Current:Home > MarketsFormat of public comment meetings for Dakota Access oil pipeline upsets opponents-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Format of public comment meetings for Dakota Access oil pipeline upsets opponents
View Date:2024-12-23 21:59:01
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline are taking issue with the format of private oral testimony in meetings for public comment on a draft environmental review of the controversial pipeline.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of two public comment meetings in Bismarck, North Dakota, the first held Wednesday, the second set for Thursday. People wishing to give testimony may do so orally in a curtained area with a stenographer, or do so in writing at tables.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has long opposed the pipeline due to the risk of an oil spill contaminating the tribe’s drinking water supply. The four-state pipeline crosses under the Missouri River just upstream of the tribe’s reservation.
The long-awaited draft environmental review, released in September, outlines five options for the pipeline’s fate. Those include denying the easement for the controversial crossing and removing or abandoning a 7,500-foot (2,286-meter) segment, or granting the easement with no changes or with additional safety measures. A fifth option is to reroute the pipeline north of Bismarck, which would require new state, local and federal permits.
Many opponents of the pipeline had hoped Wednesday’s meeting would have allowed them to publicly question the Corps and pipeline developer Energy Transfer, The Bismarck Tribune reported.
Joe Lafferty, a Native American activist who opposes the pipeline, poured oil and water into a cup and challenged Corps officials to take a drink.
“If it means so much to you, I want you, DAPL, Army Corps of Engineers, drink this water with oil in it and then maybe, as a Lakota I’ll consider your request,” Lafferty said. His demonstration did not count as official testimony.
Republican state Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, who sits on a state panel that regulates oil and gas, said the meeting was a fair process.
“I heard a comment saying, ‘This is no democratic way’ -- why, I think it very much is because you get a chance to say your piece,” he said.
About 150 to 200 people attended Wednesday’s meeting, Corps spokesperson Steve Wolf told The Associated Press. About 80 people gave oral testimony, taken down by two stenographers, which Wolf said enabled the Corps to receive more comments. The Corps received about 50 written comments.
“I understand the fact that some people want to be performative and try to create some kind of a fanfare in front of an audience of people, but that’s not the spirit and intent of the law or the meeting,” Wolf told the AP. The Corps is “absolutely on the right side of the law in how we’re doing this,” he said.
Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairwoman Janet Alkire last month called for the draft review to be invalidated, with a new one begun and the pipeline shut down.
A virtual meeting with only tribes is set for Nov. 8. The public comment meetings should be held on the reservation, said Peter Capossela, one of Standing Rock’s attorneys. The Bismarck meetings are more convenient for corporate executives and state officials than for tribal members who live as far as 120 miles (190 kilometers) away, he said.
“If the Army Corps is genuinely interested in hearing the views of tribal members and learning about the potential environmental impacts of an oil spill at the DAPL/Lake Oahe crossing, it would have held public hearings on the reservation that’s going to be polluted by a spill,” Capossela told the AP.
Wolf said the Corps is “being as open and transparent as we can possibly be through all of this, and nobody is being excluded from anything by us.”
State government and oil industry leaders view the pipeline as crucial infrastructure and the safest method for transporting oil, rather than by rail. Officials such as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and U.S. Sen. John Hoeven have said they prefer the pipeline to continue operating as it has.
The public comment period ends Dec. 13. A final decision whether to grant or deny the easement is expected in late 2024.
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Apologetic rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine gets 45 days in prison for probation violations
- Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant further delays removal of melted fuel debris
- Water service restored to rural Tennessee town a week after winter storm, sub-freezing temperatures
- China accuses US of ‘abusing’ international law by sailing in Taiwan Strait and South China Sea
- Man gets a life sentence in the shotgun death of a New Mexico police officer
- South Carolina GOP governor blasts labor unions while touting economic growth in annual address
- iOS 17.3 release: Apple update includes added theft protection, other features
- Twin brothers named valedictorian and salutatorian at Long Island high school
- Francesca Farago Details Health Complications That Led to Emergency C-Section of Twins
- Vermont wants to fix income inequality by raising taxes on the rich
Ranking
- See Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's Winning NFL Outing With Kids Zuma and Apollo
- Cheer coach Monica Aldama's son arrested on multiple child pornography charges
- Who replaces Jim Harbaugh at Michigan? Sherrone Moore and other candidates
- Mexican tourist haven and silversmithing town of Taxco shuttered by gang killings and threats
- Deion Sanders says he would prevent Shedeur Sanders from going to wrong team in NFL draft
- Danish report underscores ‘systematic illegal behavior’ in adoptions of children from South Korea
- Nepal asks Russia to send back Nepalis recruited to fight in Ukraine and the bodies of those killed
- Texas man says facial recognition led to his false arrest, imprisonment, rape in jail
Recommendation
-
Congress returns to unfinished business and a new Trump era
-
A rhinoceros is pregnant from embryo transfer in a success that may help nearly extinct subspecies
-
Archaeologists say single word inscribed on iron knife is oldest writing ever found in Denmark
-
Austrian man who raped his captive daughter over 24 years can be moved to a regular prison
-
NFL power rankings Week 11: Steelers, Eagles enjoying stealthy rises
-
Melanie, Emmy-winning singer-songwriter whose career launched at Woodstock, dies at 76
-
iOS 17.3 release: Apple update includes added theft protection, other features
-
Brittany Mahomes Details “Scariest Experience” of Baby Bronze’s Hospitalization