Claim: Army Official Says Biden Admin Doesn‘t Plan to Shut Down Dakota Access Pipeline

Indigenous Environmental Network activist Dallas Goldtooth said Friday that a U.S. Army official told tribal advocates that the federal government does not plan to announce a shutdown of the Dakota Access oil pipeline.

Bloomberg News reports:

The controversial project’s ability to continue to operate would be a rare victory for pipeline owners following President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL oil line. Even before the Democrat’s inauguration, the oil and gas industry had been struggling to move forward with new infrastructure plans amid stiff opposition from climate advocates. Jensen, who serves as assistant for regulatory and tribal affairs in the Corps office of Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, said in an interview that the matter is in the hands of the Justice Department. Several tribes have already pushed the federal district court in Washington to issue its own shutdown order. The tribes’ motion is pending before the judge, who could issue a decision in the coming weeks.

The report was met with criticism from activists who have long lobbied for shutting down the pipeline, which carries crude oil from North Dakota to an Illinois terminal.

“We are gravely concerned about the continued operation of this pipeline, which poses an unacceptable risk to our sovereign nation,” said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman Mike Faith.

“In a meeting with members of Biden’s staff earlier this year, we were told that this new administration wanted to ‘get this right.’ Unfortunately, this reported update from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows it has chosen to ignore our pleas and stick to the wrong path,” Faith added.

Neither the USACE nor the Department of Justice have issued an official statement regarding the matter.

Later today, Biden administration lawyers are scheduled to lay out their position on the pipeline during a court hearing.

The development also comes after Dakota Access Pipeline protesters held a demonstration in Washington, D.C., on Thursday by holding what they described as a “die-in.”

The “die-in” was supposed to be a “representation of all the people whose lives have been cut short due to COVID-19 and also fossil fuels,” one activist explained.

The protesters also urged President Joe Biden to stop “climate-destroying projects” and called for the U.S.’s energy sector to go “fossil-free.”

“We have been given another opportunity to protect our water and respect the rights of indigenous people and Mother Earth,” one protester said.