Judge won't immediately stop pipeline construction
Source: Associated Press
Judge won't immediately stop pipeline construction
James Macpherson, Associated Press
Updated 6:39 pm, Thursday, September 1, 2016
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) An oil-rich American Indian tribe in North Dakota was handed a setback Thursday in its fight against a Texas company building oil and natural gas pipelines beneath a lake on its reservation.
The Three Affiliated Tribes ordered the project halted last month, saying Sacagawea Pipeline developer Paradigm Energy Partners needed tribal permission to place the pipelines beneath Lake Sakakawea, and that it made no assurances that water supplies wouldn't be harmed.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland temporarily allowed construction to continue last week. On Thursday, the judge again refused to stop construction. He's expected to rule within the next two weeks on whether the company should've gotten tribal permission and the project can move forward.
Hovland said the case revolves around a "multitude of complex issues," and that there appears to be no existing precedence.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Judge-to-hear-arguments-in-Sacagawea-pipeline-case-9197075.php
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Judge To Pipeline Protesters: Dont Interfere
By Associated Press-Bismarck August 17, 2016 8:15 AM
A federal judge is ordering protesters in North Dakota not to interfere with the construction of a $3.8 billion, four-state oil pipeline.
Read More: Judge To Pipeline Protesters: 'Don't Interfere' | http://1033uscountry.com/judge-to-pipeline-protesters-dont-interfere/?trackback=tsmclip
cntrfthrs
(252 posts)what this guy actually said in his ruling is we do not have authority to regulate what happens ON OUR OWN LAND. By this ruling I fear that whats happening down at the Sacred stones camp on Standing Rock is nothing compared to what will happen here...And yes, I do know what the sentiment is here, I'm an enrolled member of the MHA...
Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)Dakota Access Pipeline Tribal Liaison Formerly Worked For Agency Issuing Permit
August 31, 2016
by Steve Horn
The Standing Rock tribe has filed a lawsuit against the U.S Army Corps of Engineers for using the controversial Nationwide Permit 12 to fast-track authorization of the hotly contested Dakota Access pipeline.
Slated to carry oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (fracking) from North Dakotas Bakken Shale basin to Patoka, Illinois, the plaintiffs say not only was the Army Corps permitting of the Energy Transfer Partners and Enbridge Corporationjointly owned pipeline a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act, but also a violation of the National Historic Preservation Acts (NHPA) Section 106.
A review of court documents for the case currently unfolding in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. has revealed that the tribal liaison for Energy Transfer Partners tasked with abiding by Section 106 passed through the revolving door and formerly worked for the Army Corps. The finding also raises key ethical questions in the field of archaeology.
That liaison Michelle Dippel technically works for a Dakota Access LLC contractor named HDR, a company which helps pipeline companies and other oil and gas industry infrastructure companies secure permits for their projects. Dippel, the South Central Region Environmental Services Lead for HDR, began her career as a project manager for the Army Corps Fort Worth District and also formerly worked for the natural gas pipeline company Spectra Energy.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/31/dakota-access-pipeline-tribal-liaison-formerly-worked-for-agency-issuing-permit/
Judi Lynn
(160,515 posts)Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against Dakota Access Pipeline
August 30, 2016
by National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG), the oldest and largest human rights bar association in the United States, by its International Committee, its Indigenous Peoples Rights Committee and its Environmental Human Rights Committee, as well as the NLGs Environmental Justice Committee, stands in solidarity with the sovereign Oceti Sakowin Oyate (the Great Sioux Nation), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and its people in their just opposition to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline across their sacred and ancestral lands. The United States has failed to respect the national sovereignty and interests of the Tribe and its people, has failed to respect the nation-to-nation relationship with the Tribe established by treaties, and has failed to properly consult with the Tribe to obtain its free, prior, and informed consent for the construction of the pipeline. We stand with the great many defenders and protectors of ancestral lands, water, and spiritual, historic, and cultural resources at the Camp of the Sacred Stones currently blocking construction of the pipeline across the Missouri River near the Tribes land and territory. We applaud the indigenous youth who ran 2,200 miles to Washington, DC, to deliver to the United States government a petition signed by 160,000 people in opposition to the pipelines construction.
The 30-inch diameter, 1,172-mile pipeline is proposed by Dakota Access, LLC, to connect the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota across South Dakota and Iowa to other pipelines in Illinois for the transport of approximately 470,000 to 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It has been estimated that the Bakken oil reserves, the largest in the United States, hold in excess of 5 billion barrels of oil and are producing over a million barrels per day. In April of this year, researchers at the University of Michigan found that the Bakken field is emitting about 2 percent of the worlds ethane, about 250,000 tons per year into the air, directly affecting air quality across North America. These emissions, combined with combustion of Bakken oil, are major contributors to the Global Climate Crisis that threatens the well-being of our environment, future generations, and the Earth.
The proposed pipeline route crosses ancestral lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Missouri River. The Missouri River is a major source of water for the Tribe. The ancestral lands and water are sacred to the Tribe and its people, and they possess a responsibility to Mother Earth and to future generations to protect these ancestral lands and water.
Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, and its affiliated entities, have a long history of violations of environmental laws including pending lawsuits by the states of New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of Breau Bridge in Louisiana over MTBE contamination of groundwater, as well as citations for releases of hazardous materials from its pipelines and facilities in Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. Pipelines leak and spill. In one year alone, there were over 300 pipeline breaks in North Dakota. Numerous pipeline spills of millions of gallons of oil and contaminants into the Missouri River and its tributaries have already occurred. In January, over 50,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil spilled into the Yellowstone River in Montana. Oil from the Bakken field is more volatile than other crudes.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/30/solidarity-with-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-against-dakota-access-pipeline/
malthaussen
(17,183 posts)Calling the editor...
-- Mal
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,444 posts)of the US or states. Thought that was a part of treatises signed long ago. Guess I was wrong.
cntrfthrs
(252 posts)i'm not sure why the Tribe is not using 'exhaustion' as a reason to throw the restraining order out....the alleged crime occured on tribal lands and impacted tribal minerals and tribal mineral rights...the request for the RO must/should have been filed first in tribal court...
former9thward
(31,964 posts)The North Dakota Supreme Court has overturned a ruling that a Three Affiliated Tribes court had sole authority to hear a contract row over construction of an oil and gas pipeline on tribal land, ruling the dispute didn't present a threat to the tribe that would allow its court to assert authority over non-Indian companies.
A state district court had found that it lacked authority to hear breach-of-contract claims by Arrow Midstream Holdings LLC and Arrow Pipeline LLC over construction work performed by 3 Bears Construction LLC and a subcontractor, ruling the tribal court had jurisdiction over the suit under an exception to the U.S. Supreme Courts 1981 decision in Montana v. U.S. that allows tribal courts to assert authority over non-Indians where their activity threatens or directly impacts a tribe.
http://www.law360.com/articles/742215/nd-high-court-says-tribal-court-can-t-hear-pipeline-row
Old Vet
(2,001 posts)Being constructed UNDER a lake GEEZ............
Arazi
(6,829 posts)Is there no way to stop this?