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Police clash with North Dakota pipeline protesters, arrest one

police surround north dakota pipeline protesters

By Chris Michaud

(Reuters) – Hundreds of protesters opposed to a North Dakota oil pipeline project they say threatens water resources and sacred tribal lands clashed with police who fired tear gas at the scene of a similar confrontation last month, officials said.

An estimated 400 protesters mounted the Backwater Bridge and attempted to force their way past police in what the Morton County Sheriff’s Department described as an “ongoing riot,” the latest in a series of demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

A media statement from the agency said one arrest had been made by 8:30 p.m. local time (0230 GMT Monday), about 2 1/2 hours after the incident began some 45 miles (30 miles) south of Bismark, the North Dakota capital.

The Backwater Bridge has been closed since late October, when activists clashed with police in riot gear and set two trucks on fire, prompting authorities to forcibly shut down a protesters encampment nearby.

The Morton County Sheriff’s Department said officers on the scene of the latest confrontation were “describing protesters’ actions as very aggressive.”

Demonstrators tried to start numerous fires as they attempted to outflank and “attack” law enforcement barricades, the sheriff’s statement said.

Police said they responded by firing volleys of tear gas at protesters in a bid to prevent them from crossing the bridge.

Activists at the scene reported on Twitter that police were also spraying protesters with water in sub-freezing temperatures and firing rubber bullets, injuring some in the crowd.

Police did not confirm the use of rubber bullets or water.

The clashes began after protesters removed a truck that had been on the bridge since Oct. 27, police said. The North Dakota Department of Transportation closed the Backwater Bridge due to damage from that incident.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access project has been drawing steady opposition from Native American and environmental activists since the summer.

Completion of the pipeline, set to run 1,172 miles (1,185 km) from North Dakota to Illinois, was delayed in September so federal authorities could re-examine permits required by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Plans called for the pipeline to pass under Lake Oahe, a federally owned water source, and to skirt the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation by about half a mile. Most of the construction has otherwise been finished.

The Standing Rock tribe and environmental activists say the project would threaten water supplies and sacred Native American sites and ultimately contribute to climate change.

Supporters of the pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners, said the project offers the fast and most direct route for bringing Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries and would be safer than transporting the oil by road or rail.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Steve Gorman and Paul Tait)

U.S. Army, Interior Dept call for more review on Dakota pipeline

People march during a protest in Bismarck against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe and near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota

By Ernest Scheyder and Liz Hampton

(Reuters) – Federal authorities deferred a final decision on a controversial North Dakota section of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday in a statement that highlighted concerns about the “repeated” dispossession of tribal lands in the country’s past.

The Departments of the Army and Interior, in a joint statement, said that while their previous decisions to grant construction were consistent with legal requirements, they wanted to have additional discussions with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe due to concerns about protecting Lake Oahe, a culturally sensitive and federally owned water source.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access construction project has drawn steady opposition since last summer from the Standing Rock Sioux, along with environmental activists, who claim it could pollute nearby water supplies and destroy sacred historical sites.

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said on Monday that he was “encouraged” by the decision, even though it was not 100 percent what the Tribe had hoped for.

Most of the construction of the proposed 1,172-mile (1,885 km) line, which will stretch from North Dakota to Illinois, has been completed. However, Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is building the line, has yet to receive approval for an easement to tunnel under Lake Oahe, which is part of the Missouri River and is adjacent to the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.

“This action is motivated purely by politics at the expense of a company that has done nothing but play by the rules it was given,” said Kelcy Warren, Chief Executive Officer of Energy Transfer Partners.

“To propose, as the (Army) Corps (of Engineers) now does, to further delay this pipeline and to engage in what can only be described as a sham process sends a frightening message about the rule of law.”

Dakota Access will vigorously pursue its legal rights in this matter, Energy Transfer Partners said in a joint statement with Sunoco Logistics Partners

People march during a protest in Bismarck against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe and near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota, U.S. November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

People march during a protest in Bismarck against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe and near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota, U.S. November 14, 2016. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

Demonstrations continued on Monday as more than 500 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters tried to gain entry to the capitol in Bismarck. Officials put the building in a “soft lockdown,” in which all doors were locked and guarded, at 11:30 a.m. CST (1830 GMT), said Lieutenant Tom Iverson, spokesman for the Highway Patrol.

Completion of the pipeline was delayed in September so federal authorities could re-examine permits required by the Army Corps of Engineers.

In its statement, the Army said that its previous decisions “comported with legal requirements.” However, it added that it was “mindful of the history of the Great Sioux Nation’s repeated dispossessions, including those to support water-resources projects.”

It said its additional analysis and discussion with the tribe will include conditions in an easement for the pipeline crossing that might reduce the risk of spills, along with an assessment of how such a spill could affect the tribe.

“This delay provides an opportunity for the U.S. government to resolve outstanding issues to the full satisfaction of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and end this pipeline project,” said Amanda Starbuck, climate and energy program director at the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental group.

“DEATH BY DELAY”

Shares of ETP dipped about 1 percent in after-hours trading. Officials at Energy Transfer Partners were not immediately available for comment.

The line has been billed as a cost-effective and efficient way to bring North Dakota oil through Illinois, en route to the Gulf of Mexico.

It is unclear how long the review will take.

The Obama Administration has been supportive in the past of the protection of tribal lands. President-elect Donald Trump has voiced support for infrastructure projects, including pipelines, though he has not specifically addressed Dakota Access.

The likelihood of different government policies in two months could make for a limited delay in the project, said Rick Smead, Managing Director of Advisory Services for RBN Energy in Houston.

The MAIN Coalition, which represents groups that support the pipeline, called Monday’s action another “attempt at death by delay” of the pipeline, saying the administration “has chosen to further fan the flames of protest by more inaction.”

With Trump’s inauguration a little more than two months away, they said they hoped “this is not the final word on the Dakota Access Pipeline.”

More than 200 protests against the pipeline are planned across U.S. cities on Tuesday, according to organizers of the demonstrations.

Protests were a factor in the Obama administration’s decision to delay the line’s completion in September and ask for further review from the U.S. Army.

Previous demonstrations, which have drawn celebrities including actors Shailene Woodley and Susan Sarandon, have occasionally turned violent.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder and Liz Hampton in Houston; Additional reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Crosby and Andrew Hay)

Dakota access Pipeline protests planned across United States

People march past the North Dakota State Capitol building during a protest in Bismarck against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline under Lake Oahe and near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota,

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Demonstrators across U.S. cities will gather outside offices of the Army Corps of Engineers, banks and energy companies on Tuesday in the largest protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline since the U.S. government halted the project in September.

More than 200 protests are set to take place in a “Day of Action” called for by indigenous leaders in support of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and in an effort to urge the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. government to stop the pipeline, according to Dallas Goldtooth, a spokesman for Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the organizers.

The $3.7 billion Dakota Access project has drawn steady opposition since last summer from the tribe, along with environmental activists, who claim it could pollute nearby water supplies and destroy sacred historical sites.

“The purpose is to elevate the issue and to encourage the Army Corps to exert its power to stop this pipeline,” Goldtooth said of Tuesday’s protests in which more than 30 groups, including Greenpeace and CREDO Action, are participating.

The Army Corps and Department of Interior on Monday delayed a decision on whether to grant an easement to Energy Transfer Partners, the main company behind the pipeline, for an easement to tunnel under Lake Oahe, the water source that is the focus of protests.

Construction of the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline is about 85 percent complete, Phillips 66, one of the pipeline’s investors, said last week. The only outstanding construction work to be done in North Dakota is the segment of the line that would run under the lake, Energy Transfer said last week.

Energy Transfer has said the pipeline would be a more efficient and safer way to transport oil from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the Midwest and onto the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company last week said it was confident the Army Corps would grant the easement, allowing it to begin drilling under the lake about two weeks later.

Tuesday’s protests will be focused outside Army Corps offices throughout the country, and at major banks financing construction of the pipeline. Norwegian bank DNB this month said it would reconsider financing the project if the concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux were not addressed. In Houston, Texas, demonstrators will gather outside Energy Transfer Partners’ office.

Although the protests were planned in advance of the November presidential election, they come as groups opposed to the Dakota Access line could face headwinds following the election of Republican Donald Trump.

While the president-elect has not weighed in on the Dakota Access specifically, he has expressed strong support for development of energy infrastructure projects, including oil pipelines.

Kelcy Warren, the top executive at Energy Transfer, donated more than $100,000 to the Trump campaign.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Police arrest 141 in crackdown on North Dakota pipeline protesters

A line of police move towards a roadblock and encampment of Native American and environmental protesters near an oil pipeline construction site, near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S.

By Timothy Mclaughlin

(Reuters) – Police arrested 141 Native Americans and other protesters in North Dakota in a tense standoff that spilled into Friday morning between law enforcement and demonstrators seeking to halt construction of a disputed oil pipeline.

Police in riot gear used pepper spray and armored vehicles in an effort to disperse an estimated 330 protesters and clear a camp on private property in the path of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, according to photos and statements released by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

Some protesters responded by throwing rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at police, attaching themselves to vehicles and starting fires, police said.

“It was a very active and tense evening as law enforcement worked through the evening to clear protesters,” the department said.

A female protester fired three rounds at the police line before she was arrested, the department said.

In another shooting incident, a man was taken into custody after a man was shot in the hand. That “situation involved a private individual who was run off the road by protesters,” the department said in a Facebook post.

The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline, being built by a group of companies led by Energy Transfer Partners LP, would offer the fastest and most direct route to bring Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

Supporters say it would be safer and more cost-effective than transporting the oil by road or rail.

But the pipeline has drawn the ire of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and environmental activists who say it threatens the water supply and sacred tribal sites. They have been protesting for several months, and dozens have been arrested.

A line of police move towards a roadblock and encampment of Native American and environmental protesters near an oil pipeline construction site, near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S.

A line of police move towards a roadblock and encampment of Native American and environmental protesters near an oil pipeline construction site, near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. October 27, 2016. REUTERS/Rob Wilson

In all, 141 people were arrested on various charges including conspiracy to endanger by fire or explosion, engaging in a riot and maintaining a public nuisance, the sheriff’s department said.

Native American protesters had occupied the site since Monday, saying they were the land’s rightful owners under an 1851 treaty with the U.S. government.

Video posted on social media showed dozens of police and two armored vehicles slowly approaching one group of protesters.

Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of the video,  which showed a helicopter overhead as some protesters said police had used bean-bag guns in an effort to chase them out of the camp.

North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple said police were successful in clearing the camp.

“Private property is not the place to carry out a peaceful protest,” he said.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux asked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday to oppose the pipeline. She has not taken a public position on the issue.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago and Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and Nick Macfie)

Police begin removing protesters from Dakota pipeline encampment

Protesters demonstrate against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, in Los Angeles, California

(Reuters) – Police in North Dakota began clearing a group of Native American and environmental protesters from an encampment near an oil pipeline construction site on Thursday in a move that could escalate tensions in a standoff that has lasted several months.

The police moved in on the protesters camped on private property near the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, near the town of Cannon Ball, at around 11:15 a.m. (1715 GMT), according to a statement from the Morton County Sheriff Department.

Police also were removing roadblocks set up by the demonstrators.

“Protesters’ escalated unlawful behavior this weekend by setting up illegal roadblocks, trespassing onto private property and establishing an encampment has forced law enforcement to respond at this time,” Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, said in the statement.

The 1,172-mile (1,886-km) pipeline, which is being built by a group of companies led by Energy Transfer Partners LP, would offer the fastest and most direct route to bring Bakken shale oil from North Dakota to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

Supporters say it would also be safer and more cost-effective than transporting the oil by road or rail.

But the pipeline has drawn the ire of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and environmental activists who say it threatens the water supply and historical tribal sacred sites. They have been protesting for several months, and dozens have been arrested.

On Monday, Native American protesters occupied privately owned land in the path of the proposed pipeline, claiming they were the land’s rightful owners under an 1851 treaty with the U.S. government.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has also temporarily banned aircraft from flying over the area affected by the protests. The restriction, issued on Wednesday, bars any aircraft other than those belonging to law enforcement from flying within a radius of four nautical miles of Cannon Ball.

The town, located about 50 miles (80 km) south of the state capital Bismarck, is near a site where a section of the Dakota Access pipeline would be buried underneath the Missouri River.

The FAA restriction is effective until Nov. 5 because of unspecified “hazards.”

A spokesman for the FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson and actor Mark Ruffalo this week joined the demonstrations, which have already drawn considerable celebrity support.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Tom Brown and Paul Simao)

Tribal service deals dould help Dakota pipeline impasse

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, waits to give his speech against the Energy Transfer Partners' Dakota Access oil pipeline during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland

By Ernest Scheyder

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The chief executive of North Dakota’s largest oil producer, Whiting Petroleum Corp, says the standoff over the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline could be solved by giving economic opportunities, including supply and delivery contracts, to the Standing Rock Sioux and other Native Americans.

Thousands of protesters from all over the world have joined with the Sioux to oppose the pipeline, which would transport oil within half a mile of tribal land in North Dakota. Federal regulators temporarily blocked construction of the pipeline earlier this month under the Missouri River, mollifying opponents but irking the fossil fuel industry.

The Standing Rock Sioux say the pipeline’s construction would destroy tribal burial sites. They also worry that any future leaks would pollute their water supply.

Jim Volker, Whiting’s CEO, said those concerns would be best addressed through economic opportunities, including contracting with American Indian-owned firms for water hauling and other oilfield service needs across oil-producing regions.

“We as an industry like to see them provide those services,” Volker said in an interview on the sidelines of the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s OGIS conference in San Francisco.

“It does provide a better standard of living for them. It does provide a direct tie to the energy business and makes them and their tribal leaders more inclined to want to have more energy development.”

When fully connected to existing lines, the 1,100-mile (1,770 km) pipeline would be the first to carry crude oil from the Bakken shale directly to the U.S. Gulf. The project is being built by the Dakota Access subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP.

Contracts between Native American-owned firms and oil and natural gas producers are not uncommon on reservations. Indeed, the MHA Nation, whose members live on a reservation in western North Dakota where about a third of the state’s crude is pumped, requires oil producers operating on their land to contract with American Indian-owned businesses.

But the requirement cannot apply outside the reservation’s borders and many oil companies, Whiting included, do not have oilfield service and supply contracts with a large number of Indian-owned firms.

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, said he appreciated the suggestion from Volker, but that his opposition to the pipeline has little to do with economics.

“It’s going to be very difficult for us to allow this line to come through just because some indigenous-owned company may benefit,”  Archambault said in an interview. “If this pipeline goes through, we will be the first to pay the cost.”

Dakota Access first contacted the Sioux about the pipeline in October 2014 and continued reaching out to the tribe through March 2016, according to a report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Volker, who has worked at Whiting for more than 30 years, said he was sensitive to the tribe’s concerns that construction of the Dakota Access pipeline would disturb ancestral burial sites and other historical areas.

“I wouldn’t want necessarily a pipeline to go through the cemetery where all my relatives are buried,” he said.

But he added that he expects the situation to be resolved by November. “I’m pretty sure there will be a pretty good resolution to this.”

Volker called a move last week by the owners of the Dakota Access pipeline to buy more than 6,000 acres of land adjacent to the line’s route a “pretty good move.” Federal oil pipeline regulators do not have authority over private land and cannot block construction on it.

“It just increases the odds that things get done,” he said.

The Dakota Access pipeline would, if finished, help North Dakota oil producers transport their product to refiners and other customers cheaper and faster.

Volker said he estimates the pipeline would cut the differential for North Dakota oil – that is, the extra cost needed to get the oil to market due to its distance – from about $8.50 per barrel to around $5.50.

Federal regulators are expected to rule soon on whether the pipeline’s construction can proceed, though the Standing Rock Sioux and environmental groups have vowed to oppose it.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

North Dakota governor calls in National Guard ahead of pipeline ruling

Protests about pipeline

(Reuters) – North Dakota’s governor activated 100 National Guard troops on Thursday ahead of an expected ruling by a federal judge on a Native American tribe’s request to halt construction of a crude oil pipeline that has drawn fierce opposition and protests.

The $3.7 billion, 1,100-mile (1,770 km) Dakota Access pipeline would carry oil from just north of land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to Illinois, where it would hook up to an existing pipeline and route crude directly to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The line would be the first to allow movement of crude oil from the Bakken shale, a vast oil formation in North Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The project has sparked violent clashes between security officers near the construction site and tribe members and other protesters. Opponents say the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to the tribe and pollute the area’s drinking water.

Energy Transfer Partners <ETP.N>, which is leading a group of firms to build the pipeline, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protesters have included actress Shailene Woodley and Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. Some have spray-painted construction equipment, attached themselves to bulldozers and broken a fence, local authorities said.

Protests have been held in both North Dakota and Washington, D.C.

In a hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, U.S. Judge James Boasberg granted in part and denied in part the tribe’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop the project, and said he would decide by Friday whether to grant the larger challenge to the pipeline, which would require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to withdraw permits.

In advance of that decision, Governor Jack Dalrymple ordered National Guard troops to the area from bases in Bismarck and two other cities.

Some two dozen troops will help with security at traffic checkpoints – the closest of which is about 30 miles (48 km) from the protest site, said Guard spokeswoman Amber Balken. One hundred troops in all are ready to aid local law enforcement should protests become violent, she said.

“The Guard members will serve in administrative capacities and assist in providing security at traffic information points – the Guardsmen will not be going to the actual protest site,” Balken said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Matthew Lewis)