Standing Rock Seeks TRO. » « Wenyi.

Sandpiper Shelved.

Courtesy Winona LaDuke/Honor the Earth. The Sandpiper pipeline would have run through sensitive waterways, jeopardizing Ojibwe manoomin, or wild rice.

Courtesy Winona LaDuke/Honor the Earth.
The Sandpiper pipeline would have run through sensitive waterways, jeopardizing Ojibwe manoomin, or wild rice.

Enbridge Inc. has officially dropped its bid to build the $900 million Sandpiper oil pipeline, which would have crossed through Ojibwe wild rice lands.

The company said on September 1 that it was withdrawing its applications from the Minnesota Public Utilities after determining that “the project should be delayed until such time as crude oil production in North Dakota recovers sufficiently to support development of new pipeline capacity,” the company said in a statement on September 1.

The announcement came a month after the energy conglomerate revealed that it had bought a stake in the Dakota Access pipeline project, which is being opposed all along its four-state route.

“We are grateful for this victory against the black snake that threatened our water, wild rice, and way of life as Ojibwe people,” said Winona LaDuke, founder of the conservation group Honor the Earth, in a statement. “We call this land Anishinaabe Akiing. This is the land we belong to, and we will continue to protect it, as our ancestors did before us. We stand united against the proposed Line 3 pipeline, Dakota Access, and any new fossil fuel infrastructure anywhere. Our resistance will only continue to grow.”

I’m glad for this, however, I don’t trust any oil company to do the right thing, or to keep their grubby greed off Indian land. They have already shown, in the most despicable way, what concerns them. Full article here.

Standing Rock Seeks TRO. » « Wenyi.

Comments

  1. says

    Minnesota Public Utilities after determining that “the project should be delayed until such time as crude oil production in North Dakota recovers sufficiently

    I don’t read that as shelved, I read that as “when prices go back up” it’ll be profitable and it’ll happen.

    Seems like pipes would be super susceptible to sabotage, to drive their costs toward prohibitively expensive. Maybe the Earth Firsters were right, and monkeywrenching would work. That heavy equipment is expensive; it’d be a shame if someone stuck a rag in the fuel tank and lit it.

  2. kestrel says

    This is good news. I’m very glad to hear it, but I’m afraid that, quite cynically, I don’t trust Big Oil either.

    I wish some of these dipsticks would realize there is a fortune to be made in new technology and new energy sources. If they would instead spend all this money working on a platform in the Atlantic with wind turbines instead of crappier and crappier grades of oil, they would make yet another fortune. On top of the 15 or 20 they already have.

  3. says

    @kestrel:
    Sun Tzu would argue that the way to handle these people would be to weaponize Epicureanism at them: those things you enjoy about your wealth: safety, comfort, luxury, we are going to make them unenjoyable. Go after the leaders, personally. Ghenghis Khan would grab one of those guys and give him all the oil he could drink, pour encourager les autres. I am starting to see the rightness in that approach compared to pacifism.

    And that circles me right back to my view that ISIS is about politics not islam, and that the atheists who say its because islam is a religion of violence -- no: retaliation for wrongs is a piece of the underpinnings of human ethical systems, and when you’re up against an opponent who doesn’t care for your suffering AT ALL -- as in this case -- then you have to make them suffer too, so they understand.

    I wonder where the CEO lives and how he’d like it if someone ran a bulldozer through his house. “My carpet!”

  4. says

    How are you going to limit use of violence to only those whose causes you support?
    I remember the Birmingham Church bombing. Four dead little girls…….

  5. rq says

    This is conditional good news. I’m glad Sandpiper is not going forward, and I’m glad North Dakota is costing them money -- I only hope it keeps costing them enough money to make them rethink their greedy scheme.

  6. says

    Robertbaden @ 4:

    I know you live to scold people, but I don’t see you saying one damn thing about the travesty committed. Save your scolding for elsewhere.

  7. says

    rq:

    I’m glad North Dakota is costing them money – I only hope it keeps costing them enough money to make them rethink their greedy scheme.

    It’s not costing them enough. There can be no enough. That said, all they had to do was go with the original plan, and put the damn thing by Bismarck, but nooooo, can’t have white people upset.

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