Protests Lead To Temporary Halt of North Dakota Pipeline Construction
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and it’s supporters have been protesting the construction of a pipeline that would pull oil from parts of North Dakota to the U.S. Gulf Coast for months. Tensions came to a head this weekend with multiple security guards and guard dogs being injured while a tribal spokesman claims nearly 30 people were pepper sprayed and some were bitten by those same dogs.
The company responsible for the pipeline, Dakota Access, has agreed to a temporary halt on a portion of the area that the tribe requested until this Friday, according to the Huffington Post.
U.S. Judge James Boasberg feels that he found a temporary compromise while he also plans to rule on the tribe’s challenge against federal regulators granting permits to operators of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
If completed, the nearly $4 billion project will create the first pipeline to bring crude oil to the gulf coast from the Bakken shale. However, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe claims that the construction will, and already has, lead to the destruction of recognized burial grounds of their ancestors. At this point, they claim that they hope they can have time to rebury their ancestors, which would makeup for some of the emotional damage that came from the project.
The next stop will be to see if the judge allows the construction to carry on after the temporary halt, or if the project will be left alone.
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