Home // Health Ranger

Standing Rock victory in North Dakota as US Army Corps of Engineers revokes pipeline permits

12/04/2016 // Mike Adams // Views

Tags: Dakota Access Pipeline, North Dakota, oil pipeline, Sioux

After months of increasingly passionate protests against the planned oil pipeline that could have threatened the aquifers of the Sioux tribe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reversed its permit approval. This means Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline, will need to explore a different route for the pipeline.

The decision is a notable victory for Sioux tribes and the thousands of protesters who stood up to what many observers described as a "military police state" of government action against them.

"The Army will not grant an easement to cross Lake Oahe at the proposed location based on the current record," stated the US Army, reported by Reuters.

Reuters then goes on to predictably pre-blame Donald Trump for future pipeline threats against the Sioux:

Protest organizers had for months argued that crossing the Missouri River adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation presented a danger to their water source. Protests grew over the months, with hundreds of veterans flocking to the camp in recent days to stand against what they say are aggressive tactics from law enforcement.

Activists at the camp were seen hugging each other and letting out Native American war cries on Sunday, but many remained wary, knowing that Trump has voiced support for the line...

North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer and Senator John Hoeven, both Republicans who favor the line, blasted the decision, saying it "violates the rule of law and fails to resolve the issue." Cramer, an adviser to Trump under consideration for a cabinet post, said the president-elect would "restore law and order."

In truth, President-elect Trump has never stated he supported the pipeline being built across (or underneath) Standing Rock Sioux Reservation land. He only supports the general principle of transporting oil via pipelines. It's far safer than transporting via rail or ship, it turns out. The real answer is to build these pipelines in places where they don't threaten Native American lands or water supplies.

 

Yes, the corrupt federal government routinely contaminates Native American lands and rivers

To anyone doubting the protesters' claims that oil pipelines will threaten their water supplies, I give you the Gold King Mine incident.

There, a criminally incompetent EPA unleashed a highly toxic stew of mercury and other heavy metals into the Animas River, heavily contaminating Native American waters and food sources.

Not a single person inside the EPA was ever charged with anything for that environmental crime. What Native American groups have learned from this is that the corrupt federal government pollutes Native American lands with impunity. No one holds the EPA or big oil companies responsible, just like the FBI refused to hold Hillary Clinton responsible for her numerous crimes.

Finally, a sufficient number of Native Americans, veterans and other protesters sent a message in North Dakota that screams, "We've had enough!"

 

Yes, we need energy independence, but we don't have to build pipelines across Native American lands to accomplish it

I'm a proponent of technology investments in green energy and battery technology breakthroughs, but I'm also a realist who understands our economy currently runs in large part on oil. Pipelines help move that oil with cost efficiency, and they're far safer than railway transportation of oil.

In my assessment, YES we need pipelines for now, but NO we shouldn't build them in places where spills will devastate Native American water sources. It's just common sense. Similarly, we shouldn't build nuclear power facilities on known earthquake fault lines. But the morons at General Electric built one anyway... it's called Fukushima-Daiichi, and it still threatens the entire Northern Hemisphere with a nuclear apocalypse.

Greed makes people stupid. In the quest for energy profits, corporations build things where they don't belong, threatening countless lives with contamination from spills, accidents or natural disasters that unleash unforeseen consequences. A pipeline can be shattered by a single earthquake.

It is incredibly shortsighted to build an oil pipeline across Native American lands. That's why Natural News supports the protests and will continue to support their resistance against a corrupt federal government that routinely places corporate profits over the lives and health of human beings.

It also begs the question: Why did Obama refuse to act on this? Why did he just stand by and do nothing over all the previous months of protests and paramilitary police action against peaceful protesters? Why did his justice department refuse to indict anyone at the EPA for committing environmental crimes at the Gold King Mine accident? The answer it that the government grants itself immunity from all crimes, even as that same corrupt government is criminalizing citizens for everyday activities.

It's time to take a stand against the corrupt government. Electing Trump as President was a bold, strong move in that directly. Now let's all work to make sure that President Trump respects the Sioux lands of North Dakota and instructs oil pipeline companies to find alternate routes that don't place the water supplies of Native Americans at risk.

 

P.S. In the next week or two, I'm announcing a new product line that will donate a percentage of proceeds to Native American causes. One of our first initiatives will be to fund the laboratory testing of Native American water supplies so we can monitor them for contamination. Watch for that announcement soon, here at Natural News.

---

---