Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Activists Plan Emergency Actions Across the Country to Protest Approval of Dakota Access Pipeline

Lawyers for the tribe say they will argue in court that an environmental impact statement, mandated by the Army Corps under Obama, was wrongfully terminated. They will likely request a restraining order while the legal battle ensues. Pipeline company lawyers have said that it would take at minimum 83 days for oil to flow from the date that an easement is granted. Although the tribal government once supported the string of anti-pipeline camps that began popping up last spring, leaders have since insisted that pipeline opponents go home and stay away from the reservation. “Please respect our people and do not come to Standing Rock and instead exercise your First Amendment rights and take this fight to your respective state capitols, to your members of Congress, and to Washington, D.C.,” tribal chairman Dave Archambault said in a statement. Still, the easement announcement is already activating pipeline opponents to return. A “couple thousand people” are headed back to the camps, including contingents of veterans, said former congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the tribe, in a video posted to Facebook. Cedric Goodhouse, a Lakota elder who lives on the reservation and has been involved in fighting the pipeline since last spring, said it’s inevitable that the fight will spill outside the courtroom. “It’s going to come here to the drill pad. That puts us in a different spot,” he said. “It’s going to come to a head, and people are probably going to get hurt.”...more

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