Sierra Club
History made! The Obama administration just announced that it will not grant the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline! Instead, the Army Corps of Engineers will conduct an environmental review and explore alternate routes for the project, away from the Missouri River crossing which would impact Tribal land and cultural resources.
Under this announcement, Energy Transfer Partners must stop construction of the pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux's ancestral homelands until an environmental review has been conducted that includes public input.
The fight to reject the Dakota Access Pipeline isn't over and we aren't going to back down until this pipeline is rejected once and for all, but the administration's announcement today ensures Energy Transfer Partners can't continue its assault on the Standing Rock Sioux's ancestral homelands. This couldn't have happened without the Standing Rock Sioux and the Water Protectors standing up for what's right and solidarity from millions of Americans. Sierra Club supporters like you made an unprecedented 20,000 calls and sent 115,000 letters to the White House last month alone on this issue.
Thank the Obama administration for doing the right thing by conducting an environmental review of the dirty and dangerous Dakota Access Pipeline.
Over the past few months, thousands of people and hundreds of Tribes from around the world have traveled to North Dakota to peacefully support the Standing Rock Sioux and oppose this dangerous pipeline. Their prayers and songs were increasingly met by a militarized police force using dogs, water cannons, rubber bullets, pepper spray, concussion grenades, and other tactics designed to intimidate, antagonize and invoke fear. This weekend more than 2,000 veterans traveled to the camps to show their support for Standing Rock and serve as self-proclaimed "human shields."
History has taught us that it's never a question whether a pipeline will spill, rather a question of when, and a comprehensive environmental review will show that this dirty and dangerous project will threaten the safety of every community it cuts through. The 1,168-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, if completed, would carry 450,000 barrels of fracked oil every day through four states. It would cut through communities, farms, sensitive natural areas, wildlife habitat, and tribal lands like the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's ancestral lands. It would also cross under the Missouri River just upstream of the Tribe's drinking water supply, where a spill would mean a serious threat to the Tribe's health, culture, and way of life.