The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
will grant the final approval needed to finish the Dakota Access Pipeline
project, U.S. Senator John Hoeven and Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota
said on Tuesday.
However, opponents of the $3.8
billion project, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation is
adjacent to the route, claimed that Hoeven and Cramer were jumping the gun and
that an environmental study underway must be completed before the permit was
granted.
For months, climate activists and
the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have been protesting against the completion of
the line under Lake Oahe, a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River. The
one-mile stretch of the 1,170-mile (1,885 km) line is the only incomplete
section in North Dakota.
The project would run from the
western part of the state to Patoka, Illinois, and connect to another line to
move crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Hoeven said Acting Secretary of the
Army Robert Speer had told him and Vice President Mike Pence of the move. “This
will enable the company to complete the project, which can and will be built
with the necessary safety features to protect the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and
others downstream,” Hoeven, a Republican, said in a statement.
Representatives for the Army Corps
of Engineers could not be reached immediately for comment late on Tuesday. The
Department of Justice declined to comment.
President Donald Trump signed an
executive order last week allowing Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access
Pipeline to go forward, after months of protests from Native American groups
and climate activists pushed the administration of President Barack Obama to
ask for an additional environmental review of the controversial project.
The approval would mark a bitter
defeat for Native American tribes and climate activists, who successfully
blocked the project earlier and vowed to fight the decision through legal
action.
On Tuesday evening, the Standing
Rock tribe said the Army could not circumvent a scheduled environmental impact
study that was ordered by the outgoing Obama administration in January. “The
Army Corps lacks statutory authority to simply stop the EIS,” they said in a
statement. The tribe said it would take legal
action against the U.S. Army’s reported decision to grant the final easement.
“Jumped the Gun” - Jan Hasselman, an Earthjustice
lawyer representing the tribe, told Reuters that Hoeven and Cramer “jumped the
gun” by saying the easement would be granted and that the easement was not yet
issued.
Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous
Environment Network, which has been a vocal opponent of the pipeline, said on
Twitter that…Click to read the full story
http://libertyinvestor.com/the-dakota-access-pipeline-is-reportedly-about-to-get-final-approval/
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