WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a huge blow to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, other Tribes and environmental groups, the Biden administration today said that it won’t shut down the illegally constructed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), effectively maintaining the Trump position on the pipeline.
Speaking before a federal judge, representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Biden administration indicated that the agency will not shutter DAPL, despite the ongoing threats it poses to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the fact that it is operating without a federal permit, according to a statement from Earthjustice and the Tribe.
“Although President Joe Biden recently announced intentions to improve Tribal consultation and initiate long-term action to tackle climate change, his administration took a stance today that was identical to that of former President Trump,” the group and Tribe said.
Earlier this year, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe leadership and others sent letters to Biden asking him to shut down DAPL while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs an environmental and safety review to determine whether the controversial pipeline is safe to operate.
“An oil spill could poison the Tribe’s drinking water, and millions downstream face a similar risk. The pipeline was built through the Tribe’s unceded ancestral lands, without its consent, and construction decimated its Tribal sacred sites,” according to the statement.
“We are gravely concerned about the continued operation of this pipeline, which poses an unacceptable risk to our sovereign nation,” said Chairman Mike Faith of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “In a meeting with members of Biden’s staff earlier this year, we were told that this new administration wanted to ‘get this right.’ Unfortunately, today’s update from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows it has chosen to ignore our pleas and stick to the wrong path.”
“This pipeline is unsafe and operating in violation of federal law,” said Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman, who has represented Standing Rock in its legal challenge against DAPL for about five years. “Meanwhile, Energy Transfer is seeking to double capacity, which would make DAPL twice as dangerous. Yet the Biden administration’s decision here is to do nothing.”
“It’s hard to see how we’ll ever transition away from fossil fuels or show the rest of the world that we’re serious about tackling climate change, if we are just going to shrug and look away when the fossil fuel industry brazenly ignores Tribal concerns and tramples our federal environmental laws and safety regulations,” noted Hasselman.
For years, Indigenous leaders, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, have led the fight against DAPL, calling on President Biden to “restore balance and Nation to Nation relations by taking action to shut the pipeline down,” just as he has done with Keystone XL, according to a press release from the Sierra Club.
“In late January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that DAPL was operating illegally. The court ordered a broad, robust environmental review and impact statement which would examine the pipeline’s climate impacts, potential oil spills, and impacts on Tribes. Despite an environmental review, the court allowed the pipeline to continue operating,” the Club stated.
The Club noted that on his first day in office, President Biden canceled Keystone XL, a huge and hard-fought victory for communities, clean water, and climate.
Former President Barack Obama had also rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, but also took the step of refusing to grant the final easement permit on DAPL. Instead he ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a more thorough Environmental Impact Statement, the group said.
Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune responded to the “deeply disappointing” news in a statement:
“President Biden campaigned and was elected on the boldest climate platform ever. Minutes after being sworn in, Biden began taking real, meaningful climate action. Less than a week into office, the President issued a memorandum on strengthening Tribal consultation. Yet, President Biden’s actions today fail to live up to the climate and Tribal commitments he made, nor is it in line with the bold action he has taken since taking office.
“The Dakota Access Pipeline is a dirty, dangerous, illegally-constructed pipeline that has continued to threaten Tribal sovereignty and our collective right to clean water and a healthy, sustainable climate. Continued and expanded reliance on crude oil is not compatible with the President’s own climate commitments, including the ones we expect him to make in weeks' time at his climate summit.
“The climate crisis demands that President Biden and his administration seize every opportunity to confront it. Today’s decision is deeply disappointing, and we expect the courts to rightfully put an end to the Dakota Access Pipeline, just as we expect the President's future actions to meet his rhetoric and commitments.”
In a series of tweets to President Biden, the Indigenous Environmental Network also responded to the bad news, vowing, “We are not backing down.”
“The Army Corp announced that they will not be shutting down the Dakota Access pipeline despite it lacking the proper operating and environmental permits. For years the @StandingRockST has been vocal about their opposition and the project violating their treaty rights.
You hurt our nation-to-nation relationships by continuing to silence tribal communities when they speak out against fossil fuel infrastructure they don't want, @JoeBiden. It's time for you to use your executive power to implement a Free, Informed and Prior Consent policy.
We are not backing down, @JoeBiden. We will #ShutdownDAPL. Respect us, or expect us.”
What can you do? Tell Biden to permanently shut down Dakota Access Pipeline and others around the country, because they have no place in our fossil-free future.
Background from Earthjustice
A Jan. 26 ruling in the D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law in 2016 when it issued permits for DAPL to cross beneath the Missouri River. The Court opinion gave a strong nudge to the Biden administration’s Army Corps that it needed to declare whether it intended to shutter the pipeline, in accordance with environmental laws and regulations; or use agency discretion to ignore its legal obligations and allow DAPL to continue operating without a permit.
Today’s hearing was closely watched, as it was the first opportunity for the Army Corps to stake out its position under the Biden administration. DAPL generated an internationally significant opposition movement in 2016, when thousands of Tribal members and allies traveled to the North Dakota construction site to put their bodies on the line as water protectors acting in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
For more background on the litigation against DAPL, see Earthjustice’s legal explainer.