Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘Dakota Access’


Trump administration giving final green light to waving flagDakota Access pipeline

Trump administration giving final green light to Dakota Access pipeline

The Army Corps of Engineers will grant the final approval needed to complete the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline as soon as Wednesday, it told lawmakers Tuesday. The news from the Army Corps, in letters to Congress and to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., came two weeks after President Trump issued a memo asking the agency to approve the pipeline as soon as possible.

The Army Corps also told the court that it will no longer complete an intensive environmental impact statement on the pipeline, an action the Obama administration decided to take in December that would have delayed the project for potentially a year or more.

The decision is a major victory for pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners and the oil industry and a defeat for environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Transfer told the federal judge Monday that that it could take as little as 60 days to finish the pipeline once it gets the Army Corps easement, Reuters reported.

The easement allows Energy Transfer to build the line under federally owned Lake Oahe in North Dakota. The pipeline, when complete, will run in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. Its construction is substantially complete, with the Lake Oahu portion behind the last major hurdle. The approval had been held up for months amid objections from the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation abuts the lake. The tribe said the pipeline threatens its water supply. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe outlined its plans to fight against the pipeline in a statement on Tuesday, saying it would continue litigation against the project and urge policymakers in Washington oppose it.

“We are a sovereign nation and we will fight to protect our water and sacred places from the brazen private interests trying to push this pipeline through to benefit a few wealthy Americans with financial ties to the Trump administration,” tribal chairman David Archambault said in a statement.

Tribal lawyers have insisted Trump administration officials cannot overturn the December decision, and a lawyer for the tribe called such a decision “unlawful” during a Monday court hearing, according to Reuters. Standing Rock’s concerns blossomed into a months long protest with thousands of people from around the world at the construction site urging the federal government to cancel the project. It quickly became a flashpoint for environmentalists and indigenous-rights advocates, who accused the federal government of ignoring the Standing Rock Sioux’s objections.

But the oil industry and Republicans rallied behind Energy Transfer and said that former President Obama’s delays of the project threatened the rule of law.

Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice who represents the Standing Rock tribe, said the Trump administration’s action is illegal and threatened court action over it.
“The Obama administration correctly found that the tribe’s treaty rights must be respected, and that the easement should not be granted without further review and consideration of alternative crossing locations. Trump’s reversal of that decision continues a historic pattern of broken promises to Indian tribes and a violation of treaty rights,” he said in a statement.Leftist Propagandist
“Trump and his administration will be held accountable in court.”
Devin Henry contributed to this story.

Updated: 6:03 p.m.

Trump takes action to move forward with Keystone, Dakota Access pipelines


waving flagAuthored

URL of the original posting site: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/315852-trump-orders-keystone-dakota-access-pipeline-applications-to-move

President Trump on Tuesday moved two controversial pipeline projects forward by signing a pair of presidential memos that would allow permitting for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access projects.

In an Oval Office ceremony with several of his aides looking on, Trump said the actions would create new jobs in the United States, and that the pipelines would be built with U.S. steel and U.S. labor.

“We will build our own pipeline, we will build our own pipes, like we used to, in the old days,” Trump said as he held up one of his actions to television cameras brought into the Oval Office to broadcast the event.

ADVERTISEMENT

The actions are a sharp turn from the Obama administration’s policies, as the former president had rejected the Keystone pipeline and delayed Dakota Access. Tuesday’s actions will not force the approval of either project, and Trump said he wanted to renegotiate terms with the pipelines’ developers. Those terms may include some way for the United States government to get a financial return from Keystone, a possibility he mentioned on the campaign trail.The new president briefly described each action before putting his pen to paper, and then held each action in front of the cameras.Happy Happy Joy Joy

“This is with regard to the construction of the Keystone pipeline, a subject that’s been in dispute, and it’s subject to a renegotiation of terms by us,” Trump said. “We are going to renegotiate some of the terms, and, if they’d like, we’ll see if we can get that pipeline built.

“A lot of jobs, 28,000 jobs. Great construction jobs,” Trump added.

Trump signed a total of five actions on Tuesday, all of which are designed to either move forward with pipeline projects or help U.S. manufacturing.

The memo on Keystone asks developer TransCanada Corp. to submit a new application to build the Canada-to-Texas pipeline across the United States border. It then asks the State Department to review the application within 60 days, at which point Trump would consider whether to give it the final approval under existing policies.
 
The Dakota Access memo asks that the Army Corps of Engineers review and approve the project “in an expedited manner,” including the final easement that developer Energy Transfer Partners needs to build under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.Happy Happy Joy Joy

Besides the actions moving forward with permitting for Keystone and Dakota Access, Trump signed a memo asking the Commerce Department to lay out a plan for all pipelines in the country to use materials produced in the United States.

He also signed actions to expedite permitting for manufacturing projects and to expedite environmental reviews for infrastructure projects.

Trump declined to answer a reporter who asked what he had to say about the months-long, ongoing protests against Dakota Access near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. The tribe says the pipeline’s construction under Lake Oahe threatens their drinking supplies and cultural sites.

The oil industry hailed the actions as a sharp turnaround for the federal government.

“We are pleased to see the new direction being taken by this administration to recognize the importance of our nation’s energy infrastructure by restoring the rule of law in the permitting process that’s critical to pipelines and other infrastructure projects,” American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said in a statement.

“Critical energy infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipelines will help deliver energy to American consumers and businesses safely and efficiently,” he continued.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said it was “about time” that the projects moved forward.Happy Happy Joy Joy

“The unfortunate reality is that these important infrastructure projects were used by special interests to advance their radical anti-energy agenda and were therefore needlessly halted by the last administration—to the detriment of America’s national interest,” he said in a statement.

North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitcamp (D), whose state was the site of massive protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, praised the decision to move forward.

“Building out our country’s energy infrastructure is a key component of achieving an all-of-the-above North American energy strategy and projects that support our energy, economic, and national security,” she said in a statement.

Environmentalists slammed the moves as major threats to clean air, clean water and the climate.

“No amount of ‘alternative facts’ can change the reality that these dirty and dangerous pipelines are a bad deal for clean air, safe drinking water and the communities living along the routes,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, the top lobbyist at the League of Conservation Voters.words-of-a-leftist-propagandist

Updated at 2:57 p.m.  

Tag Cloud