NO DAPL and other pipeline concerns - Keystone, etc.

oh yeah, and i forget, modern pipelines are very safe and strictly regulated, and the vast majority of spills are 5 gallons or less, more or less routine

shouldn't the protesters be somewhere else? there are a million other pipelines, why this one. shouldn't there be one protester at each of the pipelines instead?

what does everybody think of this editorial

http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-dakota-access-pipeline-is-really-about-1481071218

can you c+p

that sub-hed is already p comical tho

disqualified from the very first sentence IMO, can't read the rest due to paywall but that IED argument has been proved false afaik

A little more than two weeks ago, during a confrontation between protesters and law enforcement, an improvised explosive device was detonated on a public bridge in southern North Dakota. That was simply the latest manifestation of the “prayerful” and “peaceful” protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Escalating tensions were temporarily defused Sunday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the direction of the Obama administration, announced it would refuse to grant the final permit needed to complete the $3.8 billion project. The pipeline, which runs nearly 1,200 miles from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota to Illinois, is nearly complete except for a small section where it needs to pass under the Missouri River. Denying the permit for that construction only punts the issue to next month—to a new president who won’t thumb his nose at the rule of law.

Like many North Dakotans, I’ve had to endure preaching about the pipeline from the press, environmental activists, musicians and politicians in other states. More often than not, these sermons are informed by little more than a Facebook post. At the risk of spoiling the protesters’ narrative, I’d like to bring us back to ground truth.

• This isn’t about tribal rights or protecting cultural resources. The pipeline does not cross any land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux. The land under discussion belongs to private owners and the federal government. To suggest that the Standing Rock tribe has the legal ability to block the pipeline is to turn America’s property rights upside down.

• Two federal courts have rejected claims that the tribe wasn’t consulted. The project’s developer and the Army Corps made dozens of overtures to the Standing Rock Sioux over more than two years. Often these attempts were ignored or rejected, with the message that the tribe would only accept termination of the project.

• Other tribes and parties did participate in the process. More than 50 tribes were consulted, and their concerns resulted in 140 adjustments to the pipeline’s route. The project’s developer and the Army Corps were clearly concerned about protecting tribal artifacts and cultural sites. Any claim otherwise is unsupported by the record. The pipeline’s route was also studied—and ultimately supported—by the North Dakota Public Service Commission (on which I formerly served), the State Historic Preservation Office, and multiple independent archaeologists.

• This isn’t about water protection. Years before the pipeline was announced, the tribe was working with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps to relocate its drinking-water intake. The new site sits roughly 70 miles downstream of where the pipeline is slated to cross the Missouri River. Notably, the new intake, according to the Bureau of Reclamation, will be 1.6 miles downstream of an elevated railroad bridge that carries tanker cars carrying crude oil.

Further, the pipeline will be installed about 100 feet below the riverbed. Automatic shut-off valves will be employed on either side of the river, and the pipeline will be constructed to exceed many federal safety requirements.

Other pipelines carrying oil, gas and refined products already cross the Missouri River at least a dozen times upstream of the tribe’s intake. The corridor where the Dakota Access Pipeline will run is directly adjacent to another pipeline, which carries natural gas under the riverbed, as well as an overhead electric transmission line. This site was chosen because it is largely a brownfield area that was disturbed long ago by previous infrastructure.

• This isn’t about the climate. The oil that will be shipped through the pipeline is already being produced. But right now it is transported in more carbon-intensive ways, such as by railroad or long-haul tanker truck. So trying to thwart the pipeline to reduce greenhouse gas could have the opposite effect.

So what is the pipeline dispute really about? Political expediency in a White House that does not see itself as being bound by the rule of law. The Obama administration has decided to build a political legacy rather than lead the country. It is facilitating an illegal occupation that has grown wildly out of control. That the economy depends on a consistent and predictable permitting regime seems never to have crossed the president’s mind.

There is no doubt that Native American communities have historically suffered at the hands of the federal government. But to litigate that history on the back of a legally permitted river crossing is absurd. The Obama administration should enforce the law, release the easement and conclude this dangerous standoff.

Mr. Cramer, a Republican, represents North Dakota in the U.S. House. As a member of the North Dakota Public Service Commission (2003-12) he helped site the original Keystone Pipeline completed in 2010.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dakota-pipeline-protests/pipeline-spills-176-000-gallons-oil-creek-150-miles-dakota-n695111?cid=sm_fb_msnbc shit like this happening should be enough to shut this down

http://www.reuters.com/article/north-dakota-pipeline-idUSL1N1E20T7
This is a better article about Belle Fourche Pipeline Company who should have been shut down years ago.
The federal agency has also issued six warning letters to the pipeline company regarding integrity issues and safety procedures.

The larger problem that is never addressed is the function of the EPA and how permitting is handed out. Whenever a HDD has a frack out or if a spill occurs, what happens. Fines. Companies pay. Paying money to break laws is at best far from sustainable, it encourages cost cutting short cuts. I've seen it happen time and time again. Instead, the EPA should have the regulatory power to shut a company down, entirely, instead of just pay us this sum of money. I was hopeful this would happen with the upcoming new regulation of all existing pipelines will fall under federal mandates. But with Trump coming into office, I fear the new laws will be postpone or worst vetoed. Fines are not regulating anything, completed shut down is the only way to make companies comply. And I hear your sarcasm Karl, I get it.

http://marfapublicradio.org/blog/activists-look-to-repeat-standing-rock-success-in-west-texas/

Meanwhile
https://www.texasobserver.org/dos-republicas-ancestors-culture-feature/

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2017/03/15/from-the-ashes-of-standing-rock-a-beautiful-resistance-is-born/

Also just last week a lone pipeline resister was killed by police after fleeing the scene of an effective sabotage action against the pipeline.
Is effective sabotage shooting pieces of the pipeline and heavy equipment with a rifle?

the wording is weird but I would assume attempting sabotage would be not harming something, and anything that causes damage is sabotage, regardless whether it stops things from working?

What exactly constitutes an action? I've been reading through the website linked above and to me it makes very loose justifications for various illegal activity. Please correct me if I'm reading this wrong?

"direct action" does tend to equate to "illegal", yes.

for further discussion may I recommend:

http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/

civil disobedience implies illegal activity

I feel so square. In mind my using any techniques that could possibly harm the public goes against anything I can get behind.

that film does really grapple with those issues, I seriously recommend it.

Going to watch this tonight. Thanks!

After watching If A Tree Falls I'm further perplexed by this whole idea of actions. There seems to be a disrupt between reality and what these people want the world to be. By burning down offices or equipment, shooting at offices, stopping traffic or any of these actions, to me it seems the only long term consequences are certain individuals feel good and that are doing "something" then they are unable to deal with the criminal consequences of what those actions entail. But what have they really achieved aside from ending up in prison or with a record?

isn't it up to the individual how far they wanna take things and what price they are willing to pay as a potential consequence?

I think McGowan (subject of film) would argue exactly what you do here - his actions didn't really accomplish that much, nor did the other ones. the only one that seems to have had total local support was the horse meat factory (which was particularly horrifying and egregious if you look up the history, the locals were glad to see it burn). There's a good reason why he has focused his post-release activism around prisoner's rights as opposed to environmental direct action, he feels it's more worthwhile to pursue.

my POV is that raising awareness of an issue can be worth doing time. I mean, are you familiar with the Plowshares movement? totally nonviolent, but they get long prison sentences. isn't that their choice, to raise awareness?

(disclaimer: a lot of those people are/were personal friends)

and a few of those people are friends of friends of mine. I had many heated debates with those friends years ago. One close friend was wire tapped by the guy. But that friend had broken the law and got caught and I warned her that the police aren't just going to give up on searching for you. My main problem with these actions is the amount of misinformation that propels their ideals. One of the places they burned down was unrelated to their hostiles.

unrelated to what they thought was going on I meant.

definitely, I agree.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/

Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters. One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement “generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “While we can expect to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora ... aggressive intelligence preparation of the battlefield and active coordination between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method of defeating pipeline insurgencies.” [...] In an October 3 report, TigerSwan discusses how to use its knowledge of internal camp dynamics: “Exploitation of ongoing native versus non-native rifts, and tribal rifts between peaceful and violent elements is critical in our effort to delegitimize the anti-DAPL movement.” On February 19, TigerSwan makes explicit its plans to infiltrate a Chicago protest group. “TigerSwan collections team will make contact with event organizers to embed within the structure of the demonstration to develop a trusted agent status to be cultivated for future collection efforts,” the report notes, later repeating its intent to “covertly make contact with event organizers.”

TigerSwan consistently describes the peaceful demonstrators using military and tactical language more appropriate for counterterrorism operations in an armed conflict zone. At times, the military language verges on parody, as when agents write of protesters “stockpiling signs” or when they discuss the “caliber” of paintball pellets. More often, however, the way TigerSwan discusses protesters as “terrorists,” their direct actions as “attacks,” and the camps as a “battlefield,” reveals how the protesters’ dissent was not only criminalized but treated as a national security threat. A March 1 report states that protesters’ “operational weakness allows TS elements to further develop and dictate the battlespace.”

TigerSwan pays particular attention to protesters of Middle Eastern descent. A September 22 situation report argues that “the presence of additional Palestinians in the camp, and the movement’s involvement with Islamic individuals is a dynamic that requires further examination.” The report acknowledges that “currently there is no information to suggest terrorist type tactics or operations,” but nonetheless warns that “with the current limitation on information flow out of the camp, it cannot be ruled out.” [...] Such ethnic and religious profiling of protesters was not unusual. An October 12 email thread shared among members of the intel group provides a striking example of how TigerSwan was able to cast suspicion on specific individuals and communicate it to law enforcement officials. Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Tonya Jahner emailed several other officers, including two FBI agents, with an overview of information provided by “company intel.” The information pertained to a woman whom Jahner labeled as a “strong Shia Islamic” with a “strong female Shia following.” The woman had “made several trips overseas,” Jahner wrote.

fuckheads

jesus christ

fwiw, a fair number of those "terrorists" would have been US combat veterans from Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.

nothing matters

who could have guessed

http://www.ksfy.com/content/news/Crews-cleaning-up-Keystone-Pipeline-leak-in-Marshall-County-458046943.html

"at least 210,000 gallons of oil "

goddamn it

actually this is great timing, the board's vote on Keystone XL is just a few days away and this is extra ammo against it

I added Keystone to the thread title to make this thread more searchable because qualmsley started a separate Keystone thread. Open to suggestions on the name change though.

https://www.ecowatch.com/transcanada-pipeline-explodes-west-virginia-2576042392.html?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1528427379