Free Republic

Ed Morrissey already looked at President Trump’s aggressive move to get Keystone XL, Dakota Access and other pipelines back on track earlier this week. The timing for this probably couldn’t be better because despite all the protests from environmentalists and the Keep It In The Ground movement, we are heading toward some hard deadlines for energy generation, after which some very bad things are going to start happening. That’s the conclusion reached in a new study from the Consumer Energy Alliance which examines the long term effects of continuing to reject new pipeline construction projects. The number are not...

The Native American tribe at the center of the controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has vowed to take legal action against a presidential memorandum by President Trump pushing pipeline construction. After several months of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux, the Army announced in early December that it would not approve an easement to let construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline proceed along its planned route. In a statement then, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said alternate routes needed to be explored. Members of the tribe argue that the pipeline, which would carry...

WASHINGTON — President Trump moved assertively on Tuesday to further dismantle his predecessor’s policies as he revived the Keystone XL pipeline that stirred years of debate over the balance between the nation’s energy needs and efforts to stem climate change.

President Trump signed five more executive actions Tuesday in a blitz of executive power meant to speed approvals of high-profile energy projects like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. In reversing the Obama administration policy to disapprove the Keystone pipeline, Trump emphasized that the construction isn't a done deal. "It's something that subject to a renegotiation of terms by us," he said. "We'll see if we can get the pipeline built. A lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs." Keystone XL is a proposed 1,179-mile cross-border pipeline from Alberta to Nebraska that became a lightning rod for Obama's energy policy, with...

The combination of the Obama administration’s intransigence in approving the Keystone XL pipeline and the exponential explosion in the production of crude oil, especially from the Bakken formation in North Dakota, has put increasing pressure on alternative modes of transportation to get that crude to refineries and customers. But with the increasing use of alternative modes such as barges, railcars, and over-the-road tanker trucks has come a growing concern about safety.A series of rail accidents over the last several years has caught the attention of the Department of Transportation, and CNBC has tried its best to question the viability of...

President Trump plans to sign executive orders reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, which had been stalled under the Obama administration, sources tell Fox News. The moves had been widely expected, as Trump blasted his predecessor for effectively blocking the projects amid environmental and other concerns. While the Canada-to-Texas Keystone project was at the center of a heated debate for years until the Obama administration rejected a key permit in November 2015, the Dakota pipeline more recently became the subject of fierce protests until the Army Corps of Engineers in December blocked construction of a controversial segment. The...

A group of protesters chained themselves across the doors of a TD bank in Massachusetts in solidarity with Dakota Access Pipeline protesters in North Dakota. From Masslive.com: The pipeline opponents began their action just after 8 a.m. by chaining themselves to the doors, shutting the bank branch down.Police initially gave them 30 minutes to leave, but more than three hours have passed with no movement on either side.Protestors said they will remain until they are arrested. Marc Osten, a Smith College student, Aly-Johnson-Kurts and University of Massachusetts student Giovano Castro are chained in the front, while Harrison Greene and...

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has claimed that the project has encroached on its land, damaged sacred sites and would potentially harm a major source of their drinking water by going under Lake Oahe. [snip] But what continued to throw a wall up in the discussions was the tribe's demand to receive a fee for shipping the oil. "Even though the pipeline never crosses the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, [snip] "But time and again the tribe rebuffed or ignored the company's offers demanding, instead, a toll on the crude that passed through the pipeline, an ultimatum that showed the tribe's...

Headline of the Day Poll Should construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline be allowed to continue? No. It is a threat to the region's clean water and to the Standing Rock tribe's ancient burial grounds Yes. The supposed "threats" are imaginary and contrived

Watching the events and the court case surrounding the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I appreciate that people are paying attention to any negative environmental impact an oil pipeline may have. At the same time, I cringe at the coverage and the absence of important factual information related to the pipeline’s legal permitting process. When I hear celebrities on the news claim the Dakota Access Pipeline is going through the heart of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s land, I expect the reporters to correct them. The media should tell us that the pipeline follows existing utility easements (including the existing gas...

On Monday, Native Americans conducted a forgiveness ceremony with U.S. veterans at the Standing Rock casino, giving the veterans an opportunity to atone for military actions conducted against Natives throughout history. In celebration of Standing Rock protesters’ victory Sunday in halting construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, Leonard Crow Dog formally forgave Wes Clark Jr., the son of retired U.S. Army general and former supreme commander at NATO, Wesley Clark Sr. This was a historically symbolic gesture forgiving centuries of oppression against Natives and honoring their partnership in defending the land from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In the latest development on the Dakota Access Pipeline, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced that it will withhold the final easement under Lake Oahe needed to complete the project. This abrupt reversal of approval, given by the career environmental specialists, is deeply disturbing, particularly for the North Dakotans that will remain under threat of harm from protesters who will likely persist in the region for the foreseeable future. The action also sets a disconcerting precedent by an administration that appears willing to rewrite its own regulatory procedures to appease the protestors. The rule of law is the...

What the Dakota Access Pipeline Is Really About The standoff isn’t about tribal rights or water, but a White House that ignores the rule of law. Kevin Cramer A little more than two weeks ago, during a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement, an improvised explosive device was detonated on a public bridge in southern North Dakota. That was simply the latest manifestation of the “prayerful” and “peaceful” protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Escalating tensions were temporarily defused Sunday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the direction of the Obama administration, announced it would refuse to grant...

Federal officials have denied the final permits required for the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota. The Army Corps of Engineers announced Sunday it would instead conduct an environmental impact review of the 1,170-mile pipeline project to determine if there are other ways to route the pipeline to avoid a crossing on the Missouri River...

Meanwhile, it’s high time for a new slogan. Call it, ‘Save the Environment…from ‘environmental’ protesters and the U.S. Army Corps Engineers In yesteryears Hollywood got it right when it portrayed native people as being on to government authorities whom they described as: “two-faced” and wont to “speak with a forked tongue”. The governments of later generations may have fooled the masses with their doublespeak and campaign promises that melt like the snow in spring, but it’s all but impossible to fool a people who routinely faced the elements and followed herds to keep their families fed.

Gen. Weasley Clark’s Son To Lead Veterans’ Group To Protest Dakota Access Pipeline The son of retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark heads a veterans’ group committed to preventing law enforcement from evacuating Dakota Access Pipeline protesters. The group plans to arrive at the encampment Sunday.The group will supplement the few veterans who already arrived at one of the encampments earlier in the week and and demanded that law enforcement lay down their firearms.Wesley “Wes” Clark Jr. and former U.S. Marine Michael Wood Jr. lead Veterans Stand for Standing Rock. Clark’s father was also a 2004 Democratic presidential primary...

The hardware store chain said a statement circulating on social media indicating it had stopped selling products to protesters had been “manipulated.” Despite social media reports and rumors to the contrary, Ace Hardware says that its stores have not stopped selling supplies to people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Protests in North Dakota have been ongoing for months.

Perhaps significantly advancing the time frame designated in the Army Corps of Engineers’ notice several Standing Rock Camps would face some form of eviction on December 5, North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple opportuned an incoming winter storm to issue a mandatory emergency evacuation order — for all encampments north of the Cannonball River. Although the evacuation appears not be one of force, it is obligatory — all water protectors camping in Army Corps-managed land have been ordered by Dalrymple to take all possessions and vacate the area. “These persons are ordered to leave the evacuation area immediately, and are further...

The veterans will be joined by Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic representative from Hawaii, who has developed a positive reputation among Republicans and Democrats alike. "Next weekend, the congresswoman will be joining thousands of veterans from across the country to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota who are protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through their tribal lands, with grave concerns about the contamination of their major water source,” Gabbard’s Press Secretary Emily Latimer confirmed in an email to the Observer.

Tension is brewing within the Dakota Access protest as complaints grow about outside activists trashing the camps, mooching off donations, and treating the anti-pipeline demonstration like a Burning Man-style festival for hippies. “Need to get something off my chest that I witnessed and found very disturbing in my brief time there that I believe many others have started to speak up about as well. White people colonizing the camps,” said Alicia Smith on Facebook. “They are coming in, taking food, clothing etc and occupying space without any desire to participate in camp maintenance and without respect of tribal protocols,” she...