The #NoDAPL Fight Isn't Over Yet
Here's a chance to impact deliberations over the dangerous crude pipeline. Please submit comments to the DEIS by end of day tomorrow.
Photo via Haskell Indian Nations University
"The Dakota Access Pipeline has been operating for several years but is still being contested by the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. DAPL faced immense international opposition during construction, with tens of thousands of people joining in resistance on the ground. This new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was ordered by the Courts and is as a result of the Cheyenne River Tribe’s continuing legal fight against the project." – People vs. Fossil Fuels & the Indigenous Environmental Network
Time is running out to submit comments to the (latest) draft Environmental Impact Statement (DIES) for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which has one of the greatest capacities in the USA and is carrying filthy, fracked Bakken crude oil out to the world and into our atmosphere in the form of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.
We’re talking tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses annually. In fact, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the new DEIS acknowledges that “...DAPL could be responsible for moving enough oil to unleash more than 120 million metric tons worth of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions each year that it operates.”
Meanwhile, climate scientists are agreed – continued burning of fossil fuels threatens the viability of Homo sapiens and thousands of other species.
And let’s not forget – as has been proven again and again and again, it’s not if a pipeline will leak, but when.
DAPL is one of our opportunities to draw a line in the sand. While the pipeline only flows through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, the end result of its operation harms and threatens the future of all Americans and global citizens.
Brief DAPL Overview
The struggle surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois has been going on for years. The tinder was sparked in late 2016 when protesters, led by members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, took a stand against ongoing construction of the pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation. The situation exploded into violence by law enforcement against the protesters. As reported by the Guardian:
“Twenty-six people were hospitalized and more than 300 injured after North Dakota law enforcement officers trained water cannons, teargas, and other ‘less-than-lethal’ weapons on unarmed activists protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline in below-freezing weather on Sunday night, according to a group of medical professionals supporting the anti-pipeline movement.”
Now, seven years later, the battle is engaged in the courts and the halls of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The new DEIS is the result of a March 2020 federal court ruling that the Corps “...violated NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) when it approved DAPL in 2016 without addressing significant threats from the potential impacts of oil spills. The court required the Corps to go back to the drawing board to conduct a new environmental review – a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).”
Submit Comments on the DAPL DEIS ASAP
Please submit comments to the Corps before end of day tomorrow, Dec. 13, 2023. Here are instructions/talking points courtesy of People vs. Fossil Fuels & the Indigenous Environmental Network. It's pretty easy; here's a copy of my own comments.
Please also urge your social media friends and followers to join us. Suggested tags and hashtags:
@POTUS
@USACEHQ
@omahausace
#NoDAPL
#ShutDownDakotaAccess
#EndFossilFuels
#GlobalWarming
#ClimateCrisis
#ClimateActionNow
Well said, Martin! And thanks for providing links to sites where we can make our thoughts known. The dangers of this pipeline are well known. We should heed the warnings of scientists and the Native Americans who are always at one with Mother Earth in preserving our planet. We need more people to draw attention to this as you have done., Martin!
Thanks, Phyllis!