The Real Dakota Access Pipeline Victim Is the Construction Company
But then the Obama administration, as it is wont to do, flouted the law. Only minutes after the district court announced that construction could proceed, the Department of Justice, Department of the Army, and Department of the Interior issued a joint statement announcing that the federal agencies will halt any additional permitting and reconsider its past permits of the project. Simply put, President Obama unilaterally spiked the project.
As I explained here, this is a gross injustice. Time is money for capital-intensive infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline. The company behind the project went to great lengths to comply with all applicable federal statutes so that it could achieve authorization to build on the 1% of the pipeline subject to federal jurisdiction. The fruits of these efforts were a permit or property right. The company’s right to build were subsequently (albeit preliminarily) vindicated in court. And then the President simply overturned the court’s order, and now the administration is stalling. Each day of construction lost costs the company money.
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It wasn’t just the Army Corps of Engineers with whom the tribe refused to play ball. According to reporting by GreenWire, the Standing Sioux were invited to three public hearings held by state regulators in North Dakota. The tribe was a no-show at each one.
The fact of the matter is that the Standing Rock Sioux refused to cooperate with the federal government for two years, despite the best efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The tribe only got involved to any serious extent at the tail end of the process, at which point they demanded that the Army Corps of Engineers review possible impact of the whole pipeline. But this is impossible because the federal government only has jurisdiction over 1% of the pipeline!
Therefore, Robert Fool Bear Sr. is absolutely right. “More than two years ago, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe could have attended hearings to make their concerns known, they didn’t care.”
Despite the tribe’s refusal to act in good faith, both the company and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers went to great lengths to accommodate the tribe’s interests. Indeed, the company labored to devise a route to account for and avoid sites that had been identified as potentially eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Moreover, the company bought rights to a 400-foot corridor along preliminary route to conduct cultural surveys by professionally licensed archeologists, who inventoried, delineated, & assessed historic sites. Thus, the company identified 91 stone features of religious significance to Native Americans; the pipeline was rerouted around all of them.
But then the Obama administration, as it is wont to do, flouted the law. Only minutes after the district court announced that construction could proceed, the Department of Justice, Department of the Army, and Department of the Interior issued a joint statement announcing that the federal agencies will halt any additional permitting and reconsider its past permits of the project. Simply put, President Obama unilaterally spiked the project.
As I explained here, this is a gross injustice. Time is money for capital-intensive infrastructure projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline. The company behind the project went to great lengths to comply with all applicable federal statutes so that it could achieve authorization to build on the 1% of the pipeline subject to federal jurisdiction. The fruits of these efforts were a permit or property right. The company’s right to build were subsequently (albeit preliminarily) vindicated in court. And then the President simply overturned the court’s order, and now the administration is stalling. Each day of construction lost costs the company money.
[clip]
It wasn’t just the Army Corps of Engineers with whom the tribe refused to play ball. According to reporting by GreenWire, the Standing Sioux were invited to three public hearings held by state regulators in North Dakota. The tribe was a no-show at each one.
The fact of the matter is that the Standing Rock Sioux refused to cooperate with the federal government for two years, despite the best efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The tribe only got involved to any serious extent at the tail end of the process, at which point they demanded that the Army Corps of Engineers review possible impact of the whole pipeline. But this is impossible because the federal government only has jurisdiction over 1% of the pipeline!
Therefore, Robert Fool Bear Sr. is absolutely right. “More than two years ago, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe could have attended hearings to make their concerns known, they didn’t care.”
Despite the tribe’s refusal to act in good faith, both the company and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers went to great lengths to accommodate the tribe’s interests. Indeed, the company labored to devise a route to account for and avoid sites that had been identified as potentially eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Moreover, the company bought rights to a 400-foot corridor along preliminary route to conduct cultural surveys by professionally licensed archeologists, who inventoried, delineated, & assessed historic sites. Thus, the company identified 91 stone features of religious significance to Native Americans; the pipeline was rerouted around all of them.