Standing Rock Sioux chair: protesters can go home, hopes for Trump meeting

The Native Americans argued that the proposed pipeline would threaten to contaminate their water supply, and would also run through sacred Sioux land.

The battle to halt the construction began back in December 2014 soon after Energy Transfer Partners LP applied for permits to build a pipeline spanning four US states, according to USA Today.

On Sunday afternoon, tribe members and their allies cried tears of joy after the US Army said it would not – for now – allow the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

Far from it. For now, Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, said in her letter to the Corps that the proposed crossing at Lake Oahe requires more analysis, including a deeper consideration of alternative routes. The tribes leaders were anxious the pipeline could contaminate the reservation’s water supply and groups have spent months protesting the project.

500 National Guard activated by North Dakota governor last week.

“The administration’s statement today that it would not at this time issue an “easement” to Dakota Access Pipeline is a purely political action”, Energy Transfer Partners said in a press release on Sunday.

Amid celebrations, activists also reflected on the need to prepare for an ongoing fight against the US$3.8 billion pipeline, particularly with pro-pipeline and climate change-denying president-elect Donald Trump set to take over the White House in January.

The company responded by asking U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to declare that it has the right to lay pipe under Lake Oahe. A decision is pending.

The pipeline, which runs nearly 1,900 kilometers (1,200 miles) from the oil fields in North Dakota to southern IL, was originally meant to pass north of the reservation but was rerouted further south over the risk it posed to the water sources for the town of Bismarck.

A man sits along the Cannonball river at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016.

Despite the deadline, authorities say they won’t forcibly remove the protesters.

“A lot of people from all over the country have gone up there”.

The protests reached a fever pitch in November when images of demonstrators being doused with powerful water hoses and/or shot with rubber bullets exploded across social media.

Energy analyst Afolabi Ogunnaike with the Wood Mackenzie consulting firm said it appears to be a question of how long it takes for the project to regain approval and whether the route will have to be adjusted.

North Dakota officials say law enforcement at the protest site has cost the state about $20 million. Finally, one man at the Oceti Sakowin Camp finally yelled it: “The easement has been denied!” It began to grow in August and has been called the largest gathering of Native American tribes in a century.

Trump reportedly sold off stock in Energy Transfer Partners over the summer, and his transition team claims his support for the pipeline has “everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans”. The pipeline is slated to carry crude oil from the Bakken oilfields of North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and into IL, where it’s slated to link up to another pipeline to carry the oil down to refineries in the Gulf.

Map charting the route of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.

A Vietnam veteran who’s part of a MI tribe says he came to the Dakota Access pipeline protest camp because the issue of water quality is “an issue for everyone”.

The tribe hasn’t fared well in court.

A Navy veteran and Harvard graduate student says he came to the Dakota Access pipeline protest camp because he thought they could use his help. An appeal is pending.

Almost all of the 1,172-mile, $3.8 billion pipeline has been built by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners except for a mile-long section across federal land and beneath Lake Oahe, a Missouri River reservoir. Heidi Heitkamp criticized the Obama administration for delaying action on pipeline construction and voiced concerns over the safety of protesters during North Dakota’s bitter winter.

Throughout the summer and fall, members of the tribe have been joined by protesters from elsewhere.

In a statement late Sunday, pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners said it remained committed to completing the project without a reroute.

If anything, however, it’s Energy Transfer who is kowtowing to a “narrow and extreme political constituency”-its corporate shareholders”. Both supporters and opponents of the pipeline acknowledge that the process is not exactly clear on how a new president can undo the Obama administration’s decision.