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.
Do you have a link? “President Trump announced today the elimination”
Or is this just your thoughts, I ask because this is what he should do, however I have yet to hear him say anything like it, only some innuendo at best and many seem to embrace or worst yet, put their own thoughts to the words he says.
God Bless
He and Tom Steyer will profit handsomely.
standing rock sioux tribe Prairie Knights Casino
I wonder if the Democrat donations are just skimmed off the top?
I call that pose of his his Mussolinni pose...God what an arrogant....self deleted comment to mods won’t do it...son of a gun
So now Obama over-rules a judge?
This directly affects my company, which has done some fabrication work for some of the pump stations. I hope it is merely a review of the safeguards for Lake Oahe and nothing more.
Was there ever any doubt?
Sorry, Barry, it’s already settled law.
I bet they do! Just like in the movie "Casino."
A Dem Party operative probably just walks into the counting
room and takes the party cut. All of it off the books.
#26. I hope you kept your second job just in case.
That’s okay.
The adults take over on January 20th.
Barack will be back at his favorite bath house wihtin hours...
Absolutely, and I'm so looking forward to it.
The problem you will find is that all land has now become “sacred”. Obama has intervened with a legal private enterprise for religious reasons.
Amen...Both of them have Bammy’s number but can make real progress with Donald Trump.
ANOTHER act of lawlessness. The LEGAL SYSTEM spoke. Obama WENT OUTSIDE of the law.
The Asian, the European and the American .... I don't think it could have been any more or better planned.
We just MIGHT be witness to a 1700's redux, the likes of which, a bunch of guys were born in the same era, with the same basic education(s) and thoughts, and decided to formulate a new nation .... The USA.
At my age and health, a year and a half ago, I would not have minded to just go to sleep and awake to see Jesus ....
NOW?
Oh Dear God, forgive me my sins and let me live to see this history !
So 0bama is the First President that doesn’t need Congress and now he is the First that doesn’t need Judges ... just does as he pleases while the groupies applaud
Why would anyone obey any Law after this POS Work of Art so called #1 Enforcer of Laws of the Land continues to ignore any and all he disapproves of?
To quote Laz .... “WE ARE SO SCREWED”
It sure looks like that’s where we’re at.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.