【2011 Archives】

Opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline011 Archivestaking to the streets in every U.S. state and in cities as far away as Tokyo and Auckland.

Around 35,000 people are expected to join in 300 actions on Tuesday to demand that the Obama administration reject the final leg of the 1,170-mile pipeline.

SEE ALSO: Dakota Access pipeline builders are 'enthusiastic' about Trump presidency

The controversial segment would run beneath Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Native American activists and their allies say the pipeline crossing would threaten the region's water supplies and damage sacred sites.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave opponents of the pipeline some good news this week when it called for further analysis of the disputed portion, a move that delays construction.

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"We are standing up and fighting for the water, and asking for people to be aware of what's at risk," Eryn Wise of the International Indigenous Youth Council told Mashable.

Wise was in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to join a demonstration in front of the Corps headquarters. She traveled from Sacred Stone Camp, the first of three encampments near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where thousands of people are gathered to block the pipeline crossing under Lake Oahe.

"We do not consider ourselves to be protesters or these to be protests; we consider these protections and we are the protectors," said Wise, who is from the Jicarilla Apache and Laguna Pueblo tribes in New Mexico.

The $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline would carry shale oil from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. About 84 percent of the project is already completed, according to Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline's operator.

The Texas company can't finish the pipeline until the Corps gives it approval to drill on and under federal land near Lake Oahe.

The agency issued such a permit in late July for a crossing about half a mile upstream of the Standing Rock reservation. But two days later, the tribe filed a complaint accusing the Corps of failing to properly consult the tribe on questions of environmental impact and historical preservation as is required by law.

A federal judge ruled on Sept. 9 that the Corps did comply with the law. However, that same day, the Obama administration said the Corps would not approve construction for the disputed portion until the agency could revisit its previous decisions.

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That brings us to this week.

On Monday, the Corps said it completed its two-month review of the pipeline crossing and determined that "additional discussion and analysis" with tribal leaders were warranted given the Great Sioux Nation's historic "dispossessions of lands" and the lake's importance to the tribe.

In response, Energy Transfer Partners filed a suit asking a judge to give the company the legal right-of-way to finish the pipeline.

Environmental groups said they applauded the Corps' decision. But they urged the Obama administration to go further and reject the pipeline crossing altogether

"There is no safe route for this pipeline to proceed," said Cathy Collentine, a senior representative of Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign.

"There's no way to cross this body of water safely where it's not going to impact the tribe's drinking water supply," she told Mashable.

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Energy Transfer Partners has said the pipeline will include advanced safety designs and will not disrupt culturally significant or sacred sites along the route.

"We reiterate our commitment to protect all cultural resources along with the environmental, and the safety of all those in the area as we move toward the completion of the pipeline," Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Pipelines, told investors on a Nov. 10 earnings call.

Warren said he was "enthusiastic" about the election of President-elect Donald Trump last week. The first-time officeholder has vowed to ramp up oil, natural gas and coal projects while crimping federal protections for clean air and water.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

But it's less clear what Trump could do for the Dakota Access pipeline if the Obama administration blocks the final segment through Lake Oahe.

Chris Reagen, an attorney with Haynes and Boone, a law firm that represents many oil and gas companies, said Trump wouldn't have legal authority to bypass the regulatory process and give his own rubber stamp of approval. Such a move would invite years of litigation.

"We've got this complicated regulatory framework governing pipelines," Reagen told Mashable.

"It's a dangerous precedent to make each project subject to the discretion of the executive, or political opinion," he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Chris Reagen's last name.

Topics Activism