Stand with Standing Rock

The fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock continues. Each day the pipeline continues to operate, it violates Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights and poses a constant threat to crucial water sources for the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe rejects the recently released draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The current EIS does not adequately consider the risks the pipeline poses to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and its water and cultural resources, in violation of the principles of the National Environmental Policy Act.

Submit your public comment to the Army Corps of Engineers and join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in demanding a new, unbiased Environmental Impact Statement that adequately assesses the environmental impact of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The deadline for comments is December 13th!

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Demand a fair environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline!

Protesters march in Washington, D.C. against pipeline projects.

Image Credit: Carol Guzy/ZUMA Press via Newscom.

Demand a fair environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline!

Your Message

Subject A fair Environmental Impact Statement for DAPL

Dear U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

Message Body

I’m writing today in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe: the Army Corps must go back to the drawing board and revise the Dakota Access Pipeline’s recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The current DEIS is lacking in many ways, with an inadequate range of alternatives and inadequate analysis of all of the environmental impacts of the pipeline, including threats to clean water, environmental justice, and the global climate.

The DEIS doesn’t provide the public or the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with all the information needed to fully assess the potential impacts. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe serves as a first responder in case of a pipeline emergency, yet the Tribe has not received unredacted emergency and facility response plans for the pipeline. Virtually all important information has been redacted, including the results of oil spill modeling, making it impossible for the Tribe or the public to understand the potential environmental impacts of a spill on the Missouri River and other valuable resources. It is time for the Army Corps to stop withholding information from the Tribe that is essential to protect its own water source, land, and sacred sites. Unredacted information must be provided in a new DEIS.

The Army Corps also fails to account for the full climate consequences of this massive oil project in its DEIS. DAPL could be responsible for moving enough oil to unleash over 120 million metric tons worth of greenhouse gasses each year it operates. However, the true toll unfolds over the many decades of its lifetime and the DEIS fails to assess this total impact. The climate section of the DEIS also botches or entirely neglects other key elements of climate calculations, including upstream emissions from producing the oil as well as construction and operating emissions. The analysis to estimate a social cost of carbon is oversimplified and reported inappropriately. A new DEIS is needed to provide a complete quantitative analysis of the GHG emissions from DAPL and their potential damages.

I am also concerned that DAPL operates without a valid federal easement, in clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), as well as the Tribe’s treaty rights. Most egregiously, the destruction of 23 burial sites violates the National Historic Preservation Act, which has disqualified Energy Transfer from receiving any permit or easement for DAPL.

I join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in advocating for a new DEIS that rigorously assesses DAPL’s direct and indirect impacts with transparency and comprehensive analysis, as required under NEPA, and honors the legitimate concerns of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other affected Tribal Nations.

Thank you,

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