No physical blockade of pipeline protest camp: North Dakota officials

North Dakota officials on Tuesday backed away from plans to physically block supplies from reaching oil pipeline protesters at a camp near the construction site, saying they will instead use financial deterrents to prevent food and building materials from coming in. Activists have spent months protesting plans to route the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying the project poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites. Earlier on Tuesday, Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff's Department, said food, building materials and other supplies would be blocked from entering the main camp following Governor Jack Dalrymple's "emergency evacuation" order on Monday. However, a spokesman for the governor told Reuters on Tuesday afternoon that no such action was planned. "There is not going to be any blockade of supplies," said the spokesman, Jeff Zent. State officials said fines will be their tool of choice rather than a physical blockade. Herr said following Zent's comments that law enforcement would take a more "passive role" than enforcing a blockade. Officers will stop vehicles they believe are headed to the camp and inform drivers they are committing an infraction and could be fined $1,000...more