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[Update: On Dec. 6, a spokesman for Donald Trump told the press that he had sold all of his stock holdings in June.]
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered Dakota Access Pipeline protesters to leave the federal land they’ve been protesting on by December 5. The Army Corps manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the pipeline is located.
The Army Corps, citing increased violence between protesters and law enforcement personnel and increasingly harsh winter conditions, decided to close its land to the protesters who have been there since early April.
In a letter, the Army Corp’s district commander, Col. John Henderson, asked Standing Rock Sioux Tribal leader Dave Archambault to move from the property north of the Cannonball River. Henderson added that there are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where he said the Corps was establishing a free-speech zone. If activists remain they could face prosecution for trespassing.
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Despite the warning, protesters are vowing to stay.
Archambault and other protesters said on Saturday they planned to stay in the Oceti Sakowin camp, one of three camps near the construction site, which would have been shut down by the encampment. The camp currently has about 5,000 activists. Protesters added that the order would only increase tensions.
Archambault said the best thing the federal government could do for safety is deny the easement for the pipeline. "We have an escalating situation where safety is a concern for everybody,” he said. He added that the tribe would remain and exercise its First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Protesters claim the proposed pipeline poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.
What’s at stake?
At stake is the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP.
The underground Dakota Access Pipeline would transport 470,000 barrels per day of crude from Bakken oil fields to refineries and markets in the Midwest, East Coast and Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners claims the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments, in addition to adding between 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs.
Reuters said that the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline is mostly complete except for the segment planned to run under Lake Oahe less than half a mile north of Standing Rock.
Trump Wrinkle
President-elect Donald Trump owns stock in the company building the pipeline, something that protesters say could sway any decision the new president would have to make next year over its fate.
Trump has other financial interests in the pipeline. The Associated Press (AP) said that Trump’s most recent federal disclosure forms, filed in May, show he owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in stock in Energy Transfer Partners - down from between $500,000 and $1 million a year earlier.
Trump also holds between $100,000 and $250,000 in Phillips 66, which owns a 25% share of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Though these holdings are relatively small given his net worth of $3.7 billion, they do present a potential conflict of interest.
[Update: On Dec. 6, a spokesman for Donald Trump told the press that he had sold all of his stock holdings in June.]
"Trump's investments in the pipeline business threaten to undercut faith in this process, which was already frayed, by interjecting his own financial well-being into a much bigger decision," said Sharon Buccino, director of non-profit international environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. "This should be about the interests of the many, rather than giving the appearance of looking at the interests of a few — including Trump," she added.
Tossing it on the new president’s table
Earlier this month, the Obama administration said it wanted more study and tribal input before deciding whether to allow the partially built pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota. However, with less than two months before Trump will be sworn into office, the final decision on the disputed pipeline will likely be passed on to him.
The Dakota Access Pipeline, which intersects with Trump’s vast financial holdings, is likely to be the first of many similar conflicts of interest that will surface as the new billionaire president assumes office.
