Dakota Access Pipeline

Case Study: Tribal Outreach Key Part of Corps’ Exhaustive Review of DAPL

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By nearly all accounts, the Army Corps of Engineers’ review and subsequent approvals of permits related to the Dakota Access Pipeline was thorough.  In many cases, the Corps went above and beyond what was required by the law.  GAIN Fact Checker is starting a new series looking into the decisions that led to the approval of, construction of, and subsequent safe operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline.  In this post, we look at the Army Corps of Engineers and its focus on tribal outreach.

As we’ve discussed before, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers engaged in a multi-year scientific analysis …

The Cost of Pipeline Protests: North Dakota Sues Federal Government

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North Dakota filed a $38 million federal lawsuit to recover costs of providing security and cleaning up after environmental extremists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Associated Press reports. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem filed the suit after an administrative order from last month went ignored:

“When the protesters finally left, they left behind a spoiled environment and a vast quantity of dangerous waste, garbage and debris that had to be cleaned up by the state at considerable cost,” Stenehjem told reporters.

As we have noted previously, protesters at the Dakota Access Pipeline caused significant damage. There is a clear …

FACT CHECK: New Book Paints Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters As Innocent Victims

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CLAIM: A new book – “Standing With Standing Rock — Voices from the #NODAPL Movement” –paints protesters at the Dakota Access Pipeline as both heroes and victims of “ritualistic brutality” in their battle against authorities and corporations – and the environmental dangers posed by the pipeline.

RATING

False

FACT CHECK

First, let’s look at the record of violent activity by environmental extremists who put themselves, police and workers at risk. This includes environmental extremists setting a dozen fires on a public highway while protesting pipeline.

Extremists also threatened reporters covering the protests. On October 11, 2016, reporters were confronted and …

FACT CHECK: Newspaper Claims State Laws Make Protesting Illegal

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CLAIM: UK-based The Guardian claims that, “Seven states have passed laws that ratchet up the penalties for activists protesting or even planning protests of oil and gas pipelines and other `critical infrastructure.’”

RATING

False

FACT CHECK

The Guardian is buying into extremists’ claims that state laws are aimed at their First Amendment right to protest through free speech and assembly. Nothing, however, in any of the laws infringe upon their rights to speech and assembly.

Instead, they are aimed at penalizing and curbing dangerous and illegal behavior that endanger workers, law-enforcement officials and the protesters themselves. That’s why the …

FACT CHECK: South Dakota Riot Boosting Law Doesn’t “Outlaw Many Forms of Pipeline Protest”

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CLAIM: The Capital Journal of South Dakota reports that the state’s riot boosting law “is an attempt by (Governor) Noem to outlaw many forms of Pipeline protest,” while also noting that groups opposed to the law say it is a threat to free speech.

RATING:False

FACT CHECK

The riot boosting law does not outlaw forms of protest. Instead, it imposes new penalties for illegal activity and for supporting illegal activity.

As previously noted, the new law does not threaten free speech or create new illegal forms of protest. Additionally, the language in Senate Bill 189 is clear …

Anti-Pipeline Protester Allegedly Planned ‘Armed Rebellion’ Along U.S-Mexico Border

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An activist involved in the anti-Dakota Access Pipeline protests has been linked to an alleged plot to “stage an armed rebellion” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

According to an unclassified FBI report reviewed by the San Diego Union-Tribune, “anti-fascist activists” led by Evan K. Duke III planned to buy guns from a Mexican cartel in order to “disrupt U.S. law enforcement and military security operations at the US/Mexico border.”

The suspected plot isn’t the first time the self-proclaimed Antifa leader has resorted to violence to further his radial agenda. During the winter of 2016-17, Duke spent several months in North …

FACT CHECK: Russian Trolls Aided #NoDAPL Protesters

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CLAIM: Russian agents used social media to undermine the U.S. energy infrastructure projects.

RATING: True

FACT CHECK

A 2018 congressional report detailed how Russian agents utilized social media to undermine U.S. energy policy, including approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Investigators with the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology found that between 2015 and 2017, “an estimated 9,097 Russian posts or tweets regarding U.S. energy policy or a current energy event,” including the approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline, appeared on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Pipelines and domestic energy infrastructure were a primary target of the Russian agents.

…

FACT CHECK: Security Personnel Did Not Set Fire at North Dakota Pipeline Protest

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CLAIM: The Albuquerque Journal reports that “someone set some army trucks parked on a bridge on fire” at the Standing Rock pipeline protest in 2016, and that “some thought it was the work of security details dressed as protesters.” The Journal also quotes an activist photographer as saying, “There’s this huge issue of who set those trucks on fire” because security “wanted to keep their jobs; they were making $1 million a month.”

RATING: False

FACT CHECK

The Journal quotes the claims uncritically but fails to mention that seven people were charged with federal crimes in conjunction with the protest, …

AOC Fumbles Dakota Access Pipeline Facts

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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a number of incorrect statements about the Dakota Access Pipeline during a House Financial Services Committee hearing Tuesday. Despite traveling to North Dakota in 2016 to participate in the #NoDAPL protests, the freshman congresswomen falsely claimed among other things that:

The Dakota Access Pipeline was built “in defiance of the Standing Rock Sioux’s treaty rights.”

At no point does the Dakota Access Pipeline cross the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The pipeline crosses the Missouri River at Lake Oahe to the north of the reservation and runs parallel to the route to an existing natural gas pipeline…

Rising Crude-By-Rail Shipments Bad News for American Agriculture

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Surging U.S. oil and natural gas production has unleashed a new ear of American prosperity. It has also created a myriad of  transportation bottlenecks in production regions across the country. In the absence of adequate pipeline capacity, producers are forced to rely on railroads to ship resources to market.

Most recently, reduced capacity on Enbridge’s Line 3 and the ongoing legal drama over the Keystone XL Pipeline caused the Canadian government to contract 4,400 railway tank cars to move oil to U.S. markets. Crude-by-rail shipments from Canada to the U.S. are already at an historic high, more than doubling …