Fact Checks

CLAIM: A coalition of Congressional Democrats, as well as a group of celebrities from athletes to actresses, have recently called on President Biden to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) while it undergoes additional environmental review. The letters allege:

• “The pipeline had originally been slated to cross the Missouri River north of Bismarck, ND, yet the risk of an oil spill on the city’s 90% white inhabitants was deemed too great.”
• There was “egregious environmental racism as North Dakota law enforcement officials violently removed protestors from the path of DAPL”
• The concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Enbridge’s Line 3 project – which replaces an existing, aging oil pipeline – received key permits this past week from Minnesota regulators in a major step towards construction. The Line 3 replacement project is expected to support about 8,600 jobs in Minnesota over a two-year period and provide a $2 billion boost to Minnesota’s economy during that period. While this is certainly a win for Minnesotans, the state’s economy, and our nation’s energy security, it seems not everyone is as excited about this step forward.

Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist who leads the environmental group Honor the Earth, recently …

A coalition of nearly 20 Democratic state attorneys general this week in a court filing urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline – affirming a lower court’s earlier ruling that scrapped the Army Corps’ environmental review of key permit for the project and ordering the crude oil pipeline be shuttered until additional review is completed.

The group of attorneys general, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, put politics before the energy security of our nation – prioritizing emotion, anti-pipeline rhetoric, and an ideological opposition to the use …

CLAIM: Musicians Willie Nelson and Paul Simon recently co-signed an opinion column in the Houston Chronicle expressing opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway (PHP) natural gas pipeline. The following day, Kinder Morgan CEO Steve Kean announced the company had been working with the Texas Railroad Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reroute the pipeline around the Blanco River.

Shortly thereafter, several Texas media outlets including the Abilene Reporter News and Austin American Statesman reported the news, publishing headlines like “After Willie Nelson and Paul Simon complained, CEO agrees to reroute Hill Country pipeline.”

Did an op-ed from Willie …

CLAIM: In light of a recent appeals court ruling allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to continue operations while an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is completed, a recent opinion column in the Des Moines Register authored by activist Jonas Magram argued the Dakota Access Pipeline should be shuttered as it does “not offer a safe way to transport oil because, however it was transported, its eventual combustion would contribute to growing climate chaos.” The author also argues “the pipeline would result in increased oil production from the Dakotas, which in turn would result in more climate-disrupting carbon dioxide.”

RATING: False

FACT …

CLAIM: A recent opinion column in The Watchdog was loaded with misinformation regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline. One of the most egregious claims was regarding the pipeline’s route:

But when a wealthy, white community doesn’t want their water poisoned by oil? Well then, no problem, thanks for letting us know, we’ll get right on it. The original route for the Dakota Access pipeline was routed above Bismarck, North Dakota. According to ABC news, that route was rejected to “protect wells that serve the municipal water supply.” No fight, no fuss, but then again, that shouldn’t surprise any of us considering

Appearing in today’s Bismarck Tribune, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) took out a full page ad titled “Standing Rock Matters, Too” that continued the Tribe’s campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the ad, Tribe Chairman Mike Faith makes a number of false and misleading statements that build on the already salacious mischaracterization the Tribe has purported for years.

If SRST could have it their way, the Tribe would like the public to believe that the Dakota Access Pipeline is fundamentally unsafe (despite pipelines being the safest means of energy transport) and that they and their concerns were …

A recent guest column published in the Hays Free Press targeting the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) failed to make note of pipeline safety at large and ignores the realities of their need in the Permian shale formation.

In the column, Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association (TESPA) director Patrick Cox described the Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) as “a perilous and unprecedented threat to the Texas Hill Country,” despite overwhelming evidence otherwise – a claim that couldn’t be further from the truth.

According to the Texas Railroad Commission, the Lone Star state has the largest pipeline infrastructure in the nation with nearly …