After Court Rules Dakota Access Pipeline Operating Illegally, Dems Demand Biden It Shut Down
06 February
Politics
Protesters march during a demonstration against the Dakota Access Pipeline on March 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Five Democratic lawmakers on Friday encouraged President Joe Biden to order an immediate shutdown of the Dakota Access pipeline after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week delivered a victory to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe by ruling that DAPL is operating illegally.
<p><span></span>The three-judge panel <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/dc_cir_dapl_opinion.pdf" target="_blank">upheld</a> a lower court's ruling that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it granted an easement for DAPL to cross a federal reservoir along the Missouri River, less than a mile from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.</p><p>The court ordered a full environmental impact statement examining the threats posed by the oil pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, as the Democrats' <a href="https://barragan.house.gov/barragan-ruiz-grijalva-merkley-and-warren-urge-shutdown-of-dakota-access-pipeline/" target="_blank">letter</a> to Biden notes, "rightfully fears an oil spill could disproportionately affect their drinking water, as well as hunting and fishing rights."</p><p>Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2021/appeals-court-rules-for-standing-rock-sioux-tribe-in-pipeline-fight" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement that "we are pleased that the D.C. Circuit affirmed the necessity of a full environmental review, and we look forward to showing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers why this pipeline is too dangerous to operate."</p>
<p>Despite mandating the review, the panel did not order DAPL to stop operating. Jan Hasselman, the EarthJustice attorney representing Standing Rock, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/environment-north-dakota-courts-dakota-access-pipeline-missouri-river-671afcf1da10d5300260622296c4b379" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> after the ruling that "this pipeline is now operating illegally."</p><p>"The appeals court put the ball squarely in the court of the Biden administration to take action," Hasselman said. "And I mean shutting the pipeline down until this environmental review is completed."</p><p>Five lawmakers are now backing that call: Reps. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as well as Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).</p>
<div id="9f3d6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="903553eb93c7e12d4c26b2c6ac655040"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1357770657132593152" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today, @SenJeffMerkley @SenWarren @RepRaulRuizMD @RepRaulGrijalva & I asked @POTUS to put people over polluters & s… https://t.co/hAHRd25RwA</div> — Nanette D. Barragán (@Nanette D. Barragán)<a href="https://twitter.com/RepBarragan/statuses/1357770657132593152">1612552725.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The Democrats note that Biden has taken "bold early actions ... to prioritize climate action and environmental justice," including withdrawing permits for the Keystone XL pipeline.</p><p>In addition to urging him to "build on this promising start" by shutting down DAPL during the review, they detail some of the pipeline's history, including the "egregious environmental racism" in 2016, when "North Dakota law enforcement officials violently removed protestors from the path of DAPL, many of them from the nearby Standing Rock Sioux Tribe."</p><p>While former President Barack Obama—under whom Biden was vice president — denied DAPL permission to cross beneath Lake Oahe on unceded ancestral tribal lands, former President Donald Trump, the letter notes, "reversed course and granted the easement while ignoring the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe."</p>
<div id="c45a0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5efc0228e148443c62e91fe1da45e87d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1357458637086670849" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hey @JoeBiden, the Dakota Access Pipeline continues to operate illegally endangering the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.… https://t.co/2RKBVACHl1</div> — Joye Braun (@Joye Braun)<a href="https://twitter.com/joyem_braun/statuses/1357458637086670849">1612478334.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"As you consider how to proceed," the Democrats write, "we encourage you to meet with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other impacted tribes to better understand how the DAPL affects their lands, treaty rights, and environmental priorities."</p><p>"By shutting down this illegal pipeline, you can continue to show your administration values the environment and the rights of Indigenous communities more than the profits of outdated fossil fuel industries," the letter adds. "This is a critical step towards righting the wrongs of the past and setting our nation on a path of environmental, climate, and social justice."</p>
<div id="188c4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8d79ee5ec86191a62cd1e3e1b3a2b6ca"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1356300279843594248" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Hey @JoeBiden, we still #StandwithStandingRock.
It's time to shut down DAPL and #BuildBackFossilFree.
DAPL conti… https://t.co/lTsuqLjpws</div> — Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/IENearth/statuses/1356300279843594248">1612202160.0</a></blockquote></div><p>As DeSmog <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2021/02/04/trillion-oil-gas-pipelines-dakota-access-stranded-assets" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">noted</a> Thursday, DAPL is facing more than just legal trouble: Westchester Fire Insurance Co. <a href="https://wcc.efs.iowa.gov/cs/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&allowInterrupt=1&dID=338626&noSaveAs=1&fbclid=IwAR27w2FZQ4Xer-2A1XRSfRAoMFSMoglHFNswJwCJMpF2oHhvc9dNo6GTFPY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">notified</a> pipeline owner Energy Transfer in early January that it had lost a $250,000 "bond that Iowa, one of the four states it passes through, required the pipeline to maintain."</p><p>The 1,172-mile underground pipeline, which began operating in June 2017, transports 570,000 barrels of oil per day from the Bakken formation in North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, to a terminal in Illinois.</p><p>Attorney Carolyn Raffensperger, director of the Science and Health Network, told <em>DeSmog</em> it could be tricky for Energy Transfer to replace the lost insurance coverage, especially given the court-ordered review.</p><p>"It will be difficult because the bond holder will require the pipeline to comply with all legal requirements," Raffensperger said. "If it is operating without a permit, any spill would be a big, big legal problem."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/05/after-court-rules-dakota-access-pipeline-operating-illegally-dems-demand-biden-it?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em></p>
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A warning sign near the Dakota Access Pipeline endpoint in Patoka, Illinois on Nov. 11, 2016. Cyrene Krey / Flickr
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline won a reprieve Wednesday when an appeals court canceled a lower court order mandating the pipeline be shut down and emptied of oil while a full environmental impact statement is completed.
<p>The shutdown order, which would have gone into effect Wednesday, marked the first time a major oil pipeline was court ordered to cease operations for environmental reasons. But while its reversal is disappointing for pipeline opponents, Wednesday's decision was not wholly favorable for the pipeline, either. The court refused to halt the initial order for a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-environmental-review-2645577384.html" target="_self">new environmental review</a> of the pipeline's crossing under the Missouri River, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fears it will pollute its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> and sacred lands if it leaks.</p><p>"We've been in this legal battle for four years, and we aren't giving up this fight," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith said in an <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/dc-circuit-mixed-decision-dakota-access-shutdown-order?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">Earthjustice press release</a>. "As the environmental review process gets underway in the months ahead, we look forward to showing why the Dakota Access Pipeline is too dangerous to operate."</p>
<div id="e3dbb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1c6bf3b1b2ec9c26be8e6fd6776c2be"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1291118408277397505" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">But the fight isn't over! DAPL's permit to cross underneath Lake Oahe is vacated, so it's effectively operating ill… https://t.co/EOPn59siC7</div> — Earthjustice (@Earthjustice)<a href="https://twitter.com/Earthjustice/statuses/1291118408277397505">1596661591.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit put the question of whether the pipeline could continue to operate without a permit back to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/dakota-access-pipeline-staves-off-shutdown-order-once-again" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>. It said it expected the Army Corps of Engineers to clarify the issue.</p><p>"It's interesting what the court did here," Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told Bloomberg. "While the focus has been on this judicially imposed shutdown order, the bigger picture is the environmental impact statement and whether a permit will be reissued under the next administration."</p><p>Hasselman argued that the pipeline is now operating illegally, and, if the Army Corps of Engineers decides to let it keep running while a review is completed, the issue will return to court.</p><p>"[W]e are confident that it will be shut down eventually," he said in the press release.</p>
<p>The pipeline's owner Energy Transfer had immediately appealed the shutdown order, and the company's lawyer said it would continue with the legal process.</p><p>"We believe our legal positions are strong, and we are confident that the pipeline will continue to operate," General Counsel Tom Mason told Bloomberg.</p><p>The oil and gas industry more generally had a mixed response to Wednesday's ruling.</p><p>"The Court rightly stayed the decision to shut down and empty the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been operating for over three years and provides millions of tax dollars to states, affordable energy to the entire region, and thousands of jobs along its route," American Petroleum Institute senior vice president and chief legal officer Paul Afonso said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/510748-court-cancels-shutdown-of-dakota-access-pipeline" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "However, the failure to uphold the easement granted years ago by the federal government exemplifies the problems with our outdated permitting system, which allows protracted challenges to advance within the courts and ultimately take away jobs, tax dollars, and investments that pipelines bring to communities that sorely need them."</p>
<p>The Dakota Access Pipeline currently carries 570,000 barrels of oil a day 1,172-miles from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois. The fight against the pipeline garnered international attention through major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a>-led <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-standing-rock-gave-world-2549906333.html" target="_self">protests</a> in 2016 and 2017. The Obama administration <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/army-corps-permit-dakota-access-pipeline-2128363393.html" target="_self">denied</a> the river crossing permit in late 2016, but President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">pushed the project through</a> via executive order early after taking office. It has now been operating a little more than three years.</p>
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Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline to Shut Down Pending Full Environmental Review
07 July 2020
Energy
More than 200 Indigenous Nations demonstrated against the Dakota Access Pipeline in Canon Ball, ND on Sept. 2, 2016. Joe Brusky / Flickr
A federal judge ruled Monday that the controversial Dakota Access pipeline must be shut down and drained of oil until a full environmental review of the project is completed.
<p>The decision is a major victory for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, <a href="https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/historic-day-for-standing-rock-as-pipeline-company-told-to-shut-down-remove-oil-KkDdhNzafUONvPvkmBc66A" target="_blank">Indian Country Today reported</a>. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fears the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipeline</a> will pollute their <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a> and sacred lands if it leaks from where it flows beneath the Missouri River, and the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation sits adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux and the river.</p><p>"Today is a historic day for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many people who have supported us in the fight against the pipeline," Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith said in a <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/judge-orders-dakota-access-pipeline-to-shut-down" target="_blank">press release from Earthjustice</a>, the group that litigated the case. "This pipeline should have never been built here. We told them that from the beginning."</p>
<div id="348d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="744af6e4e53916e3c963b0271aa1c6b3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280155991833706497" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Breaking: Judge Orders Dakota Access Pipeline to be SHUT DOWN! #NoDAPL #ProtectTheSacred https://t.co/UxhUgdfA2Q</div> — Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/IENearth/statuses/1280155991833706497">1594047947.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The ruling is also a major blow to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> industry and the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a>, which has pushed to keep major pipeline projects like the Dakota Access and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/keystone-xl" target="_self">Keystone XL</a> afloat. It comes less than 24 hours after Dominion and Duke Energy <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/atlantic-coast-pipeline-canceled-2646347475.html" target="_self">announced</a> they were cancelling their planned <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/atlantic-coast-pipeline" target="_self">Atlantic Coast Pipeline</a> because extensive legal challenges had led to delays and uncertainty. Together, the pipelines' fates bode ill for the future prospects of large-scale <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/energy" target="_self">energy</a> pipeline projects, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-06/demise-of-gas-project-shows-u-s-pipelines-becoming-unbuildable" target="_blank">Bloomberg pointed out</a>.</p><p>"I would expect this to be a turning point for new investment," Katie Bays, co-founder of Washington-based Sandhill Strategy LLC, told Bloomberg. "There is real investor fatigue around this parade of legal and regulatory headwinds to energy projects."</p>
<p>The decision by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to shut down the pipeline marks the first time that a judge has closed an operating pipeline for environmental reasons, Southern Methodist University energy law professor James W. Coleman told Bloomberg.</p><p>"The Court does not reach its decision with blithe disregard for the lives it will affect," Boasberg wrote Monday, as <a href="https://apnews.com/be393de49dae81a2198ef30976212290" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. "Yet, given the seriousness of the Corps' NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) error, the impossibility of a simple fix, the fact that Dakota Access did assume much of its economic risk knowingly, and the potential harm each day the pipeline operates, the Court is forced to conclude that the flow of oil must cease."</p>
<p>In its press release, Earthjustice pointed out that a full environmental review could take several years, and then additional permits would have to be issued, meaning the ultimate permitting decision might be made by another administration.</p><p>But the pipeline's owner Energy Transfer vowed to challenge Boasberg's decision.</p><p>"We believe that the ruling issued this morning from Judge Boasberg is not supported by the law or the facts of the case. Furthermore, we believe that Judge Boasberg has exceeded his authority in ordering the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been safely operating for more than three years," Energy Transfer spokesperson Lisa Coleman said in a statement to <a href="https://pgjonline.com/news/2020/07-july/energy-transfer-vows-to-keep-dakota-access-oil-flowing" target="_blank"><em>Pipeline & Gas Journal</em></a>. "We will be immediately pursuing all available legal and administrative processes and are confident that once the law and full record are fully considered Dakota Access Pipeline will not be shut down and that oil will continue to flow."</p><p>Earthjustice staff attorney Jan Hasselman, who represented the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, noted on Twitter that Energy Transfer had already filed an appeal.</p>
<div id="e2278" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="355c2287182da682e80cc16f070c3738"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280275895228305409" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Well, that didn't take long: DAPL just filed its appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeal seeking to overturn th… https://t.co/lav9hmwlIU</div> — Jan Hasselman (@Jan Hasselman)<a href="https://twitter.com/JanHasselman/statuses/1280275895228305409">1594076534.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline currently carries 570,000 barrels of oil a day from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois, according to The Associated Press. It was the subject of high-profile <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a>-led <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-standing-rock-gave-world-2549906333.html" target="_self">protests</a> in 2016 and 2017.</p><p>In <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/army-corps-permit-dakota-access-pipeline-2128363393.html" target="_self">December 2016</a>, the Obama administration and the Army Corps of Engineers denied a key permit for the pipeline, and the Army Corps was set to conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement to seek alternative routes. But when he came into office in January, President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">sped up</a> the pipeline approval process via executive order and the review was never completed. The pipeline began operating in June 2017, according to The Associated Press, but the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe continued to fight it in court.</p><p>Judge Boasberg <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-environmental-review-2645577384.html" target="_self">ordered a full review</a> in late March of this year and asked both the Army Corps and the Standing Rock Sioux to submit briefs explaining why the pipeline should or should not continue to operate while the review was taking place. On Monday, he sided with the tribe.</p><p>"I applaud the actions of the US District Court in finding what we knew all along, that this pipeline, like many other actions taken by the US government, is in fact illegally operating," Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Frazier said in a statement reported by Indian Country Today. "The fact that this operation had been operating illegally for three years before this conclusion was finally made shows you the power that money holds on the American government."</p>
<div id="ed115" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5ddb18e2f74bd9e197943aee19fd1cbd"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1280288707585720321" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">I have been getting "congratulations" today. Today was about our planet and everything for which she provides life.… https://t.co/m3lwwbikhj</div> — CRSTChairman (@CRSTChairman)<a href="https://twitter.com/CRSTChairman/statuses/1280288707585720321">1594079589.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Trending
Rick Perry Rejoins Pipeline Company After He Steps Down From Trump Admin Energy Department
06 January 2020
Energy
Former U.S. Sec. of Energy Rick Perry speaks at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Sharon Kelly
Former Trump administration Energy Sec. Rick Perry, who resigned from his cabinet-level post effective last month, has joined the board of directors of the general partner of Energy Transfer LP, according to a filing made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Energy Transfer.
<p>Before joining the Trump administration, Perry had served on the board of Energy Transfer, the pipeline company behind controversial projects including <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa" target="_blank">Dakota Access</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="_blank">Bayou Bridge</a>, and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/01/03/energy-transfer-opens-mariner-east-2-pipeline-criminal-investigation-pennsylvania" target="_blank">Mariner East</a>, but resigned to become Secretary of the Department of Energy. On January 1, 2020, Perry was appointed as a director of LE GP, LLC, the general partner of Energy Transfer LP, according to today's SEC filing, made after the market closed. ("Energy Transfer is structured as a master limited partnership," Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-03/ex-energy-secretary-rick-perry-joins-energy-transfer-board" target="_blank">reports</a>.)</p>
<p>The news comes on the same day that Pennsylvania regulators announced a record $30.6 million fine for Energy Transfer over an explosion of the company's Revolution pipeline. State regulators said they would resume permitting for the firm's Mariner East project.</p><p>Energy Transfer is currently seeking to <a href="https://www.kallanishenergy.com/2020/01/02/energy-transfer-wants-to-nearly-double-dapl-capacity/" target="_blank">roughly double</a> the flow of fossil fuels along its Dakota Access project, raising the pipeline's capacity to 1.1 million barrels a day, up from the <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2019/12/27/energy-transfer-led-pipeline-group-wants-to-nearly-double-its-pumping-in-illinois/" target="_blank">560,000 barrels</a> of oil currently flowing through the Dakota Access system. </p><p><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2015/02/06/facing-felony-charges-rick-perry-joins-board-energy-transfer-partners" target="_blank">Perry first joined the board</a> of the company, then known as Energy Transfer Partners, in February 2015, as he was facing state-level felony charges, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/24/467946196/texas-appeals-court-tosses-final-felony-charge-against-former-gov-rick-perry" target="_blank">dismissed a year later</a>, for abuse of power during his term as Governor of Texas.</p>
<p>In 2017, after being chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Energy, Perry said that he <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/19/rick-perry-hopes-head-agency-he-once-forgot/96732676/" target="_blank">regretted his previous statements</a> about eliminating the very department he would go on to lead. During his tenure in the Trump administration, Perry sent a proposed rule to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (<span style="background-color: initial;">FERC</span>) to speed the approval of a proposal which would ensure that nuclear and coal plants received compensation for the "resilience" they give to the power grid, <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rick-perry-urges-ferc-protect-coal-nuclear-power-plants/article/2636085" target="_blank">The Washington Examiner reported</a>.</p><p>Speaking at CERAWeek, an annual energy conference in Texas, in March 2018, Perry said "clean" fossil fuels are the future, and a focus on renewables isn't the answer. "Listen, we support renewables," he told the audience, but suggested that the focus under the Paris Agreement was not the right approach. "What are we supposed to do in the meantime?" he asked, pointing to projections that fossil fuels aren't going anywhere soon. </p>
The Revolving Door Spins
<p>The Trump administration has come under fire over revolving door concerns before — often involving the hiring of former corporate lobbyists for government roles. "At the halfway mark of President Donald Trump's first term, his administration has hired a lobbyist for every 14 political appointments made, welcoming a total of <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/trump-town/staffers/category/lobbyists" target="_blank">281 lobbyists</a> on board, a ProPublica and Columbia Journalism Investigations analysis shows," ProPublica reported in <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-a-staggering-281-lobbyists-whove-worked-in-the-trump-administration" target="_blank">October</a>.</p><p>Other former high-level Trump officials have also come under fire for accepting roles in industries previously under their purview, including former Interior Secretary <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/ryan-zinke" target="_blank">Ryan Zinke</a>. In July last year, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/former-interior-chief-zinke-now-enlisting-energy-mining-clients" target="_blank">Bloomberg reported</a> that Zinke began working as a consultant for oil and mining firms after leaving the Interior Department, drawing criticism from good governance watchdogs. Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/john-kelly-new-role-will-profit-from-child-separation-policy-2019-5" target="_blank">similarly drew condemnation</a> when he joined the board of Caliburn International, operator of the largest U.S. center for housing migrant children, after playing a role in policy debates over the separation of migrant children from their families. And former Environmental Protection Agency chief <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/scott-pruitt" target="_blank">Scott Pruitt</a> was reportedly in talks in September 2019 to work as a consultant for a Kentucky coal mining executive, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/climate/pruitt-coal-consulting.html" target="_blank">according to</a> The New York Times.</p><p>A January 28, 2017 executive order issued by President Trump requires executive branch appointees to pledge that they will not lobby agencies where they previously worked for five years.</p>'Historic' Fine for Energy Transfer Announced in Pennsylvania, Permitting Bar Lifted
<p>Perry joins a company with a troubled track record when it comes to the law.</p><p>On the same day as the SEC filing announcing Perry's new role, Pennsylvania <a href="http://files.dep.state.pa.us/ProgramIntegration/PA%20Pipeline%20Portal/RevolutionPipeline/Consent_Order_and_Agreement_01-03-2020.pdf" target="_blank">announced</a> that it had reached an agreement with ETC Northeast Pipeline, LLC, an Energy Transfer <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1276187/000127618719000011/et-12312018xex211.htm" target="_blank">subsidiary</a>, over the 2018 explosion of the Revolution pipeline, part of the state's expanding network connecting the shale gas industry and the plastics and petrochemical industry.</p><p>The agreement includes a $30.6 million fine, one of the largest in commonwealth history — dwarfing the <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/business/energy/2019/12/04/pennsylvania-prosecutor-accuses-energy-transfer-of-buy-a-badge-security-scheme/" target="_blank">$13 million</a> in prior fines <a href="https://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/119459-pennsylvania-again-fines-me-2-total-penalties-exceed-13m?v=preview" target="_blank">issued as of September</a> last year by state regulators for environmental violations during Mariner East pipeline construction. It also lifts a permit bar that <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/governor-wolf-issues-statement-dep-pipeline-permit-bar/" target="_blank">blocked</a> Energy Transfer from obtaining new permits for its pipeline construction projects, including an ongoing expansion of its Mariner East pipeline system.</p><p>"The settlement announced Friday means the company can also begin the process of repairing the Revolution pipeline, which links shale wells in Beaver and Butler counties to an Energy Transfer gas processing plant in Washington County," the Pittsburgh Post Gazette <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2020/01/03/Energy-Transfer-30M-penalty-pipeline-explosion-permit-ban-Revolution-Mariner-East/stories/202001030137" target="_blank">reports</a>.</p><p>In August, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/08/30/shell-beaver-county-pennsylvania-revolution-pipeline-permit-scandal" target="_blank">state auditors reported</a> that Revolution pipeline's permits were "reviewed and authorized" by a county-level office that lacked authority to review so-called "gathering" pipelines like Revolution.</p><p>Pennsylvania environmentalists decried the commonwealth's lifting of the permit ban, which was established in early February 2019 after Energy Transfer struggled to repair the site of the Revolution blast and repeatedly created sinkholes that exposed buried portions of the Mariner East 1 pipeline project.</p><p>"There has been a failure by Energy Transfer and its subsidiaries to respect our laws and our communities," Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2019/02/08/pa-dep-halts-new-pipeline-permits-for-mariner-east-cites-ongoing-violations-with-revolution-pipeline/" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement when the bar was announced. "This is not how we strive to do business in Pennsylvania, and it will not be tolerated."</p><p>Last month, Energy Transfer and its security contractors were <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/12/08/energy-transfer-tigerswan-bribery-conspiracy-charges/" target="_blank">charged</a> with criminal conspiracy, bribery, and other related offenses in the state over allegations centering on alleged intimidation tactics used by the firm's security guards, who also served as Pennsylvania state constables, in what prosecutors referred to as a "buy-a-badge" scheme. "We do not believe these charges have any merit," an Energy Transfer spokesperson <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/12/08/energy-transfer-tigerswan-bribery-conspiracy-charges/" target="_blank">told</a> The Intercept when those charges were announced.</p><p>"Given the disastrous environmental degradation Energy Transfer caused with its Revolution pipeline, the company has lost its social license to operate," Joseph Otis Minott, attorney for the Clean Air Council, said in a statement today on Pennsylvania's agreement with Energy Transfer.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/01/03/energy-secretary-rick-perry-rejoins-energy-transfer-board-dakota-access">DeSmogBlog</a>.</em></p>
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The Dakota Access pipeline being built in Iowa. Carl Wycoff / CC BY 2.0
The fight between the Standing Rock Sioux and the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline is back on, as the tribe opposes a pipeline expansion that it argues would increase the risk of an oil spill.
<p>The two sides made their cases at a hearing before the North Dakota Public Service Commission in Linton, North Dakota Wednesday, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-transfer-oil-pipeline/dakota-access-oil-pipeline-eyes-expansion-over-tribes-objections-idUSKBN1XN2IB" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. Dakota Access LLC is seeking permission to build a pump station that would up the pipeline's capacity from 570,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.1 million bpd.</p><p>"The DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) capacity expansion will increase both the likelihood and the severity of spill incidents, and Dakota Access has failed to provide the commission with critical information necessary to properly evaluate the magnitude of those increased risks," the Standing Rock Sioux wrote in a Nov. 8 brief to the commission reported by Reuters.</p>
<div id="37fc2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="VI489S1576661145"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1194342672246423552" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Tribe is concerned that, if approved, the DAPL capacity expansion will set the stage for yet another Energy Tra… https://t.co/UKLZquVM1Y</div> — Standing Rock Sioux (@Standing Rock Sioux)<a href="https://twitter.com/StandingRockST/statuses/1194342672246423552">1573588457.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Standing Rock Sioux opposed the initial construction of the pipeline because it passes beneath the Missouri River, which they use for water, at a point just north of their reservation, an <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/11/13/tribe-to-argue-against-expansion-of-dakota-access-pipeline" target="_blank">Associated Press story published by Minnesota Public Radio explained</a>. Protests against the pipeline led to hundreds of arrests in 2016 and 2017.</p><p>The proposed expansion would increase the flow of oil through the pipe to 15 feet per second, a speed that would increase the risk of a "worst case" spill, according to <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2019/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-to-address-north-dakota-public-service-commission-at-hearing-on-massive-dapl-expansion" target="_blank">Earthjustice</a>.</p><p>"I'm here because they want to double the risk of a spill," <a href="https://www.ienearth.org/" target="_blank">Indigenous Environmental Network</a> organizer Joye Braun, who helped lead the protests in 2016 and 2017, told <a href="https://apnews.com/95eff66650204ed084206c94cf85cc05" target="_blank">the Associated Press</a> at Wednesday's hearing.</p>
<div id="10aac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="DDHRNT1576661145"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1194636343869001728" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">LIVE NOW:
Click below to watch the North Dakota State Public Service Commission hearing regarding the expansion of… https://t.co/ICMaKf6lBt</div> — Indigenous Environmental Network (@Indigenous Environmental Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/IENearth/statuses/1194636343869001728">1573658474.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Energy Transfer, the Texas-based company that owns the pipeline, claimed that the expansion would not increase the risk of a spill.</p><p>"I assure the commission we plan to cut no corners on this work," Chuck Frey, Energy Transfer vice president of engineering, said at the hearing.</p><p>The company says the expansion is needed to move increased output from the Bakken shale, Reuters explained. Construction of the pump station would begin in spring of 2020 and take up to 10 months.</p><p>The 1,172 mile pipeline carries oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a terminal in Illinois. Energy Transfer is also seeking permission to build pumping stations in South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, according to the Associated Press. Regulators in South Dakota have granted the pipeline a conditional use permit to build a pumping station.</p><p>Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Mike Faith told the Associated Press that he did not believe the expansion would not increase risk.</p><p>"There are no guarantees for anything," Faith said. "I'm telling everybody to stay strong and let the process handle itself. I feel positive."</p>The hearing comes about two weeks after another pipeline caused a spill in North Dakota: TC Energy's Keystone Pipeline <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/keystone-oil-spill-tc-2641184483.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">spilled 383,000 gallons</a> of crude in late October.
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On July 24, 2017 Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya claimed responsibility for sabotage and arson against the Dakota Access Pipeline. They began dismantling a sign outside the Iowa Utilities Board, and were arrested. Unicorn Riot / YouTube screenshot
Federal authorities on Wednesday charged two women who set fire to machinery and attempted to pierce portions of the Dakota Access Pipeline with torches with counts of conspiracy and arson.
<p>Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek worked in November of 2016 to damage the controversial <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipeline</a>, hosting a <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/23/dakota-access-pipeline-iowa-sabotage-no-federal-charges-jessica-reznicek-ruby-montoya/801287002/" target="_blank">news conference</a> in July of 2017 in front of the Iowa Utilities Board describing their actions. The charges come more than two years after that press conference, and the women could face decades in prison if convicted. </p><p>Authorities also charged a South Dakota man this month with a felony conspiracy to commit criminal mischief for participating in a September 2016 #NoDAPL protest, claiming that DNA from a cigarette butt collected at the scene links him to the action. Native protesters have faced particularly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/22/standing-rock-jailed-activists-water-protectors" target="_blank">harsh charges and convictions</a> in the aftermath of the pipeline protests.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/two-women-charged-dakota-access-pipeline.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New York Times</a>:</p><p>"Some may view these actions as violent, but be not mistaken," Ms. Montoya said at the <a href="https://youtu.be/NTCR09iWYwQ" title="" target="_blank">news conference</a> in July 2017. "We acted from our hearts and never threatened human life nor personal property. What we did do was fight a private corporation that has run rampantly across our country seizing land and polluting our nation's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> supply."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"We're up to nine states that have passed laws that are substantially close to the model policy that you have in your packet." <a href="https://t.co/48O6RB0Pvo">https://t.co/48O6RB0Pvo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DeSmogBlog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeSmogBlog</a></p>— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/1165458854836150273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 25, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p>Women: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/two-women-charged-dakota-access-pipeline.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2019/10/01/dakota-access-pipeline-iowa-sabotage-federal-charges-jessica-reznicek-ruby-montoya-trial-activist-ia/3833320002/" target="_blank">Des Moines Register</a>. Man: <a href="https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/prosecutor-says-more-than-dna-links-pipeline-protester-to-riot/article_f318c1bf-2f19-52b0-b100-6c128d4a0e6d.html" target="_blank">Bismarck Tribune</a></p><p> <em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Indigenous and Green Groups Fighting Pipeline Urge 2020 Democrats to Take 'NoKXL Pledge'
14 August 2019
Politics
Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally at Lafayette Park next to the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 24, 2017. SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
Indigenous, environmental and landowner groups fighting to block the Keystone XL pipeline sent a letter Tuesday to the two dozen 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates, urging them to take the "NoKXL pledge" and vow — if elected — to revoke the Trump administration's permit for the tar sands oil project.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tell the Democratic candidates: Take the "NoKXL Pledge" to stop the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeystoneXL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KeystoneXL</a> pipeline: <a href="https://t.co/3hu3lQgrye">https://t.co/3hu3lQgrye</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoKXLpledge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoKXLpledge</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoKXL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoKXL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoDAPL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NoDAPL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StopLine3?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StopLine3</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HonorTheTreaties?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HonorTheTreaties</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WaterIsLife?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WaterIsLife</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ActOnClimate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ActOnClimate</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/BoldNebraska?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BoldNebraska</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/janekleeb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@janekleeb</a> <a href="https://t.co/GPJ8nZsNKZ">pic.twitter.com/GPJ8nZsNKZ</a></p>— Bold Nebraska (@BoldNebraska) <a href="https://twitter.com/BoldNebraska/status/1161349951697412097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>"There is no middle ground when it comes to protecting the land, water, and climate," Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/08/13/letter-urges-democratic-candidates-take-nokxl-pledge-stop-keystone-xl-pipeline" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement. "You either stand with family farmers, ranchers, Tribal Nations, and environmentalists — or you stand with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> corporations who are abusing eminent domain, and trampling on the treaty rights of Tribal Nations."<br></p><p>"Tribal Nations and communities are battling for the survival of our ecosystems and ways of life, and we need a president who will stand with us against <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil">Big Oil</a> and the fossil fuel regime," said Dallas Goldtooth, a Keep It in the Ground campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network. "Signing the NOKXL pledge is a solid step in the right direction."</p>
<p>The three-point NoKXL pledge, featured on Bold Nebraska's website, <a href="http://boldnebraska.org/nokxlpledge/" target="_blank">states</a>:</p><ul><li>If elected, I pledge to take executive action on Day One to stop any construction on the Keystone XL pipeline — no matter what — and revoke the existing presidential permits issued unilaterally by President Trump for the Keystone XL and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline">Dakota Access</a> pipelines, sending both projects back to relevant federal agencies to undergo legitimate environmental review and Tribal consultations.</li><li>I pledge to direct all federal agencies (State Dept., FERC, Army Corps) to submit these two projects, as well as all new pipeline and energy infrastructure projects to a true climate test, and reject permits for any project that would exacerbate our climate crisis.</li><li>I pledge to protect the property rights of farmers and ranchers from eminent domain abuse, and to honor the treaties the U.S. government has signed with sovereign Tribal Nations.</li></ul>
<p>Natalie Mebane, associate director of U.S. Policy at 350 Action, called the pledge "a critical step in moving towards stopping all new fossil fuel projects and protecting communities already experiencing the devastation of fossil fuel disasters."</p><p>"To build systems that work for all of us, we must keep fossil fuels in the ground, prioritize Indigenous rights, workers, and frontline communities, and hold fossil fuel billionaires accountable for their destruction," Mebane added. "Together we've stopped the Keystone XL pipeline for over a decade. It's time all presidential candidates join us and commit to stopping KXL once and for all."</p><p>If constructed, the long-delayed pipeline <a href="https://www.tcenergy.com/operations/oil-and-liquids/keystone-xl/" target="_blank">would carry</a> up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily more than 1,000 miles from the Alberta tar sands, across Montana and South Dakota, to Nebraska. In a move that critics <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/29/snubbing-law-and-climate-trump-issues-new-permit-keystone-xl" target="_blank">decried</a> as a "ridiculous attempt" to skirt the law to benefit a fossil fuel company, President Donald Trump issued an "<a href="http://boldnebraska.org/nokxlpledge/" target="_blank">unprecedented and unilateral</a>" executive memorandum in March, granting TransCanada — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-results/pipeline-company-transcanada-changes-name-to-tc-energy-idUSKCN1S911H" target="_blank">now known as</a> TC Energy — a permit for the project.</p><p>"Our next president needs to listen to the science that says we can't build new fossil fuel projects and fight <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer">climate change</a> at the same time, not the polluters who say we don't have a choice," Greenpeace USA climate campaigner Charlie Jiang said Tuesday. "Reversing Trump's misguided Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline authorizations on day one sends a clear message to the fossil fuel executives that their days of power over the White House are over."</p><p>Other groups co-sponsoring the pledge are the Bold Alliance, Nebraska Easement Action Team, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Sunrise Movement, CREDO, Oil Change U.S., Friends of the Earth Action, Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, Climate Hawks Vote, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Progressive Democrats of America, NYC Grassroots Alliance, Earth Action, Bucks Environmental Network, Greenbelt Climate Action Network, Anthropocene Alliance, New York Climate Action Group, Coalition Against the Rockaway Pipeline, and Coalition Against the Pilgrim Pipeline.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How Do the #2020 Candidates Rate on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Climate?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Climate</a> Action? <a href="https://t.co/dHqa9a5wdK">https://t.co/dHqa9a5wdK</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DeSmogBlog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeSmogBlog</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/climateprogress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@climateprogress</a></p>— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/1112082166379352065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/13/indigenous-and-green-groups-fighting-against-pipeline-urge-2020-democrats-take-nokxl?cd-origin=rss" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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Texas Bill Would Make Protesting Pipelines a Felony on Par With Attempted Murder
20 May 2019
Politics
Activists in North Dakota confront pipeline construction activities. A Texas bill would impose steep penalties for such protests. Speak Freely / ACLU
By Eoin Higgins
A bill making its way through the Texas legislature would make protesting pipelines a third-degree felony, the same as attempted murder.
<p><a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=86R&Bill=HB3557#vote161" target="_blank">H.B. 3557</a>, which is under consideration in the state Senate after passing the state House earlier this month, ups penalties for interfering in energy infrastructure construction by making the protests a felony. Sentences would range from two to 10 years.</p><p>The legislation was authored by Republican state Rep. Chris Paddie. It passed the state House May 7 on a 99 to 45 vote, with two abstentions. The bill is being cosponsored in the state Senate by Republican state Sen. Pat Fallon.</p><p>In remarks on the state House floor during the bill's passage, Paddie <a href="https://www.statesman.com/news/20190507/house-backs-stiffer-penalties-for-those-who-damage-pipelines" target="_blank">sought to assuage the fears</a> of those who believe the legislation will target non-violent protest.</p><p>"This bill does not affect those who choose to peacefully protest for any reason," said Paddie. "It attaches liability to those who potentially damage or destroy critical infrastructure facilities."</p><p>But opponents of the measure don't agree, pointing to the bill's language.</p><p>"It's an anti-protest bill, favoring the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry, favoring corporations over people," Frankie Orona, executive director of the Society of Native Nations, told the Austin American-Statesman.</p><p><a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/pipeline-protesters-could-face-20-years-in-prison-under-bill-in-texas-house/" target="_blank">The legislation is "is criminalizing conscientious, caring people who are the canaries for their communities," activist Lori Glover told the Texas Observer.</a></p><p>A hearing on the law in the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Economic Development on Wednesday drew opponents of the measure to <a href="http://tlcsenate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=14545" target="_blank">speak out</a> against the law, but it's unclear if their testimony will make a difference.</p>
<p>The Texas bill is just the latest piece of legislation at the state level to target pipeline protests. In the wake of a spike in anti-pipeline actions over the past few years, Grist<em> </em><a href="https://grist.org/article/after-standing-rock-protesting-pipelines-can-get-you-a-decade-in-prison-and-100k-in-fines" target="_blank">reported</a> Tuesday, a number of states have come down on environmental activists.</p><blockquote>The effort to punish pipeline protestors has spread across states with ample oil and gas reserves in the last two years and, in some cases, has garnered bipartisan support. Besides Louisiana, four other states — Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa — have enacted similar laws after protests against the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline">Dakota Access Pipeline</a> generated national attention and inspired a wave of civil disobedience.</blockquote><p>The bill is drawing national attention as well.</p><p>"Texas aims to make pipeline protest a third-degree felony, same as attempted murder," climate activist Bill McKibben <a href="https://twitter.com/billmckibben/status/1129362925485821952" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Friday.</p><p>In a tweet, the advocacy group Public Citizen <a href="https://twitter.com/Public_Citizen/status/1128701777736548352" target="_blank">described</a> the legislation as "an oil and gas backed effort to squash environmental protest."</p><p>"This needs to be a nation-wide story," the group said.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"Could someone sharing details of a protest — time, place, what to wear, etc. — on his or her <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Facebook?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Facebook</a> page be seen as "advising" rioters?" <a href="https://t.co/fhgTXWBh6V">https://t.co/fhgTXWBh6V</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NRDC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NRDC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/kxlblockade?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kxlblockade</a></p>— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) <a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/status/1127287374503919618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/17/texas-state-bill-would-make-protesting-pipelines-felony-par-attempted-murder?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Dakota Access Pipeline Company Misses Deadline to Plant 20,000 Trees Along Pipeline Route
03 January 2019
Energy
Protesters walk along land being prepared for the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota on Sept. 3, 2016. ROBYN BECK / AFP / Getty Images
Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, has missed its 2018 deadline to plant tens of thousands of trees along the pipeline's route, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The company was supposed to plant 20,000 trees along the pipeline's 359-mile route through North Dakota by the end of 2018, as per the terms of a September 2017 settlement with North Dakota's Public Service Commission. So far, it has planted only around 8,800.
<p>The settlement came about because of two major complaints, <a href="https://apnews.com/f86407f5155d470b975595407809f840" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported in 2017</a>:</p><ol class="ee-ol"><li>Energy Transfer Partners failed to adequately report the discovery of Native American artifacts along its route. The artifacts were not disturbed, but the company did not get permission from the commission for a route change.</li><li>Regulators were concerned that the company had disturbed too many trees and improperly removed <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil" target="_self">soil</a> while laying pipe.</li></ol><p>In the settlement, Energy Transfer Partners agreed to plant trees in soil conservation districts along the route and help write a "how-to" manual for handling the discovery of artifacts, but it did not have to pay a $15,000 fine or payment, as regulators originally proposed. </p><p>"This really is not as much about the monetary amount as it is about awareness and influencing future behavior," Commissioner Brian Kroshus said at the time.<br></p><p>Now, Energy Transfer Partners is relying on a provision in the settlement allowing it more time to plant the trees if it encounters difficulties. Perennial Environmental Services, the company Energy Transfer Partners hired to manage the tree planting, said it had run into the following problems: </p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Equipment and staffing problems</li><li>Poor conditions for planting</li><li>A lack of landlords willing to have trees planted on their land</li><li>An incident in which one soil conservation district refused any plantings because it didn't think the 15 tree species listed in the settlement were appropriate for the area </li></ul><p>Perennial Environmental Services said soil conservation districts in six counties had committed to planting 16,800 trees in 2019 for a total of more than 25,500. Commission officials were not available for comment on whether or not they thought the delay was justified, The Associated Press reported.</p><p>The Dakota Access Pipeline <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/what-standing-rock-gave-world-2549906333.html" target="_self">sparked massive protests</a> by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies over concerns it would threaten the tribe's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a>. The protests seemed to have been successful when the administration of former President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/army-corps-permit-dakota-access-pipeline-2128363393.html" target="_self">denied a key permit</a> for the project towards the end of 2016, but President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump </a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">signed an executive order</a> greenlighting the pipeline early in his term.</p>Oil began flowing through the pipeline in June of 2017, which was projected to move around 520,000 barrels of oil a day along more than 1,000 miles through North Dakota to Illinois, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/01/531097758/crude-oil-begins-to-flow-through-controversial-dakota-access-pipeline" target="_blank">NPR reported at the time</a>.
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</p><div id="a45f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8AQMHF1576663789"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="999764476088942593" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Stopping a Dakota Access Pipeline Leak in Under 10 Minutes? A Fairy Tale, Say the Standing Rock Sioux… https://t.co/Fqls80RPxQ</div> — Indigenous (@Indigenous)<a href="https://twitter.com/AmericanIndian8/statuses/999764476088942593">1527197400.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Energy Transfer Partners and Banks Lost Billions by Ignoring Early Dakota Access Pipeline Concerns
04 December 2018
Energy
Native American leaders and environmental groups called on New York City to divest from banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline on Feb. 23, 2017. Erik McGregor / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images
By Sharon Kelly
Roughly four years ago, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) filed a federal application to build a 1,172 mile oil pipeline from North Dakota's Bakken shale across the U.S. to Illinois at a projected cost of $3.8 billion.
Before that application was filed, on Sept. 30, 2014, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with ETP to express concerns about the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) and fears of water contamination. Though the company, now known as Energy Transfer, had re-routed a river crossing to protect the state capital of Bismarck against oil spills, it apparently turned a deaf ear to the Tribe's objections.
<p>Following that approach proved to be a very costly decision, a <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/project/fpiep/sites/default/files/attached-files/social_cost_and_material_loss.pdf" target="_blank">new analysis</a> concludes, with ETP, banks, and investors taking billions in losses as a result.</p><p>"This case study estimates that the costs incurred by ETP and other firms with ownership stake in DAPL for the entire project are not less than $7.5 billion, but could be higher depending on the terms of confidential contracts," a new report, "Social Cost and Material Loss: The Dakota Access Pipeline," concludes, noting that the figure represented nearly double the initial project cost. "The banks that financed DAPL incurred an additional $4.4 billion in costs in the form of account closures, not including costs related to reputational damage."</p><p>In addition, the company's "poor social risk management" caused taxpayers and "other local stakeholders" to incur at least $38 million in costs, the report concludes.</p>
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</p><div id="65caa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="PFF5DX1576663789"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="791734219462410240" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">"This is what it's all about," protestor says. "Sacred water." Not sure guys on left agree. #NoDAPL #DAPL https://t.co/vHPRC2OHU5</div> — Wes Enzinna (@Wes Enzinna)<a href="https://twitter.com/wesenzinna/statuses/791734219462410240">1477599122.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p>As opposition to <span style="background-color: initial;">DAPL</span> <a href="https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/a-timeline-of-the-dakota-access-oil-pipeline" target="_blank">grew</a> from a handful of locals to a movement attracting thousands of supporters to Standing Rock and backers worldwide, construction fell behind schedule and over budget, with costs rising from a predicted $3.8 billion to at least $7.5 billion, the new report finds. Over that time, Energy Transfer's stock price fell 20 percent—at the same time as the tech investment index <span style="background-color: initial;">S&P</span> 500 grew roughly 35 percent, the report noted. Energy Transfer's stock also underperformed other companies in the same industry.<br></p><p>"Across the board, this project was out of line with the existing principles outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international standards for resource development near indigenous peoples' lands," <a href="https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=561" target="_blank">Carla F. Fredericks</a>, author of the study and director of Colorado Law's American Indian Law Clinic, said. "The losses in this study underline that companies need to take those principles into account." </p><p><strong>Making a 'Material Loss'</strong></p><p>The study points to early decisions by ETP as the cause of those losses.</p><p>"The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe communicated their opposition to DAPL for three years and they were frustrated by the lack of meaningful consultation from Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), DAPL's parent company, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)," Fredericks, an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, and co-author <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/business/mark-meaney" target="_blank">Mark Meaney</a> of the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business wrote. "In fact, those opportunities for early engagement were ETP's, the USACE's and other investors' missed opportunities to understand the developing social risks that subsequently manifested into intense social conflict and ultimately resulted in material loss."</p>
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</p><div id="9dcf1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KLJT3H1576663789"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="837708599023583237" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">US / indigenous rights: @UNSR_VickyTauli urges consistent policies for projects like Dakota Access Pipeline https://t.co/fVdVZtcsnG</div> — UN Human Rights (@UN Human Rights)<a href="https://twitter.com/UNHumanRights/statuses/837708599023583237">1488560268.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p>When it comes to human rights issues, the report's authors dismiss the notion that a company's management can adequately protect shareholders from losses or liability if they use compliance with state and federal laws as their only benchmark.<br></p><p>"Unfortunately, the companies and financiers behind DAPL presumed that compliance with national laws was sufficient for the project to move forward on Sioux territory rather than abiding by international human rights standards," the report finds. "Their lack of attention ultimately resulted in material loss."</p><p>The report faults Energy Transfer's management specifically for failing to disclose risks of costly delays due to public opposition to investors at an earlier stage.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk2NTUxNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NjExMDExOX0.DxgVomYzlQAXX2NygOtaRwi8aYmXbF5_1MrLot-Qcns/img.jpg?width=980" id="e55cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9b2bd341f90d5dea71b11cd218de8af9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Guerrilla street painting against fossil fuel pipeline investment outside Wells Fargo World Headquarters in San Francisco, Nov. 6, 2017 </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/" target="_blank">Peg Hunter</a>,<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC 2.0</a></small></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">"</span>In this case, <span style="background-color: initial;">ETP</span>'s reporting concerning the project was silent or exclusively positive until the publication of its third quarterly report on Nov. 9, 2016, in which the company acknowledged that 'protests and legal actions against <span style="background-color: initial;">DAPL </span>have caused construction delays and may further delay the completion of the pipeline project,'" the report finds. "By this time, social pressure had been mounting for months and there is evidence that the company knew of these risks long before they were disclosed to investors."<br></p><p>"The timeline shows that ETP made few good faith efforts to understand and integrate the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's concerns about the environmental, social, and cultural risks into their operations and that ETP did not disclose known risks to investors until a later date," it adds. "As a result, investors were not aware of the potential for delays and it is possible that this resulted in the overvaluation of ETP's stock price."</p><p>It wasn't only ETP's investors that suffered an economic blow due to DAPL. Reported account closures at banks that funded the DAPL project totaled $4.4 billion, including 150,000 personal bank account closures worth $86.2 million, with the remainder coming from city divestments.</p><p>"It is reasonable to suggest that the degree of public criticism directed towards banks—relative to the size of the transaction—was greater than expected and was underestimated during the banks' own review of the project's viability," the report says.</p><p><strong>Courtroom Fights</strong></p><p>DAPL is now flowing oil—but legal battles continue. In early November, Energy Transfer <a href="https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Bakken-Prices-Crumble-On-Pipeline-Woes.html" target="_blank">announced</a> that it would seek to expand DAPL's capacity from 525,000 barrels per day to 570,000 barrels a day, spurred by growing oil production from North Dakota's Bakken shale.</p><p>The DAPL fight is far from over. Lawsuits and criminal prosecutions of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipeline</a> opponents now include a federal class action <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/26/lawsuit-dakota-access-road-blockade" target="_blank">filed</a> by five plaintiffs against private security firm TigerSwan and state and county officials, alleging that the defendants violated plaintiff's constitutional rights by closing public roads for prolonged periods in 2016 to 2017, part of an effort to quiet resistance to the DAPL project.</p><p>As DeSmog <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/10/26/lawsuit-dakota-access-road-blockade" target="_blank">previously reported</a>, the lawsuit "also alleged that, beyond impeding access to sacred grounds for the self-proclaimed 'Water Protectors'—the term also used by [plaintiffs' attorneys] Smith-Drelich and Harcourt in their complaint—the blockade imposed by government and law enforcement did not impact those who lived in the area or employees of Energy Transfer."</p><p>Separately, Sophia Wilansky, who was <a href="https://nypost.com/2017/11/18/pipeline-protestor-recalls-horror-of-nearly-losing-her-arm-in-clash-with-police/" target="_blank">shot three times by rubber bullets</a> and suffered severe arm and hand injuries from what she alleges was a police "flashbang" grenade <a href="https://www.insidesources.com/one-year-after-violent-backwater-bridge-clashes-scars-remain-in-standing-rock/" target="_blank">at Backwater Bridge</a> on Nov. 20, 2016, <a href="https://www.myndnow.com/news/bismarck-news/dapl-protester-sues-law-enforcement-over-injury-at-backwater-bridge-protest/1609505092" target="_blank">filed</a> a lawsuit against Morton County law enforcement and other agencies this month. And more than 700 criminal cases brought against the pipeline opponents known as water protectors have been processed, with NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/29/671701019/2-years-after-standing-rock-protests-north-dakota-oil-business-is-booming" target="_blank">reporting</a> that "[m]any have had their charges reduced or dismissed."</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODk2NTUxOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzA4MjU0NH0.Gjt0eJm4tqg3Q9_CMU6i_MaxIktahH3dcT2dr_AKwOk/img.png?width=980" id="4c74e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f8638d8d305fb4c41884de9b4078baee" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">"Happi" American Horse from the Sicangu Nation locked himself to equipment at a Dakota Access pipeline construction site on Aug. 31, 2016.</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit..."><a href="http://desireekane.com/" target="_blank">Desiree Kane</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" target="_blank">CC BY 3.0</a></small></p>
<p>In November, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe challenged the adequacy of the Army Corps of Engineers' environmental review of <span style="background-color: initial;">DAPL</span>, <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/standing-rock-sioux-tribe-renews-legal-challenge-against-dapl" target="_blank">arguing</a> that the Corps' assessment of the risks, particularly the risk of an oil spill in Lake Oahe, which is on Sioux land, fell short of required standards and disregarded technical information provided by the Tribe to the Corps.<br></p><p>In July, federal judge Billy Roy Wilson partially dismissed a racketeering lawsuit that was initially filed in August 2017 by ETP against nonprofits <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> and BankTrack, as well as the environmental movement EarthFirst! (as represented by the publishers of a magazine of a similar name).</p><p>"While the complaint vaguely attempts to connect BankTrack to acts of 'radical eco-terrorist,' an international drug distribution and money laundering enterprise, and violations of the Patriot Act, BankTrack's actual conduct in this case was allegedly writing a few letters to financial institutions and posting links to the letters on its website," Wilson <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-tosses-dakota-access-rico-claims-against-protester/" target="_blank">wrote</a> in a July ruling dismissing claims against BankTrack.</p><p>In August, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/dakota-access-developer-amends-1b-racketeering-lawsuit" target="_blank">after a ruling</a> that EarthFirst! is an environmental movement too amorphous to be named to a lawsuit and that suing the magazine would be "futile and possibly frivolous," ETP added five individual defendants to its lawsuit, including a Greenpeace staffer.</p><p>ETP is also involved in the construction of other controversial pipeline projects, like the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="_blank">Bayou Bridge pipeline</a> in Louisiana and the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/08/01/ellen-gerhart-pennsylvania-arrested-sunoco-mariner-east-pipeline-dispute" target="_blank">Mariner East projects</a> in Pennsylvania.</p><p>A proposed new Bakken pipeline, dubbed the Liberty Pipeline, was recently <a href="https://investor.phillips66.com/financial-information/news-releases/news-release-details/2018/Phillips-66-and-Bridger-Pipeline-LLC-Announce-Open-Season-for-Rockies-and-Bakken-Crude-Oil-Pipeline-System-Phillips-66-Announces-Open-Season-for-Cushing-Crude-Oil-Pipeline-System/default.aspx" target="_blank">announced</a> by Phillips 66 and Bridger Pipeline LLC. That pipeline would move 350,000 barrels a day of fracked oil from the Bakken shale to Corpus Christi, Texas, near major export terminals.</p><p>The authors of the new report had advice for companies contemplating building new pipeline projects or investing in them.</p><p>"These losses show how important it is for companies to fully account for environmental, social, and governance risks before projects get going," Meaney said in a statement accompanying the report. "Social risks are clearly overlooked in the market."</p>
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</p><div id="46fa3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="P1169J1576663790"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1069380841359450113" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#EnergyTransfer's Troubled Pipeline Projects Amass 800+ Violations https://t.co/4dRWiI7JdV @PeopleNotPipes @nokxlpledge</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1069380841359450113">1543795235.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/03/dakota-access-pipeline-concerns-cost-energy-transfer-investors-billions" target="_blank">DeSmogBlog</a>.</em><br></p>
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Caleb George / Unsplash
By Doug Norlen
This month the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a startling report, which finds that severe impacts of climate change are happening much sooner than previously expected, and that countries must take far more aggressive actions to avoid the most catastrophic impacts. The report finds that the burning of fossil fuels must be curbed sharply.
<p>The harmful role Wall Street banks play in propping up fossil projects around the world is increasingly known. Yet there is much less awareness of the role major cities play when they place billions of dollars of their public funds into these same Wall Street banks. According to L.A. city records, as of July 2018, Los Angeles had banking and/or investment relationships with several Wall Street banks, many of which are notorious for their financing of fossil fuel and human rights debacles around the world, including JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. </p><p>According to <a href="https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechange2018/" target="_blank">Banking on Climate Change</a>, a fossil fuel finance report card, between 2015 and 2017 these Wall Street banks collectively provided over $50 billion in financing for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tar-sands">tar sands</a>, ultra-deep <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling">water drilling</a>, coal mining, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> power and liquid natural gas projects around the world. These projects contribute vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and many of them have severe local environmental, social and human rights impacts as well.</p><p>But in 2018, cities have more ethical options. Rather than investing the public's money in environmental and human destruction, cities can establish public banks. When properly structured and operated, public banks can prohibit the use of their funds for fossil fuel and other harmful projects. Instead, they can fund <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> and other green enterprises, affordable housing, education and low-cost loans to job-creating entrepreneurs—all while avoiding paying hundreds of millions of dollars in exorbitant fees to Wall Street banks.</p><p>The movement to establish public banks is growing nationwide. California is at the forefront, with efforts to pass state-wide legislation allowing establishment of municipal banks as well as campaigns to establish public banks in San Francisco, Oakland and other East Bay cities, Los Angeles and other municipalities.</p><p>When Los Angeles voters go to the polls next week, they will decide whether to approve Charter Amendment B, which amends the city's charter to enable it to take affirmative steps to establish a public bank. And Los Angeles is a great case study on the need for public banks. According to Public Bank L.A., the city maintains bank accounts with between $4 billion and $12 billion in cash, and manages up to $45 billion in investments through large commercial banks.</p><p>The enormous sum of public funds that L.A. entrusts to fossil fuel banks undercuts the climate leadership of city officials. For example, this past August L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti joined a coalition of hundreds of mayors across the country to <a href="https://www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-and-climate-mayors-representing-407-cities-denounce-trump-administrations-proposed" target="_blank">condemn</a> Donald Trump's plans to weaken vehicle efficiency standards and rescind California's waiver right to set stronger greenhouse gas regulations. In December 2016, Garcetti joined other mayors to <a href="https://www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-leads-%25E2%2580%2598climate-mayors%25E2%2580%2599-oppose-us-withdrawal-paris-agreement" target="_blank">denounce</a> Trump's decision to walk away from the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>. The city council has shown progressive streaks on banking issues as well. In December 2017, the Council unanimously voted to enforce both federal and state Community Reinvestment Act ratings disqualifying Wells Fargo from submitting a Request for Proposal for the city's commercial banking services. And yet, the city still banks with Wells Fargo.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NTc5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2Mjk3MjA2OX0.bdDNGsoH5OEZfrn4gr-iswJy_BJ4q-Mkt91exCYpJQc/img.jpg?width=980" id="cb0ff" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="41b3a8a40393b45de756cc0545117798" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Activist calling for Wells Fargo to divest from Dakota Access Pipeline. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Joe Piette / Flickr / Creative Commons</small></p><p>If L.A. voters approve Charter Amendment B, the city will be one step closer to creating a municipal bank and redirecting its billions of dollars of public funds to environmentally sound, fiscally smart, sustainable community needs. In doing so, L.A. will serve as a beacon of progress to inspire the larger national movement to establish public banks.<br></p><p>For a sense of why Los Angeles so badly needs to approve Charter Amendment B, we've included descriptions of just a handful of the harmful projects Los Angeles is currently supporting by keeping its money in fossil fuel banks (based on publicly available information). Here is a sample of some of the projects that LA's banks support:</p><p>Dakota Access Pipeline (United States):</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Citi — $235 million in project finance</li><li>MUFG — $235 million in project finance</li><li>Wells Fargo — $120 million in project finance</li></ul><p>The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline">Dakota Access Pipeline</a>, or DAPL, extends over 1,000 miles across several U.S. states, damaging Native American ancestral lands and water. Passing within just a half-mile of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, the pipeline has destroyed sacred sites and threatens the tribe's drinking water with potential oil spills. Beginning in 2016, Native American water protectors, including Standing Rock Sioux tribal elders and members, led opposition to DAPL. Supported by thousands of allies, this grew into one of the largest and most iconic movements in the world to halt fossil fuel <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipelines</a>. In response to peaceful, prayerful resistance, police from several states and agencies, members of the U.S. National Guard and armed private security forces used military equipment and tactics, including attack dogs, to intimidate, assault, arrest and otherwise commit grievous human rights abuses against water protectors and their allies. Opposition to the pipeline expanded far beyond the project site and supercharged the growing global movement against financial institutions that support fossil fuel projects.</p><p>Atlantic Coast Pipeline (United States):</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Bank of America — $673.5 million in corporate loans (13)</li><li>Citi — $673.5 million in corporate loans (14)</li><li>JP Morgan Chase — $648 million in corporate loans (15)</li><li>MUFG — $1.182 billion in corporate loans (16)</li><li>Wells Fargo — $673.5 million in corporate loans (17)</li></ul><p>The proposed 600-mile <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/atlantic-coast-pipeline">Atlantic Coast Pipeline</a>, running from West Virginia through North Carolina, is the third longest gas pipeline in production or in some phase of development over the past 20 years in the U.S. Trees have been cleared along the pipeline route and infrastructure development has begun. Although two lawsuits against the pipeline are now pending in federal and North Carolina courts, federal law allows pipelines to be constructed prior to the resolution of all litigation. The ACP was the only oil or gas pipeline to be on Donald Trump's list of 50 Priority National Security Projects prior to his election.</p><p>According to published reports, the central purpose of the ACP is to enter South Carolina and eventually reach Elba Island, Georgia where gas will be exported from a liquid natural gas facility now under construction. This recognition raises serious concerns regarding the use of eminent domain to take privately owned property for private gain instead of public use.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODc4NjYzMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTUxNTIzNX0.k2aId-6AeBqBz-pBCEDqoD8V-jrb0jaXdsHiTwZUqUU/img.jpg?width=980" id="65935" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fc1722bcfc6e426b2ee2bf0a8409bfb2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Pax Ahimsa Gethen / Flickr</small></p><p>The ACP threatens the livelihood of more than 30,000 indigenous peoples that live along the pipeline route. In May 2018, an alliance of community, statewide and national groups filed a complaint to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a>) Civil Rights Compliance Office, alleging that the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality discriminated on the basis of race and color in issuing permits and certifications to the ACP as part of the permitting process. In September 2018, environmental groups filed legal challenges in an appeals court against federal permitting agencies.<br></p><p>Kusile Power Station (South Africa):</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Bank of America — financial advisor</li><li>JP Morgan Chase — financial advisor</li><li>MUFG — part of 705 million euro corporate loan to South Africa's state power company, Eskom, to purchase boilers from Hitachi Power Europe for the Kusile coal power plant</li></ul><p>Once completed, the 4,800-megawatt Kusile coal plant in South Africa will be one of the largest coal plants in the world. The estimated annual greenhouse gas equivalent emissions of the plant—30 million tons—would increase South African energy sector emissions by 12.8 percent and the country's total contribution to climate change by 9.7 percent. South Africa already has the distinction of being among the top global greenhouse gas emitters per capita. The Kusile project area already exceeds permitted ambient levels of hazardous <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air pollutants</a> that create soot and smog, which cause harm to respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems, leading to heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases, according to Physicians for Social Responsibility. If completed, Kusile will increase the cost of electricity for the poor and household consumers to compensate for Apartheid-era "special pricing agreements" that give large industrial users, which consume most of South Africa's electricity, guaranteed rates that are among the lowest in the world. The cost of Kusile, which in 2007 was estimated by Eskom to be 80 billion rand, had more than doubled to 172 billion rand by 2016. It is "expected to further strain Eskom's financial resources, and place upward pressure on Eskom's electricity price trajectory in the years ahead." In 2015 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Hitachi with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with contracts to build Kusile and Medupi (another enormous coal plant in South Africa), resulting in a $19 million settlement.</p><p>Long Phu-1 Coal Plant (Vietnam):</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>MUFG and JP Morgan Chase — among the lead financial arrangers, with potential combined $650 million in finance</li></ul><p>Long Phu-1 in Vietnam would emit an estimated 6.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year. As a "supercritical" coal power plant, Long Phu-1 is prohibited from being financed by most official government export credit agencies (ECA), including the U.S. Export-Import Bank. However, the former director of the EPA's Air Enforcement Division, Bruce Buckheit, revealed that the project consulting firm Environmental Resources Management doctored the coal plant's greenhouse gas emissions estimates to make Long Phu-1 appear to be a more efficient "ultra-supercritical" plant, which would be allowed under ECA coal financing restrictions. Analysis of Long Phu-1 by Friends of the Earth U.S. reveals that the project violates other international policies, including requirements to analyze alternatives, identify cumulative and associated risks and impacts, evaluate labor and working conditions, prevent pollution, protect community health, provide safety and security, and ensure biodiversity conservation. In February 2018, the New York Times reported that U.S. Export-Import Bank financing for Long Phu-1 had collapsed after it was revealed that project financiers included Vnesheconombank, a Russian bank that is on the U.S. government's sanctions list and is part of a federal investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and the Trump presidential campaign. It was also reported that a top Long Phu-1 project official had been sentenced to prison for corruption. MUFG and JP Morgan Chase, like the U.S. Export-Import Bank, must also comply with U.S. sanctions. However, it remains unclear whether these banks continue to be potential financiers of Long Phu-1.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="319bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="AXJZ871576661973"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="996952236004700165" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">WATCH: 3 communities who stood up to Big Oil and won https://t.co/58BKMR6zGK #FossilFree https://t.co/dqOuksByOh</div> — 350 dot org (@350 dot org)<a href="https://twitter.com/350/statuses/996952236004700165">1526526910.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p><em>Doug Norlen is the economic policy program director for <a href="https://foe.org/city-angels-funds-hellish-fossil-fuel-projects/" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth</a>.</em><br></p>
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The Straits of Mackinac, which protestors are worried could be damaged from in an oil spill from the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline that runs underneath. Michael Barera / CC BY-SA 4.0
A group of Standing Rock veterans and their allies have set up camp in Northern Michigan to stop another pipeline: Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline that passes under the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Huron and Michigan as it carries oil from Western Canada to Ontario, Michigan Radio reported Sunday.
The protesters, about 15 in total, are concerned about the possible damage an oil spill from the pipeline could do to the Great Lakes and have vowed not to leave their camps until the pipeline is removed.
<p>"As long as it takes 'til it's shut," Nancy Shomin, who helped start the camp, told <a href="https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/protesters-gather-at-line-5" target="_blank">UpNorthLive</a> Monday.</p><p>The protest camps follow growing concern about the aging pipeline after it was dented by an anchor in April. In July, an <a href="https://mipetroleumpipelines.com/document/risk-analysis-straits-pipelines" target="_blank">independent report</a> found a spill from the pipeline could damage 400 miles of shoreline in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario and cost Michigan around $2 billion, <a href="http://www.michiganradio.org/post/new-report-highlights-what-would-happen-worst-case-line-5-oil-spill" target="_blank">Michigan Radio reported</a>. </p><p>At a Senate Commerce Committee field hearing Monday, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) criticized Enbridge for dragging its feet to shut down operations during a storm shortly after the anchor strike. </p><p>"Can you see why that is something that people look at and say, Enbridge is not really focused on going the extra measure of safety, when they had a damaged pipe and severe weather and they pushed back on shutting down to make sure nothing happened?" he said to applause, addressing Enbridge senior vice president of operations for liquid pipelines David Bryson, <a href="http://www.michiganradio.org/post/senator-gary-peters-grills-feds-enbridge-vp-line-5-field-hearing" target="_blank">according to Michigan Radio.</a> </p><p>The protesters say the only safe move is to shut the pipeline down permanently. </p><p>"It's one of those things where it's not if, it's when," Clint Cayou, who joined the protest from Mason, Nebraska, told UpNorthLive. "The pipeline is dangerously close to being a real hazard to a lot of people and it needs to be shut down." </p><p>The group is led by members of Indigenous nations from the Great Lakes area and has named its camp Camp Anishinaabek, from Anishinaabe, which is the name for an umbrella group containing the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi and other peoples, according to Michigan Radio.</p><p>The camp set-up actually includes two locations about 15 miles south of the Straits of Mackinac and is on land owned by husband-and-wife protesters James Pitawanakwat of the <a href="https://wiikwemkoong.ca/" target="_blank">Wikwemkoong Unceded Territory First Nation</a> and Christina Keshick of the <a href="http://www.sagchip.org/" target="_blank">Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe</a>. </p><p>Pitawanakwat, who was arrested during the protests against the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline" target="_self">Dakota Access Pipeline</a>, linked the two struggles.</p><p>"This was the same concern over at Standing Rock, and it would affect millions of people," Pitawanakwat told UpNorthLive. "We're just appalled that the oil companies still are this defiant."</p><p>The protesters first announced their camp on their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/207551026772509//" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> Aug. 9, but have begun to get attention from local media since Sunday.</p><p>"I hope a lot of people come and help shut it down," Keshick said.</p>
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</p><div id="88048" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="H05AXD1576663790"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="989101751696543745" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Activists May Argue Pipeline Shutdown Was Necessary Due to Climate Change, Court Rules https://t.co/WrGps8TNTn… https://t.co/EF5HiYFxLw</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/989101751696543745">1524655208.0</a></blockquote></div>
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