Pipeline anarchy
Trump win fuels
more rampant theft and destruction – and North Dakota citizens pay the price
Paul Driessen
Is this to be our future? Last week’s elections will soon end
autocratic rule via executive fiat, the war on coal and hydrocarbons, IRS agents
targeting conservative groups, government SWAT teams invading businesses
and homes,
and numerous other Abuses and Usurpations.
But now we’re getting leftist anarchy and riots – with mindless,
incoherent radicals smashing Portland storefronts,
beating a Chicago
motorist, and pummeling a ninth grade Woodside,
CA Trump supporter.
Amid it all, the epitome of nihilist, watermelon
environmentalist, criminal, sore-loser fury is raging south of Bismarck,
North Dakota, where thousands of “peaceful protesters” are camping illegally on
federal and private lands, “venting their anger” over the Dakota Access Pipe Line.
This $3.8-billion, 1,172-mile,
state-of-the-art, 30-inch conduit will carry 470,000 barrels of oil daily from
the state’s Bakken oil fields to Illinois. It’s about 85% complete, and the
only segment left to be finished in North Dakota is a 1,000-foot passage under
Lake Oahe, a manmade reservoir on the Missouri River. DAPL runs parallel to the
existing Northern
Border natural gas pipeline, through the same area and under the lake.
The pipeline would replace 700 railroad tanker cars or 2,000
semi-trailer highway tanker trucks per
day. It has created thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs. Bakken’s
light, sweet crude oil replaces imports, fuels our vehicles, powers our economy,
and provides raw materials for many essential products.
Since it is underground, once it is installed and grasses
are planted, the pipeline will be invisible except for occasional pumping
stations, valves and other facilities. Modern metals, warning systems,
automatic shutoff valves, 24/7/365 monitoring and other safeguards minimize
the risk of spills – and nearly 140 revisions rerouted the DAPL around populated
areas and sensitive ecological, archaeological, sacred and historic sites. The pipeline
is 99.98% on private land and is covered by easements and other agreements.
All these and other issues were
addressed repeatedly and thoughtfully during a three-year, 389-meeting review
and approval process. Landowners, communities, environmentalists and citizens
provided input, and 55 Native American groups were consulted. Prominent in their
refusal to participate were the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation is a half-mile
from Lake Oahe, where the pipeline is set to cross.
Only now are Standing Rock tribal leaders and members voicing
opposition. Not surprisingly, they have been joined by Indians from across
America, and by a motley assortment of activists, agitators and anarchists whom
friendly media and politicians insist on praising as “peaceful resisters” against
an industrial intrusion that “threatens” the climate, tribal culture, drinking
water, historic artifacts and sacred sites. A United Nations “special
rappoteur” on human rights claims law enforcement officials are using “violent”
tactics against arrested protesters and subjecting them to “inhuman and
degrading” conditions!
These claims are “tonka chesli” – Lakota for BS.
These thousands of militants are trespassing. They’ve wiped
out forage that ranchers were depending on to feed their cattle and bison
during fall and winter months. They blockade roads and rail lines, set fires to
make passage impossible, and harass
reporters who question their actions. One tried to shoot a deputy. They
have burned bridges, destroyed millions of dollars of construction equipment,
chased livestock until they lose their calves or die of exhaustion – and killed,
maimed or eaten cattle, horses and domesticated buffalo. They’ve promised
far more destructive actions, and even issued death threats against their
critics.
A favorite tactic employs “peaceful dissidents” and “prayer
groups” to block and distract ranchers and sheriff’s deputies from an area,
while others destroy nearby fence wire and posts. One rancher told me repairing
just the fence on the ranch where they graze buffalo will cost at least
$300,000 and weeks of hard work. The anarchists obviously don’t care about
innocent people who are caught in the middle.
Other ranchers’ lost forage and animals, time and fuel spent
on repairs, and other expenses will cost well over $500,000. No one has offered
any compensation, even though the militants have millions of dollars.
Washington Times journalist
Valerie Richardson reports that, as of November 1, the militants’ Sacred Stone
camp alone raised
$1.3 million for supplies on GoFundMe and $1.2 million on FundRazr for
legal defense. The Red Warrior Camp quickly collected $142,000 via GoFundMe and
$105,000 in legal defense cash on IndieGogo, even though the Standing Rock
council is frustrated and wants
them gone.
Rumors run rampant that the “protesters” are also raking in
bundles of welfare checks, plus “charitable and educational contributions” from
“progressive”
billionaires like Tom Steyer (coal), George Soros (currency speculation),
Warren Buffett (railroads and tanker cars); outfits they fund, such as the Tides
Foundation, 350.org, EarthJustice and Indigenous Environmental Network; and various
Russian, Saudi and other foreign
sources that would like to keep US oil and gas locked up.
Perhaps the abundant cash will attract corporate and pro
bono lawyers, legal foundations and attorneys general who can freeze the assets
and pursue individual or joint and several liability claims, plus punitive
damages, to compensate ranchers, other locals and companies – and dissuade
future lawlessness.
Last January, 26 peaceful ranchers who encamped on federal wildlife
refuge property in Oregon were arrested, one was shot and killed, and the
survivors were charged with, tried for (and found not guilty of) theft,
conspiracy and weapons violations. Many wonder why these North Dakota militants
and criminals are getting a free pass, glowing press coverage, and millions of
dollars from crime-financing enablers.
The nearly completed DAPL has to cross the river somewhere
and will pose the same low pollution risks wherever it goes. But it will be built
with the utmost care, with the best technologies and materials.
So what is actually driving these destructive, vindictive, violent
protests against this convenient “poster child” pipeline?
* True-believers are obsessed with “dangerous manmade
climate change” – to justify and obscure their real agenda: a new world economic
order to replace capitalism, global wealth redistribution, and UN control of development,
livelihoods and living standards, for rich, poor and emerging nations alike.
* The “keep it in the ground” anti-hydrocarbon movement prefers
blanketing the USA and planet with billions of solar panels, wind
turbines and biofuel fields, to produce expensive, subsidized, unreliable
energy – while killing birds, bats and other wildlife by the millions – rather
than producing affordable energy-dense fossil fuels from holes in the ground,
and transporting them by pipeline. (Standing
Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II supports much greater emphasis on renewable
energy.)
* Radical elements among
Native Americans (and Canadian Indigenous Peoples) want
to control the land, water, energy and lives of white people whose predecessors
took their ancestral lands. Their feelings are understandable. But imagine the
chaos this would cause and the precedent their success would set for Europe,
Latin America, China, Hawaii, the Middle East and
beyond, as PC politics rewrite history.
* The anarchists think they have a right to vilify and void
laws, processes, approvals and property rights – even threaten lives. 90% of
those arrested have been out-of-state agitators, and many get paid to raise
hell.
* And of course, they are outraged, inconsolable
and defiant over Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump.
They have no grasp of basic facts. Pipelines
are safer than trucks or rail cars. This low-pressure line is
state-of-the-art and will be monitored constantly and inspected regularly.
High-cost renewable energy impacts small businesses, hospitals, blue-collar
workers, and poor and minority families the hardest. And President Obama’s refusal
to accept a court order or speak out against the crime is fueling the insanity.
Hopefully, President Trump, governors, AGs, other elected
officials, and publicly spirited lawyers and judges will do the right thing:
shut these anarchists down, compensate ranchers and other victims – and award
punitive damages against the Big Green operatives who have caused so much
damage, under the guise of freedom of speech (for them only) and phony concern
for Native culture and the environment.
Then finish the pipeline, renew our focus on energy we can
count on, and put America back to work.
Paul
Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, and author of Eco-Imperialism:
Green power - Black death and other books on the environment.
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