Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier received notice from TransCanada yesterday that the Canadian company will begin prepping construction sites for the Keystone XL pipeline in Montana and South Dakota this summer. TransCanada indigenous relations senior manager Nadine Busmann says this prep work “will position us to begin primary construction in 2019, assuming receipt of final permits and approvals.” Busmann also promises to continue dialogue with Tribal Nations:
TransCanada recognizes Tribal Nations as rightsholders who have a distinct relationship to the land. We appreciate the concern that local Tribal leadership and community members may have with the increased activities throughout Montana and South Dakota, and welcome the opportunity to discuss further. We also remain committed to creating opportunities for an open dialogue with you, your representatives and Tribal members to discuss potential opportunities for participation in the project, and to address any questions.
I invite you to contact Scott Coburn, Indigenous Relations US Team Lead, at scott_coburn@transcanada.com if you have any questions or to arrange a meeting [Nadine Busmann, TransCanada, letter to CRST Chairman Harold Frazier, 2018.07.11, posted by Chairman Frazier to Twitter, 2018.07.12].
Chairman Frazier responds succinctly:
“You are not welcome on our treaty territory,” Chairman Frazier Tweets to TransCanada under his public posting of these letters. Chairman Frazier’s response suggests that by next year, we’ll be testing out 2017 Senate Bill 176, Governor Dennis Daugaard’s protest-crackdown bill. Keep an eye out for the “temporary no parking zone” signs that legislation now authorizes in SDCL 32-30-2.4.
Maybe protestors ought to start laying barriers and burned vehicles and other appurtenances in preparation for actual protests to begin next year.
Maybe a large tent camp on the proposed route. Sauce for the goose…..
Kristi wants to be Governor over seven Indian tribes in South Dakota. Chairmn Frazier has spine. We are behind the tribes!!
(Corey, are SDCL 32-30-2.4. and SB 176 the same thing? Didn’t ND make this a felony? I understand some of the hundreds arrested a Cannonball have been convicted. https://waterprotectorlegal.org/)
Thune, Rounds and Noem are complicit in the following truth:
“the White House is already pushing back, claiming the indictment [of 12 Russian military hack July 27,2016] “is consistent with what we have been saying all along.” (Thune was in the Kremlin a week ago, sitting next to Alabama and Wisconsin clown Senators who may as well have given Putin permission to keep screwing our Democracy; Thune said the hack was a confusing nothing burger against both parties-Geez??)
Hint: “Donald Trump invited Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails on Wednesday, asking one of America’s longstanding geopolitical adversaries to find “the 30,000 emails that are missing” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/russia-hack-clinton-emails-mueller-probe-indictment-trump-latest-a8446626.html
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/13/17568854/mueller-russia-indictment-trump-putin
having been briefed of the upcoming indictments, trump landed in London and proceeded to create chaos to distract from the fatal wound he knew was coming from Rod Rosenstein’s briefing days earlier!! Complete, incompetent, criminal clown, this orange blimp guy.
http://thehill.com/homenews/the-memo/396979-memo-trump-leaves-chaos-in-his-wake-in-uk
At the same time Trey Goudy’s house committee acted like complete Republican clowns. More distraction. These guys, THE GOP, are going down. They know it. They are trying to steal as much as possible before the other shoe drops. Two SCOTUS picks. Wow!
RISE UP DEMOCRATS. HANG complicit THUNE, ROUNDS AND NOEM’S HEADS FROM PIKES (METEPHORICALLY)!
Two questions come to mind.
1.) Would potential protesters /protectors consider making the project safer by helping to monitor the pipeline or take air/water/soil measurements before/during/after?
2.) If there is a protest, will any transportation to and from said protest, and any energy used in any camp, be powered by carbon-free energy only?
Patronizing, Doc, with all due respect. Protesters couldn’t take the train under your insulting hypothetical? We hold you to a higher standard, unless you don’t believe in global warming science.
However I am nearly certain the Tribes would happily over take EPA duties to monitor AND enforce to keep this huge tribal water resource clean. They all have environmental departments. Stopping it is better than regulating it. We’ve pivoted from fossil fuels, as a nation. You may remember the Paris Climate Agreement the world signed on to. Keep up. You saw what happened to Pruitt. The people know when they are getting screwed by corporate “experts”. Its the PUC that won’t recognize it.
Sorry, but we haven’t pivoted from fossil fuels. 80-90% of our total energy still comes from fossil fuels. In fact, our dependence on fossil fuels is just different with renewables due to the reliance upon natural gas.
And if current trends continue, the renewable/gas combo will one day emit more total carbon than we do now. Only the percentage of carbon-emitting energy will be less.
No, they could take an electric train powered by hydro. That would be OK. They could drive electric vehicles and recharge them with wind/solar/hydro. They could walk or march.
Show everyone that the alternatives work! If you really want their investment in the pipelines to sour, don’t use the fuel to go to the protest (or the protection session).
I guess you can’t do 100% biofuel, but we’ll give E85 vehicles a pass here.
And you could recharge all those electric vehicles and power the electric trains with nuclear too ;^). All aboard!
The whole thing strikes me as another repeal and replace exercise, only this time with fossil fuels instead of Obamacare.
In both cases, the proponents of repeal really want it to happen as a matter of principle. The practicalities are less important.
In both cases, the effort to repeal suffers if the replacement either does not exist, is not feasible, or it generates significant unintended consequences.
However, the good news is that the effort to repeal would be strengthened if a viable alternative were to work in a pilot study. That is all that I am saying.
Robert, I’m willing to bet that if they had access and infrastructure for such transport, that’s what they’d do.
How much jurisdiction does the state have on the res? Does SouDakota have the right to enforce SDCL 32-30-2.4 on the res? I’d enjoy seeing tens of thousands of people there, physically in the way. I’d also like to see the referenced law struck down as impinging on free speech.
Native Americans have more right not to trust the Fed because of all the broken treaties in the past. They have even more right not to believe what this EPA under Drumpf tells them.
The new gut in charge says he will carry out Drumpf’s mission, which means this pipeline will be built if it means the presence of military troops to keep protesters at bay. Troops are not to be used as police officers, but Drumpf can’t read or comprehend.
I suspect, before the day is done, protecting Trash-Cans bottom line will become a national security priority in Drumpf’s eyes and inhabitants of any Rez will be forced onto a new Rez somewhere else.
I agree with you Debbo that they would if the infrastructure existed.
However, while the wind and the sun are free, the infrastructure to capture it, convert it into electricity, transmit it, store it, provide the critical elements that are necessary, and then provide all the power that people demand whenever they want it is definitely NOT free.
The pipelines would go away if the better option in performance and cost existed.
Pipelines will rot in the ground and continue pollution for longer than any of us live and then some. I wonder how many older ones are leaking as we speak. You know they are not being monitored. Costs too much profit.
But that is cheaper than investing in the infrastructure necessary to power an electric vehicle at home.
And guess what kind of battery is likely to be used a lot for home storage? Lead batteries. Because they cost less up front and can be recycled into new batteries (unlike wind turbine blades which cannot be recycled into new wind turbine blades).
While lithium performs better, it is more expensive. Furthermore, the article below doesn’t even talk about Lithium-ion batteries being recycled.
https://www.solarreviews.com/blog/are-li-ion-or-lead-acid-batteries-are-better-for-home-energy-storage
We need something in-between…the performance of lithium-ion with the ability to be recycled into new batteries.
Debbo, state jurisdiction on the rez is questionable. But don’t forget, TransCanada cleverly routed Keystone XL to skirt the reservations.
I read today there is such a glut of Permian and Bakken oil that pipelines can’t handle it all and storage is full. So why, with such a glut is gasoline going up and staying up?
Geopolitical jitters affect speculation on the future availability of resources traded in global markets.
Although the contribution of steel to the cost of a can of soup is small, the speculation about steel tariffs can have a much larger impact.
Ukraine wants to connect with the EU through Poland, which in effect could serve as a hedge against natural gas from Russia.
“Almost 56% of energy production in Ukraine comes from nuclear power and Ukraine can also store about 31 billion cubic metres of gas. Ukraine is calling for joint work on the creation of an energy hub in Central Europe…”.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP-Ukraine-discusses-energy-bridge-with-European-Parliament-16071801.html
An energy hub in central Europe sounds like a really smart plan. I’m not too confident of Poland’s government though. Slovakia or Czechia?