The Dakota Access Pipeline victory could mark a turning point in climate activism

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

The United States Army blocked construction of a key section of the Dakota Access Pipeline Sunday, marking a monumental – though likely short-term – victory for Native American protesters and thousands of allies who have flocked to North Dakota to protest the project this year.

Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, said in a statement that after extended discussions with Dakota Access developers and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, "the best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."

The planned route would have seen the Dakota Access pipeline cross under the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the Standing Rock reservation. Members of the tribe, whose leaders fear the pipeline could rupture and contaminate a key water source, have been camping and protesting nearby since March. Thousands have joined them at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannonball rivers, including members of indigenous tribes from around the world.

But recent months have seen increasingly violent clashes between protesters and law enforcement. The announcement headed off the potential for another clash Monday, the deadline the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the land on either side of the Missouri, gave for protesters to leave.

For Standing Rock tribal chairman David Archambault II, it was a major turning point. "When it comes to infrastructure development in Indian Country and with respect to treaty lands, we must strive to work together to reach decisions that reflect the multifaceted considerations of tribes," he said in a statement. 

What happens next

That sense of triumph may be short-lived. While most want to see construction cancelled outright, the four-state, $3.8 billion pipeline – which was scheduled to be finished last month – could be completed despite Sunday's ruling. And expected battles over how that is done could also set the stage for one of the first challenges of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based company developing the pipeline, blasted the announcement as "a purely political action" taken by the Obama administration to curry favor with "a narrow and extreme political constituency."

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

We "are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting," the company added in a statement. "Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way."

On Sunday, some protesters suggested the demonstrations may continue in some form through the winter. Still, they may have yielded one longer-term gain already. The images of teepee villages adorning the Great Plains and Native Americans on horseback confronting armored police have captured the imagination of people around the world, drawing the support of hundreds of indigenous tribes from as far away as Norway, and thousands of non-indigenous allies, including more than 2,000 veterans who joined the camp last week to, in their words, serve as a kind of "human shield" between protesters and law enforcement.

Climate activist Bill McKibben has said Standing Rock could mark a turning point in climate activism, and there are early signs that the spirit of the DAPL fight will persist.

"If we manage to slow down the fossil fuel juggernaut before it boils the planet, [indigenous] groups ... will deserve a great share of the credit," he wrote. "They've managed to build not just resistance to a project, but a remarkable new and unified force that will, I think, persist."

First Nations groups are already discussing forming “Standing Rock North” in response to the Canadian government's recent approval of two oil pipelines running to the coast of British Columbia.

The widespread public outcry that ultimately led President Obama to block the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline last year was one thing, but defeating DAPL was on another level, according to Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network.

"Previous success on pipelines in Canada and the United States has been accomplished in the permitting process of projects. This is one that’s being put into the ground right now," he told the Monitor in October. "We're making history right now.

Stephanie Keith/Reuters

Where Trump stands

The Army Corps was only responsible for permitting construction on a small portion of the pipeline route across the Missouri, and last month announced that it would delay its decision on granting that permit to allow for further discussions with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The tribe had claimed they were not adequately consulted over the route, and some members were angered by the fact that the Corps had nixed an earlier planned route that would have sent the pipe under the Missouri north of Bismarck because it would have been too close to the city’s water supply wells.

DAPL, which seeks to connect North Dakota oil fields to an existing pipeline nexus in Illinois, would transport up to 570,00 barrels of oil a day to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners has also said the project would create thousands of local construction jobs and millions in tax revenue.

President-elect Trump spoke during his campaign of supporting the fossil fuel industry, and said last week that he supports completing the pipeline.

He also appears to have significant investment interests in the pipeline. He once owned between $500,000 and $1 million of shares in Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based company building the pipeline, but has since sold the shares, his spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. And as of his most recent disclosure statement in May, he owned $100,000 to $250,000 of stock in Phillips 66, which has a 25 percent stake in DAPL, The Washington Post reported.

If he does continue to support the pipeline, he will confront a united and diverse opposition, activists believe, emboldened by the belief that not only can they fight, but they can win.

"It's not just Indians that are coming to this realization that we've got to secure our drinking water for our own consumption and our own health," Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, told the Monitor in October, reference the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich. "It's just where the country and the planet is moving now."

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