The newly inaugurated US president has issued an executive order to cancel the Canadian pipeline project approved by his predecessor. Joe Biden has said climate change will be a big focus of his presidency. Biden's executive order reverses former President Donald Trump's revival of the pipeline. Trump in 2017 reduced regulations that would otherwise slow building projects. Former President Barack Obama rejected the pipeline in 2015 saying it would "undercut" American leadership in the fight against global climate change. The completed segment of pipeline was to cover a 1,179-mile route from the province of Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska where it would have connected with the existing pipelines leading to the coast. It would have transported up to 830,000 barrels of heavy crude oil a day.
Montana tribal members, fearing water contamination, are relieved as the Keystone XL pipeline is blocked. When Cheyenne Foote heard that President Joe Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline permit on his first day in office, she cried. Foote, 68, is an elder of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, and she feared the pipeline, which passes through a portion of Montana near the Fort Peck Reservation, would contaminate the tribes' water supply. "Water is life," she said. "You can't live without water. The Creator gave it to us, and it's our job to take care of it."
Tribes in South Dakota have been opposed to and protesting the pipeline's construction for more than a decade. President of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Kevin Killer, said Wednesday night the cancellation of the pipeline permit "sends a strong message to tribal nations, and symbolizes a willingness to build on government-to-government relationships established through our treaties," referencing the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties of the Great Sioux Nation.
Chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Harold Frazier, said the project posed a danger to tribal land and people. "This project has scarred our territorial and treaty lands with its presence and threatened our people like a dagger to our throats," Frazier wrote Wednesday night. "We have witnessed the invasion of our land and the genocide of our families -- this project is an extension of the racial, environmental and social injustices we have suffered."
Indigenous justice organizer for the South Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Candi Brings Plenty, said Wednesday night Indigenous people have been at the forefront of the "fight for environmental justice and protection." The ACLU South Dakota intervened in a "riot boosting" bill last year. In March, Gov. Kristi Noem signed a revised version, which revived the state's criminal and civil penalties for rioting and inciting a riot. A federal judge said part of the state's laws were unconstitutional because they targeted those protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Lakota People's Law Project said Wednesday the decision to cancel the pipeline is a "pivot point" to recognize "the health of our Earth." Rescinding KXL's permit is a promising early signal that the new administration is listening to Native American concerns and will take issues of climate and Indigenous justice seriously. We have to insist that it not stop there. It's also high time to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). Tell president-elect Joe Biden to stop DAPL once and for all. Protect the planet and the Lakota people. No destruction of the earth. No endangering our water. Mni wiconi -- water is life. Sign the petition.
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