Trump will try to fast-track fossil fuel projects across the country. That makes the final months of President Obama’s term more important than ever.
Donald Trump’s surprise election win has encouraged Energy Transfer Partners’s Kelcy Warren, the CEO of the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, which is building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In an interview with CBS This Morning, Warren said he is “100 percent” confident that the president-elect will help the company finish the project. Kelcy Warren also said, “We are committed to completing construction and safely operating the Dakota Access Pipeline within the confines of the law, according to Valley News.”
There are approximately 30,000 American Indians living in North Dakota and American Indians make up about 5% of the current North Dakota population. North Dakota American Indian tribes span the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, the Yanktonia, Sisseton, Wahpeton, Hunkpapa and other Dakotah/Lakotah (more commonly known as the Sioux) Tribes, along with the Pembina Chippewa, Cree and Metis.
The Dakota Access pipeline is a $3.7 billion project that would carry 470,000 barrels of oil a day from the oil fields of western North Dakota to Illinois, where it would be linked with other pipelines. Energy Transfer says the pipeline will pump millions of dollars into local economies and create 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs — though far fewer permanent jobs to maintain and monitor the pipeline.
Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe see the pipeline as a major environmental and cultural threat. Native American tribal leaders’ biennial address to the North Dakota Legislature will not happen in 2017, a committee said Thursday in deciding to forgo formal events at the state Capitol due to security reasons involving the Dakota Access pipeline protests.
The 10-3 vote by the North Dakota Legislative Management Committee means there’ll be no presentations from the state’s chief justice or tribal leaders when lawmakers reconvene Jan. 3. The measure exempts the governor’s State of the State address, which is required by state law.
BISMARCK, N.D. — President Obama says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking into whether the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline can be rerouted. The president told online news outlet “Now This,” the engineers are examining whether it can be built in southern North Dakota to ease concerns of American Indians.
FYI: The United States has a web of 2.5 million miles of pipelines that carry products like oil and natural gas, pumping them to processing and treatment plants, power plants, homes and businesses. Most of the lines are buried, but some run above ground.
Sources: What Standing Rock needs Obama to do quickly—Before Trump takes over – NationofChange
NY Times
Bismark Tribune
Nation of Change
TWC News
ECO Watch
Valley News
Happy Thanksgiving – Per Christopher Columbus – “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”
