Protesters Celebrate As US Army Corps of Engineers Halts Controversial Pipeline

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A crowd gathers in celebration at the Oceti Sakowin camp after it was announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won't grant easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
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A crowd gathers in celebration at the Oceti Sakowin camp after it was announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won't grant easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A crowd gathers in celebration at the Oceti Sakowin camp after it was announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers won’t grant easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

 

Oil pipeline protesters are pledging to remain camped on federal land in North Dakota, despite a favorable government ruling and an imminent deadline to leave.

Monday’s government-imposed deadline for the protesters to depart the property comes a day after the Army Corps of Engineers refused to let the company extend the pipeline beneath a Missouri River reservoir.’

The company building the $3.8 billion Dakota Access oil pipeline is slamming the Obama administration after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision not to grant an easement for the project.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners released a statement Sunday night calling the decision, “just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.

The company reiterated its plan to complete construction of the pipeline without rerouting around Lake Oahe.

The decision to refuse the easement is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters, who argued the project would threaten the tribe’s water source and cultural sites.


Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is praising the decision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny a permit for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota.

That decision is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters, who argued the project would threaten the tribe’s water source and cultural sites.

Sanders, who made a strong run for the Democratic presidential nomination this year, says he appreciates President Barack Obama “listening to the Native American people and millions of others who believe this pipeline should not be built.” He says: “We should not continue to trample on Native American sovereignty.”

Sanders says the country should not increase its fossil fuel dependence and accelerate the crisis of climate change.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling a decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny a government permit for the Dakota Access oil pipeline “big-government decision-making at its worst.”

The Army Corps announced Sunday that it will not allow the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline to be built under Lake Oahe in North Dakota – a Missouri River reservoir where construction had been on hold.

The decision is a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters, who argued the project would threaten the tribe’s water source and cultural sites.

(Source: AP)

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