By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Activists said Tuesday they have shut down pipelines carrying crude oil between Canada and the United States in protest of the construction of a new pipeline near a Native American reservation.
The climate activists manually shut off pipelines in the states of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Washington. By halting the pipelines that carry tar sand oil from Canada to the U.S., the activists said they were showing solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
“Activists employed manual safety valves, calling on President [Barack] Obama to use emergency powers to keep the pipelines closed and mobilize for the extraordinary shift away from fossil fuels now required to avert catastrophe,” activist Tim DeChristopher, the founder of the Climate Disobedience Center protest organization, said in an online statement.
Along with other tribes and activists, the Standing Rock Sioux has been protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAP), which would transport crude oil across four states.
The DAP, however, would run close to the tribe’s reservation and many worry it could potentially contaminate the area’s water supply.
Several energy companies targeted by protestors, including Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, said pipelines had been tampered with but were reopened.
The five activists who shut down the pipelines were arrested for tampering with the pipelines.
“Because of the climate change emergency, because governments and corporations have for decades increased fossil fuel extraction and carbon emissions when instead we must dramatically reduce carbon emissions; I am committed to the moral necessity of participating in nonviolent direct action to protect life,” said Leonard Higgens of Oregon.
Construction of the DAPL was halted in August after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the U.S. government. A federal court Sunday denied the tribe’s request for an injunction to continue to block construction.
