WEBVTT - Seven Years Later, an Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:06.760 We're continuing our series today on the increasing global criminalization 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:11.480 of protest with a look at what's happening now with 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.920 the protest that the fossil fuel industry, politicians, and police 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:20.640 often cite as the reason that we need new laws 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:26.960 against protest in the United States. Standing Rock. The protests 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:29.680 on the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North and 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:34.200 South Dakota took place from April twenty sixteen to February 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:39.239 twenty seventeen. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:44.040 allies protested against a project called the Dakota Access Pipeline 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:48.000 or DAPPLE, a one thousand, one hundred and seventy two 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:51.200 mile long pipeline running from the back and oil fields 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:56.360 in western North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing the Missouri 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:01.760 and Mississippi Rivers. Members of the Standing Rock Tribe and 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.600 surrounding communities said the pipeline was a serious threat to 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:10.720 the region's drinking water. The construction also directly threatened burial 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:15.280 grounds and cultural sites of historic importance. Although you'll hear 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.679 in this episode that both the company in charge of 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.920 the project, Energy Transfer, and the US government, have at 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:27.280 various times claimed otherwise, the Dapple fight has been a 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.880 real roller coaster, and it might surprise some of you 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.840 to hear that despite the fact that construction on the 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:39.479 pipeline was completed in April twenty seventeen, the Army Corps 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:44.759 of Engineers only just this year, in September twenty twenty three, 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:51.000 six years later, released its Environmental Impact Statement or EIS 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:56.800 on the project. You might remember that back in twenty sixteen. 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.880 December twenty sixteen, to be exact, the Army Corps of 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.880 Engineers announced that they would deny the easement to drill 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:10.239 under the Missouri River and would conduct an EIS. Energy 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:15.040 Transfer criticized the Obama administration when that came out, calling 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:19.520 it political interference and saying that further delay in the 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.120 consideration of this case would add millions of dollars more 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.760 each month in costs that could not be recovered. When 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.040 former President Trump took office just a month later in 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:36.240 January twenty seventeen, he issued an executive order overturning everything 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.919 that the Army Corps had said and lifting all blocks 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:44.639 to pipeline construction. The tribe sued, and in twenty twenty 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.920 a US federal judge ruled with them. They said the 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:52.160 government had not studied the pipeline's effects on the quality 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.680 of the human environment enough. They ordered the Army Corps 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.840 of Engineers to go ahead with its environmental impact review. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.240 There was a lot of legal back and forth after that, 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.520 but ultimately all the courts agreed on the need for 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:10.200 an environmental review that includes the Supreme Court. Despite all 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.560 of those rulings, the pipeline has remained operational this whole time, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:23.720 transporting over five hundred thousand barrels per day. After it 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.520 released the draft EIS in September this year, the Army 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.240 Corps of Engineers scheduled a public hearing on it in Bismarck, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:36.200 North Dakota in November. Our senior editor for this series, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.760 Alane Brown, who's been reporting on Standing Rock and Dapple 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.560 since twenty sixteen, was there to hear what everyone had 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.720 to say. Today she brings us that story and also 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.960 a look at the impact that anti protest tactics used 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:54.880 to shut down what was happening at Standing Rock and 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.360 lots of other protests since then have had on communities. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.800 Whether we should start to think about those impacts as 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.400 part of an environmental impact as well, particularly when we're 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.800 looking at Indigenous communities for whom these tactics really trigger 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:17.200 historical generational trauma. The public comment period for this Environmental 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.120 Impact Statement closes next week December thirteenth, twenty twenty three. 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:28.040 Welcome back to Drilled, the real free speech Threat. I'm 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.320 Abe Westervelt. After the break, Alan Brown takes us to 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:41.440 North Dakota. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:47.239 I know I'm just gonna say the thing true. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.120 I'm in North Dakota on a hill overlooking the Cannonball River. 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.080 I'm surrounded by rolling land dusted with snow under a 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:01.120 gray sky. This land is unseeded treaty territory, meaning it 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.400 was never given up or seated by the Ocheti Shakoen 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.520 people that have lived here for generations. I'm standing with 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.320 a handful of water protectors from the tribal nation of 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.599 standing Rock over a small fire. 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.200 The Army Corps of Engineers is doing what they call corraling. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.279 So is it going to be a single line in 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.000 and they're going to corral us in. There's going to 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.440 be booths with curtains and a sonographer and it, Mike, 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:28.680 It's not going to be like your typical hearing that 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:29.400 we're used. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.440 To Today, water protectors are being invited by the US 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.880 Army Corps of Engineers to a public hearing to share 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.280 their comments on the draft environmental impact Statement for the 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:45.240 Dakota Access Pipeline known as DAPPLE. The pipeline has been 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.839 operating since twenty seventeen, and then. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.360 You make it as personal as possible. You talk about 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.000 how or where you grew up and how the Missouri 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.279 River is connected to you. 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.360 For over seven years, some people gathered here have been 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.640 fighting to stop the pipeline. Some of them camped on 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.480 this very spot in twenty sixteen in a resistance camp 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.760 that was a jumping off point for direct action protests 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:18.080 meant to stop construction. Police and private security responded with dogs, 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:25.240 tear gas, water hoses, aerial surveillance, infiltration of their movement spaces, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.040 radio eavesdropping, and mass arrests. 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:34.000 Like we do know and we did confirm that private 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.960 security is there along with North Dakota law enforcement. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.360 After the pipeline was complete, the camps shut down and 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:47.960 the cameras left, but Standing Rock and other tribes continued 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.960 to fight in court. In twenty twenty, a judge agreed 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:55.080 with the tribes. He revoked the permit that allowed the 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.440 pipeline to cross the Missouri River, and he ordered an 0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:03.440 environmental impact state men. That report is seven years late, 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.479 but it also represents one of the few pathways left 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:08.680 to stop the pipeline. 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.920 I can't I can't speak for any other elder, but 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:15.240 I'm kind of getting up there, and i just want 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:17.280 to say I'm really proud. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.720 Of all of you, really proud of all of you. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.400 And that's all I can say. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:25.360 I'm always proud of all of you. 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:33.880 Okay, car count. 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:36.679 And we're off. 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:41.000 I'm in a line of about one, two, three, four, five, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:46.920 six cars. We've got our blinkers on and we're headed 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:52.720 to the public hearings. Right now, our cars are crossing 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:57.440 over the precise site where the Dakota Access pipeline is buried. 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.880 At a certain point, there were encampments all the way 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.640 up to that spot where the pipeline route is. Eventually 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.440 that was pushed back, but the place where you know 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.080 over ten thousand people were camped at one point is 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:23.320 right where folks set a fire and were praying. I 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.320 had a chance to read the EIS before I came 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:30.440 out here. After years of researching the environmental harms associated 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.520 with pipelines like this one. I was pretty surprised to 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.679 hear the Army Corps suggest that removing the pipeline would 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.640 be more environmentally harmful than allowing the oil to continue 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.280 pumping under one of Standing Rock's primary drinking water sources. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.160 The EIS says that a major spill under the Missouri 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.880 River is remote to unlikely. As for climate change, this 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.480 document claims that allowing the pipeline to continue operating as 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:02.200 it is would quote not generate any direct greenhouse gas emissions, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.520 with the exception of a minor amount of emissions associated 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.960 with pipeline maintenance activities. That's because the Army Corps is 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.960 only taking into account the emissions generated by the pipeline itself, 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:23.000 not by the activity it enables burning fossil fuels. Finally, 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:27.679 it claims there are simply no historic properties like sacred sites, 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.640 for example, in the area being studied. A couple of 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.760 nights before the hearing, I sat down with Honorata Defender 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.199 and Jonathan Edwards to talk about the EIS. Honorata is 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.640 a journalist for the local Corson Sioux County News Messenger, 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:47.000 and Jonathan is a former paramedic. Their siblings and both 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.679 members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and they organized 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.440 some of the first grassroots meetings about the pipeline, held 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.360 in an unheated movie theater here in the reservation town 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.520 of McLoughlin, South Dakota. We ate pizza at a Senex 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:08.280 gas station with a small table in the back. Have 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.559 you guys had a chance to look at the draft 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:13.200 environmental impact statement. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:15.960 You have? 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:18.400 What do you think about it? 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:26.880 I think it's bull duty. It's severely lacking in everything. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.880 It is not a real environmental impact statement. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:33.240 Be honest. 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:36.000 I haven't read it, so but I would imagine it's 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:40.080 just something that's copied and pasted from another EI S 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.600 if they did somewhere else in another part of the country. 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:47.199 I don't think it'll adequately address our treaty rights, our sovereignty, 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:54.720 the effect to the water when when the thing breaks. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.199 I think I'm on the spill response team. We had 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:03.120 a it's some asthma classes a couple of years ago, and. 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.440 Yeah, we're screwed. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:07.680 Here if there's an oil spilled. 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.160 I was curious about another kind of impact that I 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.320 knew the pipeline had had. I've spent years digging into 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:19.240 reams of public records and leak documents describing the way 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:22.840 the pipeline company and its private security contractor, Tiger Swan, 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.840 worked with police to repress the movement. The EIS didn't 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.680 mention the emotional and physical trauma of police repression. It 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.920 didn't mention the long running community divisions that a project 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.480 like this can inflict. Those kinds of long term impacts 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.920 are common around the world when corporations and governments forced 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:47.360 through large polluting projects, and they typically go unacknowledged by 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.920 regulatory processes. I wondered, like, what kind of impact all 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:57.760 that law enforcement presence and private security presence, like in 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.520 a way that that is an extension of the pipe line, 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:05.000 So what impact has that had on continued impact has 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.360 that had on people who were subject to it. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.199 I know a number of people that you know they 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:16.840 have PTSD still that suffered from PTSD still from what 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.360 they went through because of how Tigers Want and the 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:21.800 police handle everything. 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.400 For Jonathan, fighting the pipeline deepened his distrust of public 0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:31.480 agencies that are supposed to keep people safe. For him, 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.720 this was an intensified version of the everyday criminalization that 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.160 he faced as a Lakota man in white communities bordering 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:39.800 the reservation. 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.240 I'm in a group that's most likely to be killed 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:48.959 by police, Native American males, you know, more so than 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.120 African American males. So I think it's just something that 0:12:53.679 --> 0:13:00.959 expect to personally, that I expected, and it's just normal, 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:09.800 I guess. Unfortunately, the gassed US shot at US beat people, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.560 you know, pointing loaded weapons at unarmed women and children. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.760 A lot of tear gas. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:20.080 Asthma. 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.160 Now they have never. 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.520 Had any breathing problems before before I went out there, 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.520 but but yeah, there's just a lot of tear gas 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.360 and mind you for standing. 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:38.560 On our own land. Oh well, I guess what you know, 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.760 I'm kind of thinking about is like, if resistance to 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.800 a pipeline under the conditions that were in the reality 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.480 that we're living in, with climate change, with leaks, with 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:54.720 all these things, if resistance is inevitable, and if resistance 0:13:54.960 --> 0:14:00.439 means like this kind of police repression, then like, isn't 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.200 PTSD and the trauma that comes with those kinds of 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.080 police confrontations also like an impact of the pipeline. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:13.800 Yeah, most definitely they are. Yeah, I've never thought of 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.880 it that way, but now that you bring it up. Yeah, 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:21.520 it most definitely is, because unfortunately, I mean, these people, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.920 I mean they're gonna be haunted for the rest of 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.360 their days. We're all going to be haunted for the 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.720 rest of our days on the travesties that were committed there. 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.080 Anarata is clear on what she'd like to see happen. 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:38.960 I would love to see them remove it. They say 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.560 that there's gonna be it would be worse. That's what 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.520 they say throughout the whole environmental impact statement, basically is 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.480 that it'd be worse for the wildlife, it'd be worse 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:54.560 for the habitat, it'd be worse for the fish for 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:59.320 us to remove the pipeline. And I believe that's so false. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.400 It's the unstruethening I've ever heard. I mean, they already 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:09.400 disrupted all of this by putting it in, so why 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:11.720 is it now a big deal to remove it? 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.880 She's describing one of the strangest things about the document. 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.600 Since the pipeline is already built, the eis is backward. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.840 It describes the severe environmental harms that would come from 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.400 removing the pipeline, which one has to assume are basically 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:32.080 the same harms that would have come from putting the 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:37.600 thing in. I figured Honorata and Jonathan would be at 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.120 the EIS hearing, but Bismarck is an hour and a 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.320 half away from the town where they helped start this movement. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:48.200 Honorata wasn't sure if she'd have gas money, and her 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:54.280 van's heat was broken. It was twenty five degrees outside 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.800 back on the road, our caravan eventually arrived at the Ratisin, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:01.120 where two days of public hearing were about to begin. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.800 I catch up with Standing Rock Tribal chair Janet al 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.480 Qayr in the lobby. The Standing Rock Zoo Tribe has 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:12.560 already dropped out as a cooperating agency on the EIS, 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:14.440 and I want to understand why. 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:20.800 When this pre draft came out, it showed on the 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:24.640 cover of this book that we were a cooperating agency 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:26.960 with our logo, and when. 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.120 We opened it up, you're like, hey. 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:35.280 Don't you're not giving us anything, You're redacting everything. How 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:39.040 was this cooperating I don't want our logo on this document. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.479 I'm not supporting this document. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:46.680 The pages on spill response are heavily redacted. Janet and 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.680 others suspect it has to do with the independent contractor 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:53.840 that drafted much of the EIS. 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.840 You know, when this came down in twenty twenty, the 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:05.520 tribes asked that can we since we're in a cooperating agency, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:10.880 are you going to allow us to have some kind 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.040 of say in who this independent company is going to be. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:20.000 Months later, with little fanfare, Army Corps announced that they'd 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:26.480 hired Environmental Resources Management. Environmental Resources Management has been accused 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.160 of conflicts of interest before, including when it was hired 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.439 by the State Department to help draft the EIS for 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:38.320 the controversial Keystone exceled Tarsan Soil pipeline in twenty twelve. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.680 Reporters and environmental organizations uncovered a whole tangle of red flags, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.080 including that some of the Environmental Resources Management experts who 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.679 worked on the EIS had previously worked for the pipeline's 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.600 parent company, Trans Canada and for other companies with a 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:01.720 stake in kxl's construction. So many red flags in fact, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:08.520 that the State Department's Office of Inspector General investigated. Ultimately, 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.480 they concluded that none of it amounted to a violation 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.920 of the Department's conflict of interest policy. To many critics, 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.639 that was just an indication of how truly broken the 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:24.639 system was. Environmental Resources Management again came under fire in 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:29.639 twenty eighteen when another government agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.000 hired the company to monitor construction of Enbridge's Atlantic Bridge 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:39.000 natural Gas project. Records obtained by DSMOG showed the agency 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.959 was aware that Environmental Resources Management had a business relationship 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:50.159 with Enbridge, but hired them anyway. Environmental Resources Management is 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.399 a member of the American Petroleum Institute, which has long 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.719 been an ardent supporter of the pipeline. It's also a 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:03.560 member of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:08.080 association that helped draft new anti protest laws which swept 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.360 the nation in the wake of the pipeline protests near 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.200 the Standing Rock Reservation in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen. 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:20.879 Environmental Resources Management did not respond to a request for comment. 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.240 We knew there was a conflict of interest. We all 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.320 know what a conflict of interest is, you know, and 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:39.320 so but it we were just disregarded in that decision. Yeah, 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.600 And just like we said today, everything is box has 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:43.880 been checked off already. 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:50.240 So and so it sounds like the option that the 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.320 tribe prefers is sealing it off and leaving it in 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:54.920 the riverbed. 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:59.520 Okay, right, sealing it off. We chose that option basically 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.879 not to destroy the river bed. 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:02.719 You know. 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.040 As the hearing kicked off, the Army Corps laid out 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:11.359 the possible outcomes this EIS process could have. At the 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:14.119 end of the day, after the comment period closes on 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:18.160 December thirteenth, the agency will have to decide again whether 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:20.600 it's going to sign off on the pipeline's route, known 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:22.600 as an easement under the Missouri River. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.680 Within the EIS, there are five alternatives analyzed. The first 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:32.320 alternative is to not grant the Eastment and would result 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.239 in the restoration, meaning that the existing pipeline would be 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:36.000 stopped and. 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:38.320 Dug up. 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:43.160 The second alternative would be to not grant the Eastment, 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.760 but leave that pipeline in place so that the oil 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.920 would stop. However, there would be no excavation of the pipeline. 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.480 The third alternative, which is the applicants to go to 0:20:54.520 --> 0:21:00.439 access LLC's identified alternative, is to reissue the east with 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.199 the existing conditions the same as they were under the 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:09.399 previous environmental assessment. The fourth alternative would be to grant 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:15.040 the East Mint with additional mitigation measures. The last alternative, 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:18.440 as a result of public scopey commas, was to look 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:20.760 at an alternative that re routes the pipeline. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.159 In the room is a microcosm of the movement. The 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.520 space is dominated by water protectors from Standing Rock and 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.280 other neighboring tribes. There's also a duel of police officers. 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.160 Water protectors already recognized one of them as an officer 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.480 who was behind the razor wire at the front line. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.760 There are a few burly men who later tell me 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:44.480 they are pipeliners, there to advocate in favor of the 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:48.120 pipeline for their union. And there's a handful of white 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:51.639 guys who don't quite look like they fit in. I 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:55.480 figure they must be police or private security. Of course, 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:59.000 it's hard to learn exactly who anyone is because this 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.919 is not the public hearing we were all expecting. Public 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:06.679 comments are to be submitted privately to stenographers sitting behind 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.639 curtained boots. Water Protectors had hoped to deliver their remarks 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.400 in front of the pipeline executives who built the project 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.440 with no microphone, provided they took to the bullhorn. 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.960 Apply the perpetrators aren't going to be here to listen 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.679 to us because they don't have a backbone. 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:28.960 So my comments. 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:31.000 Right here. 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.800 Because I'm not afraid to. 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.639 Say no, we're not being given a mic bush. 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:39.280 That's okay, We'll bring them on. 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:45.280 And when you're able to push people behind curtains, there's 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:50.440 no accountability and our voices lose their power when we're 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:54.080 here at numbers. There's people here and where you're wanting 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:54.520 to pop. 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:00.840 The Army Corp attempted to respond to the complaints the 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:03.840 next day. Commenters had the option to either go into 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:08.080 the booths or deliver their testimony by microphone. I catch 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.760 up with Tim Donagy, the research manager for Greenpeace USA, 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:15.399 after he speaks at the mic. Green Peace and a 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:18.600 handful of water protectors are still fighting a lawsuit from 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:23.400 Energy Transfer, which claims that Greenpeace orchestrated the movement as 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.840 a way to encourage donations. The company has used the 0:23:26.880 --> 0:23:29.879 lawsuit to go after all kinds of indigenous people and 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:34.440 environmental justice advocates via subpoenas. It's what some critics call 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:38.840 judicial harassment. But Tim isn't here today to talk about that. 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:42.760 He's focused on the eis's shortcomings where it comes to 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:43.840 the climate crisis. 0:23:44.240 --> 0:23:49.479 Oftentimes, in environmental impact statements, they'll say, well, if we essentially, 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:51.879 if we're not going to drill oil here, it'll come 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:54.879 from somewhere else, so it'll just be perfectly substituted. And 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:58.720 because of that assumption, they say, well, there's no climate 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.560 impact from approving this project or disapproving it, because it's 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:03.040 going to be the same no matter what. And I 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:05.200 think that kind of flies in the face of basically 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:07.959 what the science has shown about oil markets, which is 0:24:07.960 --> 0:24:10.960 that there's not going to be one hundred percent new 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:12.840 oil coming on but it's not going to be zero 0:24:12.880 --> 0:24:14.600 percent either. It's going to be kind of somewhere in 0:24:14.640 --> 0:24:16.640 the middle, and a lot of the studies have kind 0:24:16.640 --> 0:24:19.880 of shown that it's roughlye around fifty percent of the 0:24:19.920 --> 0:24:22.320 oil will be replaced. But that means that building a 0:24:22.320 --> 0:24:26.840 pipeline like decode acxis is going to boost the oil supply, 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:30.280 It's going to boost oil consumption, and as a result, 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:34.639 is going to increase global greenhouse gas emissions. And obviously 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:37.199 we're at in a climate crisis and we simply just 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:42.159 can't do this anymore. We can't continue to be facilitating 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:44.560 more and more oil and gas extraction at a time 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:46.679 when we need to be using less of it. So 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:49.760 it's just like slamming on the brakes and the gas pedal. 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:51.840 At the same time, the courts in the last couple 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:54.919 of years have said that's not a good analysis, and 0:24:55.119 --> 0:24:57.240 any way, NEPA requires that you do more than that. 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:00.040 And then the other flaw I would say in this 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:04.760 particular analysis is they're kind of implicitly assuming a business 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:07.920 as usual baseline scenario where they're saying, oh, for decades 0:25:07.960 --> 0:25:10.040 to come, we're going to be using lots of oil. 0:25:10.119 --> 0:25:12.800 And I think, you know, there's already like countries are 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:16.520 pledging to do better on climate, there's a continuing conversation 0:25:16.600 --> 0:25:19.320 about how we're going to reduce emissions. I think it's 0:25:19.440 --> 0:25:21.800 just not credible to say that nothing is going to 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:24.320 happen over the next coupley Obviously we need to go faster, 0:25:24.800 --> 0:25:28.320 but neither we shouldn't also just be assuming that oil 0:25:28.359 --> 0:25:30.000 demand is going to stay high all the way out 0:25:30.200 --> 0:25:31.680 for you know, decades to come. 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:36.800 Across the room. I see Julie Fedorchak, a member of 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:40.880 the North Dakota Public Service Commission, which issued another key 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:44.560 permit for the pipeline, she's a reliable advocate for the 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:47.560 oil and gas industry, and I was curious what she'd 0:25:47.600 --> 0:25:50.440 say about the process, including how it handled the question 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:51.600 of climate impacts. 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:55.159 We had three public hearings, actually four if you consider 0:25:55.240 --> 0:26:00.000 the one for optimization, and you know, had a very 0:26:00.040 --> 0:26:03.080 exhausted review looking at all of the impacts to the 0:26:03.560 --> 0:26:07.159 environmental impacts, all the river crossings, all the water bodies, wetlands, 0:26:08.119 --> 0:26:16.040 cultural resources, unstable areas like the whole Gamut. So I 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.080 think that, you know, all of those reviews were done effectively, 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:22.440 and that's what the law requires, and so we need 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:23.440 to support the law. 0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:26.879 So I'm just curious about how that review process that 0:26:26.920 --> 0:26:30.480