Oil is flowing in the Dakota Access pipeline, but protesters aren't giving up

Even as oil flows through the now-completed Dakota Access pipeline, the fight against the hotly contested line still lives on in a makeshift camp here in Iowa County. Little Creek Camp, with its collective of 20 or so environmentalists, opened after federal authorities in February evacuated the massive anti-pipeline encampment near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. Those campers say they believe the pipeline can still be defeated — even as its owners, Energy Transfer Partners, plan to finish filling the 1,172-mile line with crude oil Sunday, shipping it from the Bakken formation in North Dakota to a distribution hub in Patoka, Ill. "It's disheartening to say the least," said Glenn Williamson, a 41-year-old camp member from Sioux Falls, S.D., "but for some of us, it's strengthening our resolve as well. We know we still need to be here and we are going to be as active, if not more, in the future." The campers, spread among 14 acres of tall prairie grass and thick woods, hold out hope that the Iowa Supreme Court will reverse the Iowa Utilities Board's decision that granted Energy Transfer Partners' eminent domain authority for the project...more