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by Grizzly » Wed Nov 02, 2016 6:46 am
by seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:10 pm
In Sign of 'Overwhelming Support,' Water Protectors Raise Over $3 Million to Fight Dakota Access
Supporters from around the world are sending money to fund the Standing Rock Sioux's battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/1 ... ota-access
by Rory » Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:19 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:21 pm
Trump has taken over $100K from company behind Dakota Access pipeline, has $1M connection
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10 ... connection
Trump Is Heavily Invested In Fight Over Dakota Access Pipeline
http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/26/trump ... -pipeline/
On Dakota Access, Obama says Army Corps is weighing whether to ‘reroute’ pipeline
By Derek Hawkins November 2 at 3:30 AM
President Obama said Tuesday that his administration was considering ways to “reroute” the Dakota Access oil pipeline after a week of violent clashes between authorities and activists protesting the controversial project.
In an interview with NowThis, Obama addressed concerns from Native Americans that the pipeline cuts too close to tribal lands in North Dakota. The $3.8 billion project was approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is slated to cross under a section of the Missouri River less than a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
“We’re monitoring this closely,” Obama said. “My view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans. And I think that right now the Army Corps is examining whether there are ways to reroute this pipeline.”
“We’re going to let it play out for several more weeks and determine whether or not this can be resolved in a way that I think is properly attentive to the traditions of First Americans,” he said.
What you need to know about the Dakota Access pipeline Play Video2:34
A U.S. Judge ruled against a Native American tribe seeking an injunction on a pipeline under construction in North Dakota. The anti-pipeline protest has become a rallying point for Native Americans across the United States. Here's what you need to know. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)
Obama’s interview represents the most explicit remarks he has made on the simmering controversy. During a White House tribal conference in September the president offered an elliptical reference to the issue, telling hundreds of tribal represented gathered in Washington, “I know that many of you have come together across tribes and across the country to support the community at Standing Rock. And together, you’re making your voices heard.”
On Tuesday afternoon aboard Air Force One, White House press secretary Josh Earnest declined to say what the administration might do about the pipeline because of the ongoing litigation. “So there’s not much that I can say about that particular project.”
“What I can say more generally is that the White House has been in touch with the Department of Interior and a couple of other agencies that are taking a fresh look at the procedures that they follow to incorporate input from Native American communities that could potentially be affected by infrastructure projects,” Earnest said. “The president believes that that’s a worthwhile thing for the Department of Interior to do. And so he’s supportive of that process to consider reforming some of those procedures.”
The president has elevated American Indian rights during his tenure, establishing a White House tribal liaison and laying the groundwork for a government-to-government relationship with native Hawaiian. During this fall’s tribal conference, he recalled how he had pledged during his first White House bid to do more for tribal communities.
“And I want everybody in this auditorium and all the folks back home in you respective communities to know that whole time I’ve heard you, I have seen you. And I hope I’ve done right by you,” he said.
But even as Obama raised the possibility of rerouting the pipeline, he seemed to suggest that it would go forward. Many climate activists have called on him to halt the project altogether, the way he blocked construction of the Keystone XL pipeline last year between Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Jamie Henn, a spokesman for the environmental group 350.org, said in an email Wednesday that it would be hypocritical for Obama to allow the pipeline to be completed.
“There’s no reroute that doesn’t involve the same risks to water and climate,” Henn said. “The president must submit Dakota Access to the same climate test as Keystone XL, a test it will surely fail.”
Obama has also faced criticism for the delay from a coalition of energy and manufacturing groups, who note that ithe pipeline is a major infrastructure project that is mostly built and could boost economic activity along its route. The 1,172-mile Dakota Access pipeline is to transport crude oil from fields in North Dakota to an existing pipeline and refinery in Illinois.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has been fighting the pipeline for months, arguing that the project could harm sacred lands and pollute the tribe’s only water supply. Over the summer, Native American tribes and environmental activists from across the country set up a camp in Cannon Ball, N.D., near the pipeline’s path, and have used it as a staging ground for protests.
Violence broke out last week when a group of protesters tried to create a second camp on land owned along the pipeline’s path. Hundreds of law enforcement officers in riot gear used pepper spray, rubber bullets and high-pitched noise cannons to disperse the activists who refused to leave, arresting 141 people in the process. Some protesters set fires and threw rocks and molotov cocktails at authorities, and at least one protester fired a gun, police said.
Dakota Access Pipeline protesters sit in a prayer circle on Thursday as a line of law enforcement officers crosses the camp. (Mike McCleary/Bismarck Tribune via AP)
In his interview Tuesday, Obama addressed allegations that authorities used excessive force against some of the protesters who were arrested last week. He called for both sides to keep calm, alluding to Black Lives Matter protests that have followed fatal shootings by police.
“It’s a challenging situation,” Obama said. “There is an obligation for protesters to be peaceful, and there is an obligation for authorities to show restraint. And I want to make sure that as everyone is exercising their constitutional rights to be heard that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt.”
Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline developer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The company and regulators say the pipeline, which is nearly complete in North Dakota, is safe and will not disrupt cultural sites.
North Dakota on Tuesday borrowed $4 million to cover the cost of sending law enforcement to monitor the protests near the pipeline, bringing its spending on security to $10 million since people began demonstrating against the project, the Associated Press reported. North Dakota House Majority Leader Al Carlson (R) criticized the White House for not helping with security expenses.
“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am at the lack of support from the Obama administration on an issue that’s clearly a federal issue,” Carlson said
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... mix&wpmm=1
by Rory » Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:07 pm
by seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 02, 2016 1:10 pm
Rory » Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:07 pm wrote:In a week, Trump will be just another blowhard, asshole spiv (with a steady stream of pending litigation).
President Clinton will be the one poisoning our aquifers, suppressing native peoples, and bending over backward for the the energy companies ongoing rape and pillage of these lands. #StayWoke
Vote Your Conscience ....Vote with the KKK...Vote for Trump Make Lynching Great Again
by seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 03, 2016 7:38 pm
Lobbyist for Dakota Access Formerly Led Army's "Restore Iraqi Oil" Program
By Steve Horn • Thursday, November 3, 2016 - 03:58
Robert Crear, one of the lobbyists working for Dakota Access pipeline co-owners Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, formerly served as a chief of staff and commanding general for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps and other federal agencies are currently reviewing the permit granted for the controversial pipeline's construction near the Missouri River and Lake Oahe in North Dakota, and the Army Corps has reserved final authorization to complete construction on Corps land until after formal government-to-government consultations with the tribes are completed later this month.
Before he became a lobbyist, Crear headed up the Army Corps project, “Task Force: Restore Iraqi Oil” during the early years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq under the George W. Bush administration. This finding by DeSmog comes as the law enforcement presence has become increasingly militarized and additional forces pour into North Dakota from states nationwide under the auspices of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).
Thousands of people, including a number of Native American tribes, are protesting this pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's encampments in North Dakota.
This week, President Barack Obama stated that his administration is considering rerouting the current Dakota Access pipeline path permitted by the Army Corps.
Greenpeace USA, though, has called for Obama to revoke the Army Corps permit granted for the pipeline in July.
“The administration seems to be buying time to maintain the status quo and profits for fossil fuel investors,” Greenpeace USA spokeswoman Lilian Molina said in a statement. “There is only one option that is truly attentive to the Native lives and lands at stake: respect the rights and sovereignty of Indigenous communities by revoking the permits immediately.”
According to 2016 third quarter lobbying disclosure forms, Crear lobbied his former employer — the Army Corps — on behalf of both Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco on compliance and permitting issues.
Dakota Access Lobbyist Iraq OIl
Image Credit: U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Clerk
Restore Iraqi Oil Program
The Army Corps' Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO) program, spearheaded under Crear's leadership, got off the ground shortly after the initial “Shock and Awe” bombardment of Iraq by the U.S. military and was a key part of what military planners called the reconstruction phase of the U.S. occupation of the country. As its namesake implies, RIO existed to help reinvigorate Iraq's oil market and boost production.
In the book Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, then-Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen wrote about what became known as RIO.
“Avoiding the perception that the U.S. would annex Iraq’s oil wealth for its own purposes was a crucial goal,” Bowen wrote of RIO. “Decisions about Iraq’s oil wealth were not to be seen as made by the U.S. alone.”
Perception was one thing; reality, another.
Then-Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) ended up as a major beneficiary of RIO, landing a lucrative contract worth $2.5 billion to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure from the Army Corps on March 8, 2003, 12 days before the official invasion of Iraq by the U.S. military. Just a few years prior, then-Vice President Dick Cheney had left his perch as CEO of Halliburton to work in the executive branch, which critics noticed and called out with fury.
“[T]he no-bid nature of the contract became such a contentious issue with Congress that it catapulted KBR into the critical limelight and began the process of exposing the company's rampant fraud, abuse and corruption,” wrote the watchdog website Halliburton Watch. “Congress asserted the RIO contract was awarded without competition because Dick Cheney is the former CEO of KBR's parent, Halliburton.”
Time Magazine reported in May 2004 that it had obtained an email from a senior Army Corps official dated March 5, 2003, three days before KBR landed the Army Corps contract, which stated that “'action' on the [KBR] contract was 'coordinated' with Cheney's office.”
The collusion between KBR, the Army Corps, and the White House for RIO inspired Bunny Greenhouse, then-Chief Procurement Officer for the Army Corps, to become a whistleblower, and she was demoted for doing so. Greenhouse, in stark terms, made known her take on this state of affairs.
“I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career,” said Greenhouse as she testified before Congress in 2005.
Uncertain Future
Lydia Lafleur, a business professor at Louisiana State University and the corporate registered agent for AUX Initiatives, did not respond to a request for comment on whether Crear's lobbying of the Army Corps was done specifically on behalf of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Crear also did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
The Dakota Access Pipeline would transport oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) from North Dakota's Bakken Shale basin across the state and through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, where it would terminate and connect to another pipeline in Patoka. That pipeline, the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline, will shuttle oil down to Gulf Coast refineries in Texas and in part to the global export market.
To date, the progressive cell phone company Credo Mobile has gathered over 373,000 signatures for a petition calling on the Obama administration to reject Dakota Access.
CREDO Deputy Political Director Josh Nelson issued a statement this week: “Indigenous water protectors and the First Amendment are under assault in North Dakota – and President Obama needs to intervene now.” Nelson continued, “if President Obama wants to uphold his promises to do right by indigenous people and fight climate change, he must summon the political courage to intervene now and stop – not just reroute – the Dakota Access pipeline.”
http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/11/03/lo ... -iraqi-oil
by Blue » Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:20 am
by Cordelia » Fri Nov 04, 2016 1:33 pm
by Cordelia » Sat Nov 05, 2016 2:41 pm
Grizzly wrote:
Hearing reports of horses being dhot, this one says a sniper shot a child...
by Iamwhomiam » Sat Nov 05, 2016 3:34 pm
by seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:44 am
Chief: '20 Standing Rocks' if Canada Ignores Indigenous Consent
Protesters demonstrate against the Dakota crude oil access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota
Protesters demonstrate against the Dakota crude oil access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota | Photo: Reuters
The Trudeau government declared Thursday it does not need First Nations consent on natural resource projects, angering First Nations.
Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon made his remarks in response to Liberal Natural Resource Minister Jim Carr´s surprise declaration on Thursday that Canada need only “consult and accommodate” First Nations on natural resource projects taking place on their territory.
“New infrastructure to bring in more oil from the tar sands? Forget it, it’s not going to happen,” said Simon, who is also a lead spokesperson for an anti-pipeline treaty alliance supported by about 85 First Nations. “I don’t care what Jim Carr says that no consent is necessary…Consent, it’s what we are demanding, and he will never get our consent, not for something like this. What if we gave Canada 20 Standing Rocks? I wonder if his position will change then?”
Minister Carr´s declaration contradicts the Trudeau government´s promises to follow Canadian Supreme Court Rulings and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which require “free, prior, and informed consent” of Indigenous Nations to any natural resource projects affecting their traditional and treaty territories.
“We always knew the Trudeau government, a lot of his ministers, are influenced by the fossil fuel industry,” said Simon. “If we keep doing this, our children and their children are going to suffer the brunt of climate change.”
Minister Carr made his comments on the same day two groups of climate activists occupied both his constituency office and that of the Aboriginal Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett. The activists called on the Trudeau government to respect Indigenous land rights and reject the expansion of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline which would carry tar sands crude oil through the territory of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
The occupations came as a government-convened panel released a report on the Trans Mountain Pipeline project which raised serious questions about the viability of the project given the legal requirement of obtaining the consent of the First Nations affected by the project.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said Friday he expects the Trudeau government to fulfill its commitments on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
“The government endorsed UNDRIP without qualification, and the UN declaration states the requirement of free, prior and informed consent by First Nations over any activities that can impact our rights, our people or our territory,” said Bellegarde.
Chief Simon´s statement came as 75 Mohawks of Kahnawake blockaded a major Canadian Pacific Rail line between Canada and U.S. on Thursday in solidarity with the water protectors in Standing Rock who are challenging the Dakota Access Pipeline project.
A statement released by the Kahnawake People´s Fire said, “There is an injustice that is transpiring by the government to protect the corporations with complete disregard to environmental disasters that will proceed their decision to install the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Canadian and American governments have neglected their obligations to protect the people that they represent, and we are standing for their safety as well.”
On Friday a group of Indigenous land protectors and their allies in the eastern Canadian province of Labrador vowed to resume their protest of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project which threatens to poison their water and food supply
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/C ... content=18
by Cordelia » Fri Nov 11, 2016 7:32 pm
by seemslikeadream » Tue Nov 15, 2016 8:39 pm
Army Corps of Engineers Says Pipeline Construction Can't Continue Without Tribe Input
by DANIEL A. MEDINA and CHIARA SOTTILE
Dakota Pipeline protesters stand arm-in-arm at the intersection of Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street in downtown Bismarck, N.D., after marching from the state Capitol to the William L. Guy Federal Building, Monday, Nov. 14, 2016. Mike McCleary /
The Army Corps of Engineers dealt a blow to the progress of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday, saying in a letter that more analysis and discussion with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe is needed before construction can take place under the Missouri River.
The company behind the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, needs an easement, or permission, from the Corps in order to drill under Lake Oahe — on the Missouri River — to finish the oil pipeline along its proposed route.
Energy Transfer Partners had been waiting on a decision from the Army Corps since September when they launched a review of a requested easement.
Monday's letter from the Army Corps to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dakota Access LLC, and Energy Transfer Partners said construction "cannot occur because the Army has not made a final decision on whether to grant an easement." It said they would work with the Standing Rock Sioux on a timeline "that allows for robust discussion and analysis to be completed expeditiously."
PlayNorth Dakota Pipeline Protesters March at State Capitol Facebook Twitter Google PlusEmbed
North Dakota Pipeline Protesters March at State Capitol 0:49
The pipeline's proposed route has inspired protests from hundreds of Native American tribes, environmentalists and others calling themselves water protectors. Since August, they have descended upon Standing Rock, North Dakota near the pipeline's proposed site to stand in solidarity against the oil pipeline's construction.
Related: Dakota Access Pipeline: What's Behind the Protests?
Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren referred to the protesters as "violent mobs" in an interview with NBC News last week.
Warren at the time said the tribe's worries that the pipeline would destroy its sacred sites and compromise its water supply "were not based on the facts" and that the pipelines were prepared to withstand any rupture.
Energy Transfer Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The company said last week that the construction on either side of Lake Oahe was complete, and that they were "mobilizing horizontal drilling equipment to the drill box site in preparation for the tunneling under Lake Oahe."
But in the letter Monday, Army Corps Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy asked for caution and for more tribal input, writing, "The Army is mindful of the history of the Great Sioux Nation's repeated dispossessions, including those to support water-resources projects. This history compels great caution and respect in considering the concerns that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has raised regarding the proposed crossing of Lake Oahe north of its reservation."
The "history" likely refers to the Army Corps' itself taking hundreds of thousands of acres of land from Native Americans when they built the Oahe Dam in the middle of the 20th Century.
The letter went on to recognize that portions of the lake fall within the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation boundaries and that the Tribe retains hunting and fishing rights in the lake.
Image: Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota
Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. September 9, 2016. ANDREW CULLEN / Reuters
Tribal members and their allies have maintained that the pipeline's proposed route also cuts across sacred land, including ancestral burial sites. An oil spill would also pose a risk to their drinking water, for which they and millions of others rely on the Missouri River.
Related: What Will a Trump Presidency Mean for the Dakota Access Pipeline?
In a statement, Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II responded to the Army Corps letter, saying: "We are encouraged and know that the peaceful prayer and demonstration at Standing Rock have powerfully brought to light the unjust narrative suffered by tribal nations and Native Americans across the country." He pointed out that the 1,170-mile pipeline was rerouted from its original route near urban Bismarck after citizens there raised concerns about their own water safety. It was then moved closer to the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.
Chairman Archambault also called for continued peaceful and prayerful support of water protectors, writing, "The whole world is watching and where they see prayerful, peaceful resistance, they join us."
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dakota ... ut-n683871
by Grizzly » Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:27 pm
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