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Pipelines

Forcible Arrest Of Water Protectors At Illegal Pipeline Construction Site In Louisiana

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is the same company responsible for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), which was met with significant resistance from the local indigenous population in North Dakota as well as from their allies from across the country. ETP and its hired security frequently engaged in violent tactics against peaceful Water Protectors on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, with the help of both local police and police from surrounding states. If completed, the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP) will connect with the DAPL system. The BBP is slated to transport crude oil originating from the Bakken Oil fields of North Dakota. The pipeline is to run 162 miles from southeast Texas to St. James, Louisiana. The oil transported would enter international markets.

Indigenous Self-Determination The Real Force Behind Another Pipeline’s Dead End

This mortal blow against the expansion of Trans Mountain, now owned by Canada after Kinder Morgan recognized its inevitable disaster, along with the deaths of Northern Gateway and Energy East are the most prominent examples of a widespread movement taking place across Turtle Island where Indigenous peoples are fighting against oppressive governments and dirty energy projects, and reclaiming their rightful place as stewards of these lands. Despite hundreds of years of colonization, genocide and violence, we are still here. We are still here and we will continue to be here to fight for the health of our lands, waters and peoples. Government and industry can continue to ignore our lack of consent at their own peril.

Tribe Says Army Corps Stonewalling On Dakota Access Pipeline Report, Oil Spill Risk

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is defending its claim that the Dakota Access pipeline has no significant environmental impact, but it issued only a brief summary of its court-ordered reassessment while keeping the full analysis confidential. The delay in releasing the full report, including crucial details about potential oil spills, has incensed the Standing Rock Tribe, whose reservation sits a half-mile downstream from where the pipeline crosses the Missouri River. The tribe said the Army Corps is stonewalling, and it said it will continue to oppose the pipeline. Meanwhile, oil continues to flow through the pipeline two years after opponents set up a desperate encampment to try to block the project. In June 2017, a federal judge ordered the Corps to reassess the potential environmental harm posed by the pipeline,

U.S. Army Corps Releases Decision On The Dakota Access Pipeline, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Responds

Mike Faith, Jr., Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, issued this statement: “The Army Corps’ decision to rubberstamp its illegal and flawed permit for DAPL will not stand. “A federal judge declared the DAPL permits to be illegal, and ordered the Corps to take a fresh look at the risks of an oil spill and the impacts to the Tribe and its Treaty rights. That is not what the Army Corps did. Instead, we got a cynical and one-sided document designed to paper over mistakes, not address the Tribe’s legitimate concerns. “The Tribe has worked in good faith every step of the way to develop technical and cultural information to help the Corps fully understand the consequences of permitting this pipeline. They took our hard work and threw it in the trash.

Minnesota Indigenous And Advocacy Leaders Take Direct Action In Continued Call On Governor Dayton To Stop Line 3

BEMIDJI, Minn. — Last Wednesday, Native and non-Native leaders were joined by national environmental advocates to urge Governor Mark Dayton to act immediately to stop Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline. Participants included tribal elders, local environmental and Indigenous advocates and faith leaders, Youth Climate Intervenors, and national representatives from the Sierra Club. The group gathered to engage in an act of civil disobedience, occupying an intersection in downtown Bemidji in order to escalate the ongoing campaign against Line 3. At the same time, a group sat-in at the governor’s office playing live-streamed video from the action in Bemidji in order to send a clear message to Governor Dayton that now is the time to take action and stop the pipeline.

Trudeau Committed To Building Trans Mountain Despite Legal Challenges

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his support for the Trans Mountain expansion project Friday vowing to fight on after the Federal Court of Appeal handed his government a ruling that threatens to derail the pipeline entirely. Speaking to reporters in Oshawa, Ont., Trudeau said the government is committed to building the pipeline the "right way" to satisfy the court's demands. Citing inadequate consultations with Indigenous peoples, Justice Eleanor Dawson nullified licensing for the $7.4-billion expansion Thursday, halting construction only days after shovels hit the ground on the 1,150-km project.

Corporate Astroturfers Push For Bayou Bridge Pipeline & Criminalization Of Protesters

A key public relations tactic that the fossil fuel industry uses to advance its interests is the creation of fake grassroots campaigns that support its oil and gas projects. The way this often works is that companies or industry associations pay communications firms to run commercials, publish op-eds, commission reports, and prop up so-called “consumer” groups. All this creates the appearance of popular backing of controversial fossil fuel projects. These efforts are a problem because, even as they distort the truth and lack transparency, they shape media narratives and offer cover to industry-backed elected officials who are trying to advance corporate interests.

Teaching My Sons That Water Is Life: A Father/Son Road Trip.

This was a special summer for me as a dad. For the first time I took my sons, Felix and Jaxson, on that classic TransCanada road trip so many of us did when we were young. We traveled across two provinces, from Manitoba to Alberta. It was a journey across our Treaty 6 territory. We drove across many bodies of water, with much of it flowing north. Water—both our Cree and Dene relatives, along with every other Canadian, depend on for life. As I drove with my sons, I wondered what would be their takeaways, what would they remember? Our destination was the Grassroots Grow Deep (GGD) - An Indigenous Climate Justice Training, a gathering I was supporting through my job as a campaigner with the global climate organization, 350.org.

‘Victory For All Of Us’: Federal Court Of Appeal Quashes Approval Of $9.3-Billion Oil Pipeline Expansion

As First Nations and environmentalists celebrated Thursday’s Federal Court of Appeal decision to quash approval of the $9.3-billion Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, one thing is clear: More delay and higher costs if the project does go ahead. In a unanimous decision, the court found that Canada had not adequately consulted each of six First Nations that had challenged the project’s approval. The three-judge court, in its 263-page decision written by judge Eleanor Dawson, also found the scope of the National Energy Board’s review “unjustifiably” did not include tanker traffic related to the project, which will have a negative effect on endangered killer whales, also known as orcas. The project has been hugely controversial in British Columbia, particularly in the Lower Mainland, where there have been years of protest, rallies and most recently arrests.

Help Robie Goins Fight A Pipeline

Brothers Robie and Dwayne Goins of Robeson County are members of the Lumbee Tribe and live in Prospect, NC, a majority Native American community. Dwayne lives adjacent to a site where Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC has announced plans to build a gas metering and regulation station and a 350 ft. microwave tower (to control the station remotely). Prospect, already burdened with two older pipelines and associated gas infrastructure, is now slated to become the 36 inch, 1400psi Atlantic Coast Pipeline's official southern terminus. Robie and Dwayne have filed suit in Robeson County challenging a conditional use permit issued to the company by the county a year ago.

South Portland’s Tar Sands Ban Upheld In A ‘David vs. Goliath’ Pipeline Battle

A federal judge has ruled that the coastal city of South Portland, Maine, did not violate the U.S. Constitution when it passed an ordinance that blocked a local pipeline company from bringing tar sands oil through its port. For the city of 25,000, the ruling was a surprise victory after years of fighting what felt like an impossible battle against some of the world's biggest oil companies, which lined up to support the Portland Pipe Line Corporation (PPLC). Provided the ruling survives an appeal, it slams the door on a significant plan to ship Canadian tar sands oil, one of the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet, to the East Coast for export to international markets, and it could offer a guide for other communities hoping to block energy projects.

Louisiana Law Enforcement Officers Are Moonlighting For A Controversial Pipeline Company

Pipeline protester Cindy Spoon was trying to stop Energy Transfer Partners’ heavy tree-cutting equipment from coming onto a pristine cypress forest-covered island in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin. As she paddled in the bayou on Aug. 9, fan boats roared around her, blowing her canoe backward and kettling her in a smaller bayou. Within minutes, Spoon and fellow activist Sophia Cook-Phillips were handcuffed and yanked out of the canoe by armed officers who refused to fully identify themselves. “What law enforcement agency are you with and where are you taking me?” Spoon asked repeatedly, her voice cracking and growing increasingly frantic as she was pulled up a steep embankment and dragged onto Energy Transfer Partners’ Bayou Bridge pipeline easement.

Federal Court Dismisses Pipeline Corporation’s Lawsuit Against The Earth First! Environmental Movement

August 23, 2018, North Dakota – Yesterday, a federal court dismissed the environmental movement Earth First! from a lawsuit by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. One year ago, ETP, represented by Kasowitz, Benson, Torres, the firm that represents President Trump, filed a sprawling lawsuit, claiming Earth First! funded a violent terrorist presence and criminal enterprise at the Standing Rock protests, with half a million dollars and proceeds from drug sales in a conspiracy with mainstream environmental groups. “Earth First! should have never been named in this far-fetched suit in the first place,” said Pamela Spees, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Pipeline Protest Arrests Raise Questions About Controversial Louisiana Law

An oil pipeline developer and local authorities in Louisiana are using a controversial new law to crack down on protests there, with at least nine people arrested this month within weeks of the law's entry into force. So far, none of the protesters has been formally charged with a crime, and their arrests are raising questions about the ambiguity of the law. The arrests include three separate incidents. In the first, three activists were pulled off a canoe and a kayak in a bayou on Aug. 9. Four more people, including a journalist, were detained on Aug. 18 on private property. Two more were arrested the following day at the same location. Louisiana law requires that anyone arrested go before a judge within 72 hours for a hearing where bond can be set.

What We Learned From Standing Rock: Chase Iron Eyes’ In-Depth Analysis

Chase Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and an attorney with the Lakota People’s Law Project, describes the movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and his almost two-year fight against felony charges. His work to develop a necessity defense led to the uncovering of corruption and collusion between industry, law enforcement and government. Chase also  gives his analysis of what the mobilization at Standing Rock means in the greater context of colonialism, capitalism and the absence of democracy.

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