Indianz.Com > News > Fate of Dakota Access Pipeline lies in Biden’s hands
Fate of Dakota Access Pipeline lies in Biden’s hands
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Indianz.Com
The wealthy backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline have been turned away by the nation’s highest court, leaving the long-running dispute over its illegal operation firmly in the hands of the Biden administration.
In an order on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition in Dakota Access v. Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The action confirms that the final portion of the $3.8 billion oil pipeline has been operating without a federal permit for almost five years now.
Just as significantly, the development means that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can move forward with a long-delayed environmental review of the disputed segment. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has already been asking allies to weigh in on a controversy that has now stretched through three presidential administrations.
“First, the fight is not over, the fight for our water, for the unborn and for Mother Earth,” Chairwoman Janet Alkire said in a video released by the tribe earlier this month. “DAPL is an ongoing trespass against the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,” Alkire continued, asserting financial damages from the operation of the illegal infrastructure. “Every day that the pipeline operates and transfers oil, trespass damages continually accrue.” “Each day is a risk of more than a half-million barrels of oil poisoning our most precious water source, the Missouri River,” Alkire said, referring to the fact that the final portion of the pipeline crosses through the treaty-protected body of water. Despite the review going forward at the federal level, the tribe is no longer working cooperatively with the Army Corps. In the video, Alkire said the contractor selected by the agency to prepare the environmental impact statement, also known as an EIS, belongs to an energy industry group that opposed Indian Country’s push for the review. “As we are expected to uphold the law, we want the Army Corps to do the same,” Alkire said in the tribe’s video.Some good news for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
— indianz.com (@indianz) February 22, 2022
The Supreme Court won't hear challenge brought by the wealthy developers of Dakota Access Pipeline. Backers sought to stop environmental review of final portion at Standing Rock.
PDF: https://t.co/v9EA1PGIUL#NoDAPL @StandingRockST pic.twitter.com/tWKGQ57GnD
Sioux Nation Letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers #NoDAPL
crstostsrst092221
Leaders of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe have also joined Standing Rock in pressing the Biden administration to end the contract with the firm, calling the current process “irredeemable” and “fatally flawed.”
The September 2021 letter from the three tribes was addressed to Jaime Pinkham, who at the time was serving as the “acting” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. In that leadership role, Pinkham, who is a citizen of the Nez Perce Tribe, was overseeing the DAPL review process.
Since then, a permanent, U.S. Senate confirmed Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works has joined the Biden administration. The person now serving in the position is Michael Connor, a citizen of the Pueblo of Taos who has acknowledged the Army Corps’ troubled past in Indian Country.
“There has been a tension in the way the Corps has historically gone about the rest of its portfolio, permitting activities that impact the interests of tribes and tribal treaty rights,” Connor told the National Congress of American Indians during the organization’s winter meeting last Monday.
“We are going to revamp and modernize and update the tribal consultation policy that the Corps has,” Connor promised tribal leaders who attended the virtual conference.
![Shut Down DAPL](https://indianz.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/22/shutdowndapl-scaled.jpg)
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Decision
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. Dakota Access (January 26, 2021)
Federal Register Notice
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for an Easement to Cross Under Lake Oahe, North Dakota for a Fuel-Carrying Pipeline Right-Of-Way for a Portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline
(September 10, 2020)
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Assistant Secretary of the Army Michael Connor #NCAIECWS2022 (February 15, 2022)Native Sun News Today: Pipeline operator defies shutdown order and tribal opposition (May 24, 2021)
Cronkite News: Alaska Native illustrator makes history with ‘Water Protectors’ book (May 18, 2021)
#ShutDownDAPL Court Hearing (April 9, 2021)
‘Kill the black snake’: Sarah Young Bear-Brown #ShutDownDAPL #StopLine3 (April 8, 2021)
‘Shut down DAPL’: Lakota youth bring black snake to Biden’s front door (April 2, 2021)
‘She even protested the Dakota Access Pipeline’: Deb Haaland #DebForInterior (March 11, 2021)
Native women win major award for ‘Water Protectors’ book (January 27, 2021)
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (January 26, 2021)
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals: Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (January 26, 2021)
Native Sun News Today: Native activists hold Joe Biden to campaign promises (December 7, 2020)
Native Sun News Today: Tribes get more time to contest Dakota Access Pipeline (October 28, 2020)
![Shut Down DAPL](https://indianz.com/News/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/22/shutdowndapl-scaled.jpeg)
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