The 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline is nearly complete, except for a hotly contested section under North Dakota’s Lake Oahe that’s been the topic of massive protests. But now, the Army is allowing that final section to be built, two lawmakers said.
Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer “has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the easement needed to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline,” Sen. John Hoeven said in a statement Tuesday. The North Dakota Republican said he spoke with Speer on Tuesday.
While the official easement from the Army Corps has not been released, Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Cramer praised Speer’s decision, which will pave the way for the final phase of the controversial $3.7 billion project.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which opposes the project, responded that Hoeven’s announcement is premature and maintains that further environmental review is needed for the pipeline.
Cramer, also a North Dakota Republican, said he received word that the US Army Corps will grant final approval and that congressional notification of the decision was “imminent.”
Cramer praised President Donald Trump as a “man of action” after Trump signed executive actions last week to advance approval of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.
The Obama administration blocked both projects amid vociferous opposition.
The Dakota Access Pipeline, stretching through four states, is completed except for a contested portion under Lake Oahe, half a mile upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation.
The tribe has been concerned that digging the pipeline under a section of the Missouri River would affect the area’s drinking water as well as the supply for 17 million Americans living downstream.
A final easement is required for Dakota Access to cross beneath Lake Oahe.
Tribal organization: This is a ‘brazen power grab’
Standing Rock and its allies have protested in North Dakota for months, standing in the path of the pipeline during peaceful demonstrations and clashes that turned violent.
In December, protesters celebrated a temporary victory when the Army said it would not — for the time being — allow the pipeline to cross under the lake, calling for an official environmental impact statement, a months-long process that would allow the public to weigh in.
The tribe vowed to “vigorously pursue legal action” if the Trump administration cuts off the environmental review and grants the easement.
“To abandon the (environmental impact statement) would amount to a wholly unexplained and arbitrary change based on the President’s personal views and, potentially, personal investments,” the tribe said in a statement Tuesday.
The Indigenous Environmental Network, a leading tribal organization dedicated to blocking further construction of the project, said Tuesday: “Make no mistake: we are prepared to mobilize and resist this brazen power grab.”
New hopes for Keystone?
Like Dakota Access, the Keystone XL Pipeline had been the subject of environmental concern from activists, residents and indigenous tribes who worried that the pipeline would pollute as many as 2,500 aquifers. But pipeline supporters touted the jobs it would create and other economic benefits.
The $8 billion Keystone XL Pipeline was proposed to stretch nearly 1,200 miles across six states, shuttling carbon-heavy petroleum from Canada to the Gulf Coast. In November 2015, Obama nixed the proposed pipeline, virtually ending the fight over the project that had gone on for much of his presidency.
But Trump’s executive actions on both pipelines signal how his administration will take a drastically different approach to energy and environmental issues.
