http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/dakota-access-pipeline-1.3881042Barack Obama has denied Energy Transfer Partners a permit to build the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe, the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux and, through the Missouri River, 18 million other people.
Standing Rock protesters celebrated Sunday as news broke that construction of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline near their territory has been halted.
Moira Kelley, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency, said in a news release Sunday that the administration will not allow the four-state, $3.8-billion pipeline to be built under Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
The decision came a day before the government's deadline for the several hundred people at the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires, encampment to leave the federal land. But demonstrators say they're prepared to stay, and authorities say they won't forcibly remove them.
This is a huge victory for the water protectors and will, I hope, send a message that oil cannot be allowed to endanger water sources and, even more hopefully, that First Nations rights must be respected.
But not everyone likes the outcome:
North Dakota Congressmen Kevin Cramer said the decision from the feds "sends a very chilling signal" for those who want to build infrastructure in the U.S.
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple called it a "serious mistake" that "prolongs the dangerous situation" of having several hundred protesters who are camped out on federal land during cold, wintry weather.
Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, whose department has done much of the policing for the protests, said that "local law enforcement does not have an opinion" on the decision and that his department will continue to "enforce the law."
Gov. Dalrymple, in particular, can go fuck himself. He's heavily invested in oil and pipeline companies, creating a gigantic conflict of interest, and from one side of his mouth voices concern for the protectors' safety and from the other side refuses to clear icy roads and swears to block food and other vital supplies from getting to the camps.
And this decision drops a huge, steaming turd on Donald Trump's desk, because he's going to be in the position of having to reissue the permit when the pipeline is unpopular and he's also heavily invested in it, creating another big conflict of interest.
Finally, I can say, with no irony or sarcasm: Thanks, Obama!
