Calling it a betrayal of his campaign promise, indigenous leaders and campaigners were outraged with President Biden’s refusal to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline. His refusal came on April 9 when the pipeline was under a court-ordered environmental review.
According to EcoWatch, the hearing took place so the “U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could provide an update on whether the Biden administration planned to allow the pipeline known as DAPL to continue operating without a federal permit.” An attorney for the government said that the Army Corps of Engineers had no intention to shut down the pipeline and instead, “is essentially in a continuous process of evaluating.” So the pipeline was granted a 10-day continuance.
The judge will decide the fate of the pipeline by April 19.
“In a meeting with members of Biden’s staff earlier this year, we were told that this new administration wanted to ‘get this right,'” Mike Faith, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said. “Unfortunately, today’s update from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shows it has chosen to ignore our pleas and stick to the wrong path.”
The DAPL, which began operation in 2017 and carries oil from North Dakota to Illinois, was allowed permission to proceed under the Trump administration after the Obama administration halted the project and denied it permission to cross through ancestral tribal lands at Lake Oahe.
Tribal leaders, environmentalists and campaigners have opposed the pipeline from the start saying the DAPL “violates treaty rights and endangers land, water, and communities.” Opponents of the pipeline were relying on President Biden to order a shut down.
“For hundreds of years, our people have faced unwelcome and deadly incursions upon our homelands,” Phyllis Young, Standing Rock organizer for the Lakota People’s Law Project and former tribal liaison to the Oceti Sakowin protest camp, said. “Today’s decision is disappointing and demonstrates a lack of understanding by Washington politicians for Indigenous sovereignty. We will do our very best to see this pipeline removed, our water protected, and our sacred lands healed.”
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