indigenous environmental network

On Friday, September 8th, the Dakota Access Pipeline’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DAPL DEIS) was finally published.

After multiple delays over the course of several months, the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) released the final draft. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District developed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement to evaluate the DAPL easement request to cross federally managed land at Lake Oahe under the Mineral Leasing Act authority. However, the Army Corps ran the project illegally without the proper legal easement since the beginning of 2021.

This project has been on Oceti Sakowin lands, otherwise known as the Great Sioux Nation. For years, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of supporters called out DAPL as a direct violation of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty. Further, DAPL violates the Nation’s right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, affecting Indigenous livelihoods and forcing Indigenous lands to become sacrifice zones.

The Environmental Impact Study was conducted between September 26, 2020, and October 26, 2020. However, an extension was granted, and comments were ultimately received until November 26, 2020. During this time-frame, Iowa has also granted permission to build more pump stations along the route.

"The EIS process is a key requirement of the National Environmental Protection Act... The fact that the ACOE will grant permits without an EIS for the DAPL shows it was without consent, illegally operating now, and a constant threat to Lakota People and the environment." said Waniya Locke (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), local grassroots and community organizer.

On March 25, 2020, the District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the Army Corp of Engineers to prepare a DEIS for this portion of the pipeline as the negative effects on the quality of the human environment are highly likely. Yet, Energy Transfer continued the construction; putting the Missouri River, and nearby waterways, ecosystems, and the global climate at risk for further pollution and catastrophe.

“The Dakota Access Pipeline needs to be shutdown at all costs, as long as it operates it will continue to put our communities at risk– it is a threat to our waterways, and we will continue to denounce the Dakota Access Pipeline. It goes against our rights, not just basic human rights but our Treaty rights. We as Indigenous Peoples are considered expendable to Energy Transfer, its partners, the oil and gas industry, and politicians. It is not about if the pipeline breaks and leaks, it’s when. Our children and the next seven generations' lives will be affected by this pipeline and I want to protect our and their futures by ensuring clean drinking water, land, and air to breathe.” said Morgan Brings Plenty (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), Digital Organizing Fellow at the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, Tom BK Goldtooth (Diné/ Dakota) shares, “We’ve fought this project for the past seven years, but the ACOE is determined to undermine that work. This new DEIS con-volutes their way into naming the DAPL construction the safest bet, a blatant lie. According to them, the water, soil, and community health will benefit from not only building DAPL, but by pumping through twice as much oil as was originally proposed. Nowhere in this statement is the climate crisis mentioned, or that oil and gas remains the biggest contributor to the climate crisis by and large. The ACOE will answer for their so-called decisions, and we can ensure that by commenting during their public comment period. ”

We urge Indigenous communities and allies to submit a public comment and express their concerns. Public comments will be accepted through November 13, 2023.

Additional public meetings will be held in Bismarck, ND:

• Where: The Radisson Hotel, 605 E Broadway Ave, Bismarck, ND 58501
• When: November 1 and 2, 2023 from 6-9 p.m. CST

National climate justice leaders from organizations representing impacted, frontline communities will be holding a press conference on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 during NYC Climate Week to demand real climate solutions, a Just Transition, climate reparations, and a phase-out of fossil fuels.

Frontline speakers denounce false solutions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon markets and offsets, climate geo-engineering, nature-based solutions, nuclear power, biomass energy and biofuels, hydrogen energy, and more, that are being pushed inside the UN Secretary-General’s Climate Ambition Summit and advanced by corporate, governmental, and big NGOs during Climate Week. Listen to those on the frontlines opposing these industrial techno-fixes and greenwashed climate schemes and demanding real climate action from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Press can RSVP here. Registration is required. We encourage the press to send questions in advance via the registration link. This is a HYBRID press conference, held both in-person and over zoom.

WHO:
Tom BK Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, Indigenous Climate Action
Adrien Salazar, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance
Dawn Wells-Clyburn, Climate Justice Alliance (Push Buffalo)
Anthony Rogers Wright, The Black Hive, Movement for Black Lives

WHAT: Press Conference hosted by members of It Takes Roots

WHEN:
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
10:30 A.M. — 12:00 P.M. Eastern

WHERE:
The People’s Forum
Violeta Parra Stage (ground level)
320 W 37th Street
New York, NY 10018

REGISTER: bit.ly/ITRpressconference

The morning of Monday, March 13, 2023, the Biden Administration released its final decision approving three drilling sites for the Willow Master Development Plan, otherwise known as the Willow Project that threatens local communities, wildlife, and the global climate. This is a massive oil drilling development on Alaska’s North Slope, which is a stretch of public land known as the National Petroleum Reserve that borders the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

This project developed by ConocoPhillips would be the single largest oil extraction point on US public lands, emitting 278 million metric tons of climate pollution over the next 30 years. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 74 coal plants — one-third of all remaining U.S. plants. Willow will disproportionately impact the community of Nuiqsut, a predominantly Iñupiaq village of about 500 people already suffering extreme pollution from existing oil projects.

This decision comes one day after unveiling protections for 16 million acres of land and water in the region. The Department of Interior also announced that it is preparing new rules to provide maximum protection to millions of acres of lands in the western Arctic, including the area around Teshekpuk Lake, a vital home to caribou and other wildlife that are central to Alaska Native communities’ traditional way of life.

However, by green lighting the Willow Project, President Biden has approved the next U.S. climate bomb. This decision is not only a complete betrayal of his commitments to confront the climate crisis but is also an open violation of Indigenous rights. It doesn’t matter what other “Arctic Protections” this administration puts in place, the ecological & spiritual damage wrought by this project cannot be offset nor supplanted. The Willow Project directly threatens 5 Iñupiaq communities on the Arctic Slope, putting their ability to sustain their food security, health, and identity at risk. Our network expresses our solidarity with the Iñupiaq communities fighting to protect their homelands and ecosystems.

Indigenous Environmental Network’s Program Director, Kandi White (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) exclaims, “The Biden administration needs to stop riding the fence and exacerbating the climate crisis. Proposing to announce new rules in protection of the Arctic Ocean while simultaneously approving The Willow Project is counterintuitive. We must reduce extraction and distribution of fossil fuels in real time, invest in real solutions led by Indigenous and local communities, and cease any new fossil fuel development and leasing.”

“The Biden Administration’s approval of the ConocoPhillips Willow project in Alaska completely erases his campaign on confronting longstanding environmental injustices and disproportionate impacts from climate change on environmental justice communities, such as the Alaska Natives. The project is nothing less than a carbon bomb increasing to more than 278 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses that Mother Earth does not need. The project would devastate the ecosystem, affect migration patterns for animals the Iñupiaq depend on with additional serious concerns of health impacts for Indigenous communities themselves.” says Tom BK Goldtooth, Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network.

Legal challenges to this decision are expected. Support the fight by using this toolkit created by the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition.