News that the Obama administration had stalled plans to drill an oil pipeline near the drinking water supply and sacred lands of North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux Tribe drew shouts of joy this week from protesters at the reservation and around the nation, including a bank branch in Amherst.
But the relief comes tinged with uncertainty, as President-elect Donald Trump — who has reported owning stock in the company building the Dakota Access pipeline — prepares to take office. Trump last week stated that he supports the pipeline, a stand his transition team insists “has nothing to do with his personal investments and everything to do with promoting policies that benefit all Americans.”
In a May 2015 filing, Trump reported owning between $500,000 and $1 million worth of stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s major architect. That stake had shrunk a year later and the Washington Post reported Tuesday that Trump may have sold off all his stock in this and other companies as he ramped up his presidential bid. But ETP’s chief executive officer was a major contributor to Trump’s campaign, so the president-elect is not exactly an impartial POTUS-to-be.
The pipeline may provide a first test of whether Trump is able to separate his financial interests from those of the nation he is about to lead. It will also provide an early glimpse into how he handles an issue that touches the vital topics of energy policy, environmental protection and respect for historically marginalized people.
At the very least, the decision announced Sunday by Jo-Ellen Darcy, an Army assistant secretary, should clear the way for a sometimes violent standoff between protesters and local law enforcement officials to end as winter winds scour the high plains. And we hope that Trump and the federal regulators who will soon report to him will give serious thought to alternative routes for the $3.7 billion pipeline.
“The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternative routes for the pipeline crossing,” Darcy said Sunday, a day before protesters had orders to vacate the land.
The pipeline is designed to carry as many as 550,000 barrels of fossil fuel a day from the oil fields of western North Dakota to an Illinois distribution terminal. Crossing four states, the 1,170-mile pipeline is almost complete — except for a section planned to pass underneath a section of the Missouri River dammed to form Lake Oahe.
Members of the Sioux tribe and an increasingly global roster of allies — including Pioneer Valley residents who traveled to North Dakota to join the frozen encampment — have argued that the plan to drill beneath the lake a half-mile away threatened the reservation’s drinking water supply and the tribe’s sacred lands.
As news of the federal decision spread, chants of “mni wichoni” — ”water is life” in Lakota Sioux — rose from the crowd at the Standing Rock encampment. It represented a dramatic victory for protesters who have clashed with local law enforcement officials who pelted them with tear gas and cold water sprayed in subfreezing temperatures.
Government and protest leaders alike hope that Sunday’s announcement will lead the crowds to disperse as winter settles in. But some protesters are vowing to stay to signal that the vigilance will not end. At a rally in front of the TD Bank on Triangle Street in Amherst Monday, activists sent a similar message.
Karen Levine, a 60-year-old acupuncturist and physician assistant, told Gazette staff writer Jack Suntrup that she withdrew her money from the branch because its national owner is helping to finance the project. While she said the people who work at the local branch are “lovely,” Levine said she wants to send a message to their corporate bosses.
The message may be getting through. TD makes a lot of money serving the generally liberal populations of college towns, and a spokeswoman said Monday, “we will continue to advocate that Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) engage in constructive dialogue and work toward a resolution with community members, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.”
We hope a similar spirit of reconciliation emanates from the Trump White House. It’s unlikely that the oil pipeline will be halted altogether, but its builders and government overseers have a duty to find a route that will respect the earth from which this energy flows — and the people who live upon it.