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What is Happening in the Dakotas???
I was discussing this issue with a co-worker today. She said that her family asked her what was going on with the Dakotas, because they don't really follow international news or other news sources.
No one is really covering it in depth -- instead all the focus is on the US Presidential Election from hell.
The skinny? Tired of transferring crude oil via barrels, an major energy company decided to build a pipeline to carry it down through the Dakotas to Illinois. They attempted to put it through a residential area, but the residents asked at various town hall meetings - "Is there any danger of leaks? And what would that do to our property? etc?" They couldn't answer that question. So when it came to a vote, the residents stated -- uh, no way in hell. So of course they wandered off and decided to claim land north in Native American aka Indian Reservations, which are the architectual sites and burial grounds. The Natives got upset. The protests turned ugly -- one female journalist covering it was put in jail. They aren't supposed to be digging without permission. President Obama told them to stop, but they've continued to do so. They've been putting people in make-shift prisons akin to cages. Police are firing rubber bullets at the protestors. Various churches in our area are sending people to support them. And there's a huge protest march on Sat in NYC.
Anyhow, here's a few links for the interested:
1. Here's What You Should Know About The Dakota Pipeline Process --- from the Huffington Post.
2. What is the Dakota Access Pipeline according to the company spearheading it
3. Wikipedi on Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
4. Dakota Access Pipeline What's at Stake
It's a $3.7 billion project that would cross four states and change the landscape of the US crude oil supply.
And depending on who you ask, the results could be an economic boon that makes the country more self-sufficient or an environmental disaster that destroys sacred Native American sites.
5. This is Why Environmentalists are Targeting Energy Pipelines Like the North Dakota Project
6. The Legal Case for Blocking the Daktoa Access Pipeline
No one is really covering it in depth -- instead all the focus is on the US Presidential Election from hell.
The skinny? Tired of transferring crude oil via barrels, an major energy company decided to build a pipeline to carry it down through the Dakotas to Illinois. They attempted to put it through a residential area, but the residents asked at various town hall meetings - "Is there any danger of leaks? And what would that do to our property? etc?" They couldn't answer that question. So when it came to a vote, the residents stated -- uh, no way in hell. So of course they wandered off and decided to claim land north in Native American aka Indian Reservations, which are the architectual sites and burial grounds. The Natives got upset. The protests turned ugly -- one female journalist covering it was put in jail. They aren't supposed to be digging without permission. President Obama told them to stop, but they've continued to do so. They've been putting people in make-shift prisons akin to cages. Police are firing rubber bullets at the protestors. Various churches in our area are sending people to support them. And there's a huge protest march on Sat in NYC.
Anyhow, here's a few links for the interested:
1. Here's What You Should Know About The Dakota Pipeline Process --- from the Huffington Post.
2. What is the Dakota Access Pipeline according to the company spearheading it
3. Wikipedi on Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
The Dakota Access Pipeline protests, also known by hashtags such as NoDAPL, are a grassroots movement that began in the spring of 2016 in reaction to the proposed construction of Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access Pipeline. The proposed pipeline would run from the Bakken oil fields in western North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing beneath the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as well as part of Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a limited review of the route, involving an environmental assessment of river crossings and portions of the project related to specific permits, and issued a finding of no significant impact. It did not carry out an area-wide full environmental impact assessment of the entire effects of the overall project through the four states. Citing potential effects on and lack of consultation with the Native American tribes, most notably the Standing Rock Sioux, in March and April 2016 the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation asked the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a formal Environmental Impact Assessment and issue an Environmental Impact Statement. In July, however, the Army Corps of Engineers approved the water crossing permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline under a “fast track” option, and construction of the disputed section of pipeline continued. Saying "the Corps effectively wrote off the tribe’s concerns and ignored the pipeline’s impacts to sacred sites and culturally important landscapes," the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe then filed suit against the Army Corps of Engineers, accusing the agency of violating the National Historic Preservation Act and other laws.
In April, a Standing Rock Sioux elder established a camp as a center for cultural preservation and spiritual resistance to the pipeline, and over the summer the camp grew to thousands of people. In July, ReZpect Our Water, a group of Native American youth, ran from Standing Rock in North Dakota to Washington, DC to raise awareness of what they perceive as a threat to their people's drinking water and that of everyone who relies on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers for drinking water and irrigation. The young people attempted to deliver more than 100,000 petition signatures to US President Barack Obama asking him to stop the pipeline, but they were not received at the White House.
While the protests have drawn international attention and have been said to be "reshaping the national conversation for any environmental project that would cross the Native American land", there was limited mainstream media coverage of the events in the United States until recently. In September, construction workers bulldozed a section of land that tribal historic preservation officers had just documented as a historic, sacred site, and when protesters entered the area security workers used attack dogs, which bit at least five of the protesters. The incident was filmed and viewed by several million people on YouTube and other social media. In late October, armed soldiers and police with riot gear and military equipment cleared an encampment that was in the direct path of the proposed pipeline. On November 1, President Obama announced that his administration is monitoring the movement and has been in contact with the Army Corps to examine the possibility of rerouting the pipeline to avoid lands that Native Americans hold sacred.
4. Dakota Access Pipeline What's at Stake
It's a $3.7 billion project that would cross four states and change the landscape of the US crude oil supply.
And depending on who you ask, the results could be an economic boon that makes the country more self-sufficient or an environmental disaster that destroys sacred Native American sites.
5. This is Why Environmentalists are Targeting Energy Pipelines Like the North Dakota Project
6. The Legal Case for Blocking the Daktoa Access Pipeline
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