After years of protests and legal battles, the voices of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native American and environmental activists are finally being heard and acknowledged in our courts.
John – Did you see this incredible news?
The Supreme Court will not overturn a lower court-ordered environmental review of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
After years of protests and legal battles, the voices of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native American and environmental activists are finally being heard and acknowledged in our courts.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by not taking into consideration the risks of a major oil spill on the local community, and mandated a new environmental review to determine whether or not the pipeline should be closed.
Since then, legal battles over the environmental review persisted. But the Supreme Court is not considering this appeal, so the court-ordered review remains.
This affirms what we knew: The Dakota Access Pipeline went forward without proper environmental review and without proper input from the indigenous community whose land is along the pipeline. Because local communities spoke up and fought, DAPL is now on the verge of shutting down. And the legal process worked.
John, while the legal battles are over, the risks to clean drinking water are still there. Despite needing a new environmental review, the pipeline can still operate while the review is carried out. So DAPL is still carrying 750,000 barrels of oil per day.We must ensure we have pro-environment leaders in the House now and in the future to continue these fights and keep the pressure on to protect these waters and lands.
SEEC Member Rep Grijalva has been leading the fight in Congress on this. He led an amicus brief to the court signed by many SEEC colleagues urging closure of the Dakota Access Pipeline over failure to consider pollution impacts. Additionally, the bill he co-introduced with SEEC Vice-Chair Rep McEachin--the Environmental Justice for All Act--would strengthen policies that protect community input in cases like these.
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