Tribe 'running out of options' to stop pipeline, chairman says

CANNON BALL, N.D. - The leader of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is attempting to block the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota, said Wednesday the tribe is “running out of options” to stop the project after the company building it won federal permission to tunnel under the Missouri River.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that it has granted an easement to allow the installation of the pipeline under federal lands managed by the Corps at the Oahe Reservoir.
The easement is the final permit needed for the controversial pipeline after an order from President Donald Trump to expedite the project, despite opposition from Native American tribes and climate activists.
Legal experts say the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe faces long odds in convincing any court to halt the $3.8 billion pipeline, which could now begin operation as soon as June.
"We're running out of options, but that doesn't mean that it's over," David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "We're still going to continue to look at all legal options available to us."
Native American tribes and climate activists have vowed to fight the pipeline, fearing it will desecrate sacred sites and endanger drinking water. Supporters say the pipeline is safer than rail or trucks to transport the oil.
The 1,170-mile line will move crude from the shale oilfields of North Dakota to Illinois en route to the Gulf of Mexico, where many U.S. refineries are located.
Public opposition has drawn thousands of people to the North Dakota plains in recent months. Large protest camps popped up near the site, leading to several violent clashes and some 600 arrests.
The opposition sensed victory last year when the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, delayed completion of the pipeline pending a review of tribal concerns and in December ordered an environmental study.
But those fortunes were reversed after Trump, a Republican, took office on Jan. 20.
The tribe said Wednesday it would attempt to use a "legal battle and temporary restraining order" to shut down pipeline operations.
But Wayne D'Angelo, an energy and environmental lawyer with Kelley Drye & Warren in Washington, said he believed the Trump administration was on "pretty solid legal ground."
The tribe would have to prove a very difficult standard: that approval for the pipeline was "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion or inconsistent with the record before the agency," D'Angelo said.
The protest camps dwindled as the tribe urged people to leave due to concerns about trash buildup in a flood plain. But a few holdouts have remained, including some who braved subzero temperatures Wednesday.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, some 350 people converged in lower Manhattan, hoisting signs such as "Water is Life," "Dump Trump" and "Respect Native Sovereignty."
In states including Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, Native American groups said they will intensify efforts ranging from legal action, protests and legislative moves against both developing and existing energy projects.
"Indian tribes are not opposed to infrastructure ... we need roads and bridges and schools and hospitals just like everyone else. But tribes need to be respected as governments, and the process for infrastructure has to take our rights and interests into account," said National Congress of American Indians President Brian Cladoosby.
The Standing Rock Sioux, along with other tribes, have planned a march in Washington on March 10.