 on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a mostly built line running diagonally through the Dakotas and Iowa on its way to Illinois. It would be the first major pipeline bringing access to the Bakken oil fields that have been so much a part of America’s energy production renaissance.

On Sunday, the Army Corps of Engineers said it would not approve an easement to cross the Missouri River at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, where protesters have been holed up for months. The decision by the Obama administration effectively punts the issue to the Trump administration, which would do well to explore whether there are less controversial ways to complete the pipeline.

For the Standing Rock Sioux, it is understandable that they would not want a pipeline crossing a major river just upstream of their reservation (and traversing land outside of the reservation said to contain sacred burial sites).

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