‘It Turned into a War’: Pipeline Workers Thrown into the Middle of Protests

Cory Bryson, 32, has known about the Dakota Access Pipeline since 2013. He attended public hearings in 2014, when he spoke with landowners, residents, legal staff and representatives of Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company building the pipeline. He recalls there would be a minimum of 50 people at each meeting — none of whom represented the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

He said they didn’t show up to the hearings in Mandan, Killdeer, Williston and Bismarck or the open house.

Bryson has worked on projects of this size before. He’s been through the process. To Bryson, this was just another ordinary project. Three years later, Bryson told a different story.

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Misinformation Dominates Yet Again in Out-of-Touch Congressional Letter

In a letter addressed to President Obama, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) along with 21 other Democratic members of the House of Representatives again presented another argument riddled with misinformation and emotion rather than the on-the-ground facts concerning the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The most important point in this letter to once again debunk is that at no point does this pipeline cross Standing Rock Sioux land. Period.

The current route not only parallels an existing pipeline, The Northern Border Pipeline, as well as an electrical transmission line, but the route was specifically selected because the area had already been surveyed for cultural and archaeological artifacts. Thus the land Dakota Access will run underneath has already been excavated, at least twice, leaving little chance of an encounter with an unknown site. Additionally, the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office found that no articles or items of cultural significance were within the pipeline construction corridor.

But importantly, the protests have not been peaceful at all. In fact, protesters have engaged in a myriad of violent and illegal activities. They have set firesslaughtered livestockfired at gun at law enforcement officersburned a bridge, terrorized journalists, and repeatedly trespassed on private property. All the while the federal government has refused aid to North Dakota law enforcement, forcing state resources to provide adequate protection for themselves and for private property. What has been construed as “militarism” is in reality defending the lives of union workers and residents of Morton County.

The federal response to the actions of the protesters has been disappointing. Following an extensive and thorough two year review, including analysis by the state of North Dakota as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, political decision makers have forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to delay the final easement approval following the onset of illegal protest activity. Though the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe had the opportunity to voice their comments and concerns during the regulatory processes in North Dakota, South Dakota, and throughout the public review and comment process for the Corps, they failed to do so, and are now holding up a legally permitted infrastructure project.

Everyone has a right to peaceful assembly, and to freely speak their mind. But the actions in Morton County have far exceeded any reasonable litmus test for what constitutes free speech. The Federal Government’s inaction continues to create and foster an environment that is hostile and unfair to local community members and law enforcement officers who call the area home.


DAPL Supporters Stress Risks to Public Health, Safety if Protests Continue

There are presently around 3,000 protesters occupying six camps near where the Dakota Access Pipeline will cross the Missouri River. As the seasons change, some have opted to go home, but others have stayed and are beginning to construct shelters in preparation for winter. It’s a sign that they intend to wait out the winter. According to industry officials, though, the pipeline itself is all but built and continued protest is unlikely to be effective.

“This thing is going to get approved,” said Brigham McCown, former acting administrator of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The project has already received permits from each of the several states it passes through. All that remains is a final easement of about 540 feet on each side of the river. The Army Corps of Engineers has twice defended its approval process for the section in courts, and the courts have agreed construction should continue. But earlier this week, the Corps announced it wanted to halt construction while doing further analysis.

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The Army Corps of Engineers Deserves Thanks, Not Attacks, for Dakota Access Pipeline Work

As a retired Army major general, I know what a challenging job uniformed public service can be. The hazards are enormous, the financial rewards small, and the work never ending. Those who wear the uniform do so out of duty and love of country. Although they do not seek public recognition for their service, they deserve at the very least to be treated as the professionals they are.

In the last several months, one group of extremely hard-working and dedicated U.S. Army professionals serving here in the Midwest has been singled out for consistent and sustained public mistreatment not for any wrongdoing on their part, but as part of an organized campaign to discredit a nearly completed oil pipeline.

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Spider Marks: Pipeline Smear Campaign Must End

Having failed to stop the Dakota Access pipeline through both the regulatory process and the federal court system, opponents have resorted to dirty politics.

In their most shameful tactic yet, they are trying to smear the reputation — and end the career — of a decorated Army combat veteran and respected civil servant whose professional decisions they dislike. This must not be allowed to stand.

The now-famous protests against the 1,172-mile pipeline (which is more than 80 percent complete) began last summer when, with no evidence, leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their political allies sought to delegitimize the pipeline by accusing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of acting illegally and in bad faith.

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The Facts About the Dakota Access Pipeline That Protesters Don’t Want You to Know

For more than three months, thousands of protesters, most of them from out of state, have illegally camped on federal land in Morton County, North Dakota, to oppose the construction of a legally permitted oil pipeline project that is 85 percent complete.

The celebrities, political activists, and anti-oil extremists who are blocking the pipeline’s progress are doing so based on highly charged emotions rather than actual facts on the ground.

This 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline will deliver as many as 570,000 barrels of oil a day from northwestern North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to connect to existing pipelines in Illinois. It will do this job far more safely than the current method of transporting it by 750 rail cars a day.

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The Dakota Access Debate Has Grown Out of Proportion

The Washington Post recently published a supportive opinion editorial from former Senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) and Daryl Owen of Owen Associates which examined how the protest and activity over the Dakota Access pipeline has grown of proportion.

From violent protest activity to millions of dollars of damage to equipment and even disturbing death threats to employees – the tactics being deployed against the project are unseemly and unnecessary.

In the column, Johnston and Owen highlight efforts of sabotage against operational pipelines across the country and the danger that such actions can create. They write that the protests are no longer about opposition to the project, but rather a new tool in the effort to stop the development and use of fossil fuels.

In addition to examining the true nature of the protest and the violence ensuing, Johnston and Owen highlight that, “[t]his is, after all, a pipeline project,” and not simply the first of which would cross the Missouri River – it would be one of dozens that do so carrying American energy products. The final piece of the puzzle, is as they say, “part and parcel of a river-crossing permit the pipeline has already received. It is a simple ministerial action authorizing the pipeline to cross beneath federal lands and, for want of a simple signature by an Army Corps bureaucrat, would finalize the process. By arbitrarily refusing to follow the law, the Justice Department has placed a lawfully permitted, vital $4 billion infrastructure project into suspended animation.”

The authors also note that the tribe who has sought to stall the project “largely refused to engage in [the] consultations” after much inquiry – a fact echoed by a federal court judge who reviewed the Army Corps findings and determinations. Johnston and Owen write that “there is much to be discussed and much to be regretted about the past 150 years of U.S.-tribal relations. But a real estate document for a pipeline river crossing seems hardly the pretext to do so.”

The Administration and Federal Government’s decision to withhold the final piece of multi-billion dollar project, in Owen and Johnston’s own words, it sends “a chilling message to the private sector about the rule of law as it relates to infrastructure development.”

It is simply unacceptable that the Federal Government has continued to delay the completion of this project – after all, their approval was already granted in July of this year. The fact remains, a single 1,000 foot section of an 1100 mile project, is currently held up by opponents who have already stated their mission is far greater than the Dakota Access Pipeline – but simply to withhold the development of America’s energy future.

 

 

 


Senators’ Letter Rejects the Facts

A letter sent by Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley, addressed to President Obama regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline, show just how out of touch these members appear to be with the realities of the permitting and planning process for energy infrastructure projects, and with the on the ground realities of the brutal and illegal actions of anti-pipeline protesters.

To summarize; the letter from Senators Wyden and Merkley argues that the planning process for the project had “three major shortcomings.” The first there was inadequate consultations with the SRST “on the impacts to their historic and cultural land;” second, the Corps utilized an inappropriate permitting process; and third, there was a failure to conduct environmental review. The letter also  notes that the concerns with the Nationwide Permit 12 process and argues that because of the pre-approval process in the NWP 12, that there was no public notice or comment period for the overall project or an EIS. The letter also states, in their opinion, that the environmental review was not thorough enough and that concerns from EPA, DOI, and ACHP were disregarded.  Finally, it notes the right of the protesters to “peacefully protest,” and does not include mention of the actions by the protesters but rather the “militarized police response.”

Today the word of the year was announced, false-truth.

We can think of nothing better to describe the gross inaccuracies described by this letter to the President. Once again we see a pattern of ignored realities.

Dakota Access, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted hundreds of outreach meetings and consultations with Native American tribes, many of which the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe simply refused to participate in. The State of North Dakota also held three separate public input hearings that were well publicized throughout the state that the tribe did not participate in.

Regardless of the Senators concerns with the Nationwide 12 permitting process, the entirely legal process was followed by the various federal agencies who have oversight of the permitting process. Following the issuance of an finding of no significant impact in an over 1,200 page environmental assessment studied over two years by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the project was permitted to move forward on federal lands. That decision was upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia as well as the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Senators might have their own opinions, but these are not the basis of federal law. Political opinions, like those of the Senators of members of the Obama Administration, should remain just that, while federal laws should be followed according to the letter of the law; including the permits released under Nationwide 12.

Finally, once again we see Washington politicians rejecting the overwhelming evidence of violent acts towards members of the law enforcement community, who have pleaded for federal assistance. Instead, the Senators decided to side with protesters who have already committed the following illegal acts:  set firesslaughtered livestockfired at gun at law enforcement officersburned a bridge, terrorized journalists, and repeatedly trespassed on private property.


A Pipeline of Necessity

The untouched vistas of the Northern Great Plains are a national treasure and are sacred to American Indians. But more than memories of home on the range are encouraging activists to block the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The resistance is part of a relentless environmentalist campaign to shut down critical upgrades of the nation’s energy infrastructure. Weighing the interests of the few against the needs of the many, there is only one clear conclusion: The pipeline must go through.

The $3.7 billion pipeline, stretching 1,134 miles from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota southeast to Illinois, has triggered protests by members of the Standing Rock Sioux who say that the pipeline would deface ancestral artifacts and threaten vital sources of water. Sioux spines have been stiffened by the same sort of “keep it in the ground” arguments that anti-growth activists used to persuade President Obama to kill the Keystone XL pipeline two years ago. The spray-painting of anti-pipeline graffiti on the North Dakota pillar at the National World War II Memorial in Washington links radical environmentalism with angry anti-Americanism. It’s the unmistakable calling card of the destructive left.

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