Posted on 09/09/2016 2:42:15 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Obama administration said it would not authorize construction on a critical stretch of the Dakota Access pipeline, handing a significant victory to the Indian tribe fighting the project the same day the group lost a court battle.
The administration said construction would halt until it can do more environmental assessments.
The Department of Justice, the Army and the Interior Department jointly announced that construction would pause on the pipeline near North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a major water source on the Missouri River for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The agencies will now decide whether they need to reconsider permitting decisions for the pipeline under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"The Army will move expeditiously to make this determination, as everyone involved — including the pipeline company and its workers — deserves a clear and timely resolution," the agencies said in a statement. "In the interim, we request that the pipeline company voluntarily pause all construction activity within 20 miles east or west of Lake Oahe."
The Lake Oahe crossing was a major concern for the tribe, which worries about the impact a leak in the pipeline would have on the lake.
A federal judge Friday denied the tribe's request to halt construction on the 1,170-mile pipeline. The administration's decision came shortly after that decision.
The tribe had sued over the Army Corps' approval of the project under a historic preservation law, but the judge ruled that regulators had acted properly when issuing permitting for the project.
Despite the ruling, the agencies said, "important issues raised by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other tribal nations and their members regarding the Dakota Access pipeline specifically, and pipeline-related decision-making generally, remain."
The Army Corps has permitted pipeline construction near Lake Oahe. But, as of last month, federal agencies had not yet issued the easements necessary for construction to begin there.
Dakota Access developers had no comment on the decision, but the Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now, a group supporting the pipeline, said it was “deeply troubling and could have a long-lasting chilling effect on private infrastructure development in the United States.”
“This is a historic, unprecedented, and overdue move by the Administration that is reflective of the brave and principled stand by the Standing Rock Sioux,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement.
“The Tribe has stood up to combat the oppression and injustice they and Native Americans throughout our country have faced for generations, and the administration was right to recognize it.”
—Updated at 5:04 p.m.
They should just keep on building, screw him. Let Obama call out the National Guard to stop it, then make Hillary defend it.
We now live in a government controlled dictatorship. Get used to it if Hotlery is or elected.
Making a “YOOEY” around sacred lands may be a bit pricey, but jobs would be had, continued and the return would happen .... just a little later than expected
The court be damned. The emperor has spoken. We don’t want to hear a peep out of the Left when Pres. Trump pushes his agenda through the Congress, when Obama simply issued decrees without any legislative authorization. The EPA should be shut down immediately, by the way.
Agreed, the goal of 0bama and handlers is to destroy America.
Obama pulls another illegal Keystone pipeline maneuver.
I wonder if Warren Buffet is in this somewhere with his railroads making more money by carrying the oil?
We need to protect those indians’ land from oil. Let’s not send any heating oil, diesel, or gasoline to them anymore. Let’s help them show the way to better future without fossil fuels.
If I was betting on it I’d say yes and with a payoff to the departing _resident.
President Trump announced today the elimination of the following Federal Agencies, he sited the Constitutional authority for them and therefore there is no lawful justification for their existence.
These are the agencies that will be closed in 90 days,
The Department of Environmental Protection
The Department of Education
The Energy Department
The Department of Health and Human Services
The Department of Homeland Security, this agency will moved into the Department of Justice
The Department of Commerce
Additional closings are to be announced in the near future,
Follow the Money!!!
or Soros?
Bump!
Go Trump, GO!
All Indian land is sacred and must remain untouched.
Except for casinos and golf courses.
But it a “voluntary” government dictatorship!
As long as you are the dictatorship of the Indians, enviro’s, greenies, homosexual, atheist or Muslim-communist... or a Hillary donor!
The left will tie-up everything Trump tries to do, in the courts, for years, since they own the courts, judges, enviro-wacko-attys and media. Count on it.
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