WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th July, 2020) Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier in a statement on Monday said the Dakota Access pipeline controversy shows the power of money in US government.
Earlier in the day, a US court ruled that the Dakota Access pipeline must shut down by August 5 pending additional environmental review.
"I applaud the actions of the US District Court in finding what we knew all along, that this pipeline, like many other actions taken by the US government, is in fact illegally operating," Fraizer said in the statement. "The fact that this operation had been operating illegally for three years before this conclusion was finally made shows you the power that money holds on the American government."
Fraizer added that it is time to put people before profit and to seriously consider the impact the pipeline project brings to the environment.
The Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes had taken the US Army Corps of Engineers and the pipeline's parent company Energy Transfer Partners to court for constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline to pass through their sacred land and threaten vital water resources.
The $3.7 billion pipeline was subject to continual protests from 2016 to 2017, which resulted in law enforcement using force against protesters in order to allow construction of the pipeline to be completed.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is used to move some 570,000 barrels of oil per day from North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
