Native American protesters gathered in the nation’s capital in April 2014 during the lengthy battle to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline. Photo by Jim Dougherty
VICTORY! Pipeline stopped
Indigenous opponents of pipeline celebrate
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor SPEARFISH –– The Nov. 6 White House announcement denying the Keystone XL Pipeline a Presidential Permit to carry tar-sands crude oil from TransCanada Corp. into the United States prompted tribal governments and organized resisters of the so-called “Black Snake” to celebration and vows of nixing similar fossil-fuel projects. U.S. President Barack Obama dropped the axe on the private infrastructure proposal following seven years of avid citizens’ campaigning against Canadian government and U.S. Congressional support, which had made the issue the biggest political hot potato on his environmental agenda. “The State Department has decided that the Keystone XL Pipeline would not serve the national interest of the United States. I agree with that decision,” Obama announced.
Indianz.Com SoundCloud: President Barack Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline November 6, 2015
“The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy,” he said. “Shipping dirtier crude oil into our country would not increase America’s energy security,” he added. After fielding visits from Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper, several failed U.S. Congressional attempts to force the Administration’s approval of the plan, and numerous national, as well as international, rallies against it, Obama had pledged to judge the pipeline proposal on its implications for climate change. On Nov. 6, he determined: “America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership.” The South Dakota statewide grassroots organization Dakota Rural Action held one of the first celebrations of the announcement on Nov. 7 in Spearfish.
Read the rest of the story on the all new Native Sun News website: VICTORY! Pipeline stopped (Contact Talli Nauman, Native Sun News Health and Environment Editor at talli.nauman@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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