After a federal appeals court on Sunday night denied a request to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which Standing Rock Sioux leaders say threatens their water supply and traverses culturally sacred sites, Senators Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Ben Cardin and Ed Markey have asked President Obama to bring construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to a halt “until a complete environmental and cultural review has been completed for the entire project.”
"There must be a serious consideration of the full potential climate impacts of this pipeline prior to the Army Corps of Engineers approving any permits or easements for the Dakota Access pipeline," the senators wrote. “We applaud your administration taking action to deny the authorization of construction on Army Corps-owned land and under Lake Oahe pending a review of prior decisions under the National Environmental Policy Act and government-to-government consultation with the tribes. In addition, we appreciate the administration’s decision to reassess the way the federal government incorporates tribal concerns regarding permitting decisions more broadly. This is a longstanding problem, and these efforts must bring about long overdue, meaningful change.”
“If there is one profound lesson that indigenous people have taught us, it is that all of us as human beings are part of nature,” the senators concluded. “We will not survive if we continue to destroy nature.”
Full letter here.