STANDING ROCK RECUT (PATERSON/INSIDE ENERGY)
CREDITS:
Alisa Barba (Executive Editor)
Brian Malone (Director & Editor)
Leigh Paterson (Correspondent & Producer)
Michiel Pilgram (WNET Editor)
Tom Ritzenthaler (Associate Producer)
ON
JANUARY 24TH, PRESIDENT TRUMP SIGNED A MEMORANDUM TO APPROVE THE CONTROVERSIAL
DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE, WHICH IS DESIGNED TO CARRY NORTH DAKOTA OIL THROUGH THE
DAKOTAS AND IOWA TO AN EXISTING PIPELINE IN ILLINOIS. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FROZE THE PROJECT
DURING ITS LAST MONTH IN OFFICE FOLLOWING MONTHS OF PROTESTS AT THE SITE.
“INSIDE ENERGY,” A PUBLIC MEDIA COLLABORATION FOCUSED ON AMERICA’S ENERGY
ISSUES, HAS BEEN COVERING THE STORY FROM THE BEGINNING AND HAS PRODUCED A
DOCUMENTARY CALLED “BEYOND STANDING ROCK” IN CONJUNCTION WITH ROCKY MOUNTAIN
PUBLIC TELEVISION THAT WILL BE AIRING ON PBS STATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY
STARTING IN MARCH. FROM THAT FILM, REPORTER LEIGH PATERSON HAS THIS STORY OF
WHAT HAPPENED AND WHY.
PROTESTER: “It is our duty to fight
for our freedom! It is our duty to win!’
LEIGH PATERSON: The protesters came
from all over the country to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline. For many this is
a fight over clean water. For others it’s a fight against big oil and climate
change. For the Standing Rock Sioux it’s a fight for control.
KEVIN WASHBURN: Tribes are flexing
their muscle. They are sovereign nations and they have the ability to get
engaged.
LEIGH
PATERSON: Misinformation, emotion, and confusion
surrounded these protests. More than 600 protesters have been arrested.
JON MOLL: It’s kind of turned
unfortunately into kind of a small truly peaceful protest, Native American
movement, into a big white hippie Burning Man on the plains of North Dakota in
the middle of winter.
JULIE FEDORCHAK: Sometimes people
just say, like, they're opposed to pipeline development, and they're opposed to
pipelines. Well, that's fine, and they're entitled to their opinion, but
pipeline development is legally permissible in North Dakota, and we're
obligated to enforce the laws. So when a company meets the conditions set by
law for a permit, they receive one.
LEIGH
PATERSON: The standoff here was brought on by a
convergence of issues: tribal sovereignty, energy infrastructure, environmental
activism, and Federal Law.
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: We’re a
sovereign nation, and we’re putting our foot down, and you can’t do this to us
anymore. In the past the Federal Government steamrolled through us and did
everything that they wanted to do without giving us an opportunity to have any
consent or consultation.
LEIGH PATERSON: The Dakota Access
Pipeline stretches for nearly 12-hundred miles...completely buried underground.
LEIGH PATERSON: The Dallas-based
pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, says it’s a nearly four billion
dollar project. The company declined Inside Energy’s request to be interviewed.
But it has argued that the pipeline is the best way to move crude oil from the
Bakken region of North Dakota to market. Last month, Energy Transfer Partners
posted this video on YouTube explaining the project’s merits.
VIDEO: “Pipelines are the safest,
environmentally cleanest, and least expensive way to transport the fuel that
our communities need.”
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: We can look at
this pipeline and say that it puts our water at risk. We could also take a look
at what it also puts at risk. It puts our sacred sites at risk.
LEIGH PATERSON: The controversy has
centered on the only incomplete section of the pipeline. Energy Transfer
Partners says there is one thousand 94 feet left to build. A stretch that’s
around three football fields long that crosses under the Missouri River, just
north of the reservation.
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: It’s not if it
will break it’s a matter of when it will break and where it’s gonna break and
if it breaks under this river, it puts us at risk.
TROY EID: I would counter that the
pipeline safety record in this country for crude oil pipelines is incredibly
strong.
LEIGH PATERSON: The U.S. produces
billions of barrels of crude oil a year. Much of it travels through a vast
pipeline network that’s tens of thousands of miles long.
TROY EID: We’ve had very few issues
with natural gas, crude oil, and other kinds of pipeline infrastructure in the
United States. It is a very high risk, low probability scenario in this country
for a pipeline failing, so you’ve got to put that on the table.
LEIGH PATERSON: Nearly all of the
oil moved by pipeline arrives at its destination safely. But it’s the fraction
of a percent that’s spilled that can have devastating effects.
JULIE FEDORCHAK: I'm a North Dakota
citizen. I don't want these pipelines spilling into our waters and on our land
and ruining our beautiful landscape in North Dakota either.
LEIGH PATERSON: Beginning in the
spring of 2015, the North Dakota Public Service Commission held three public
hearings on the Dakota Access Pipeline route. None of those hearings were on
the Standing Rock reservation, because the pipeline wouldn’t actually cross it.
JULIE FEDORCHAK: So I had no idea
that this was a concern to the Standing Rock members or the tribal council at
all.
LEIGH PATERSON: The state is not the
only party that had to sign off on the pipeline. The Federal Government, in
this case, the Army Corps of Engineers was also charged with permitting certain
sections and consulting with the tribe.
TROY EID: Consultation, as we
understand it in Federal Law, doesn’t say tribes can block every project. What
it says is that they have a seat at the table as a government to express a
point of view and that you can’t ignore that.
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II: Every time we
called and every time we talked to the Corps of Engineers we said, ‘This is not
consultation, and we don’t agree with this pipeline. Can we take a step back
and start over?’ And the Corps of Engineers says, ‘Well, we called them, we
emailed them, we called Chairman Archambault’s office.’ Every time we didn’t
agree with what they were doing. But that’s not heard. So we don’t get listened
to, we don’t get heard. Check off the box. ‘We talked to the tribe.’
LEIGH PATERSON: The Dakota Access
Pipeline is not the first controversial piece of infrastructure to cross this
land. In the mid-20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers created dams up and
down the Missouri River as part of a large flood control and hydropower
project.
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY: “Here in
this state, there is being built the largest dam of its kind in the world. It
is a source of pleasure to me as President therefore to come here on this
occasion.”
LEIGH PATERSON: Villages were
flooded, including an area where many Standing Rock Sioux had made their homes.
This dam created Lake Oahe, flooding over 50 thousand acres on the reservation
in both North Dakota and South Dakota, driving families out.
LEIGH
PATERSON: President Obama visited Standing Rock in
2014. It was his first visit to a reservation as president. And it was the
first time any sitting US president had visited the reservation.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: “To build
more economic opportunity in Indian country, because every American including
every Native American deserves a chance to work hard and get ahead.”
LEIGH PATERSON: Following President
Obama’s 2014 visit, the Dakota Access pipeline protests grew and energized the
Standing Rock Sioux. After the Army Corps announced last July, that most of the
Dakota Access Pipeline route had been approved, the tribe filed suit in federal
court in Washington D.C claiming the consultation process was “fundamentally
flawed.”
LEIGH PATERSON: The tribe also
argued the pipeline’s impact on historic properties was not properly considered
in the permitting process. Federal law requires that, even if the affected
property falls outside of reservation boundaries.
LEIGH PATERSON: The Army Corps
disputed the tribe’s claim. Last September, the U.S. District Judge James
Boasberg ruled on the tribe’s request to halt construction. The Standing Rock
Sioux lost, but the Obama Administration stepped in and put the project on
hold.
TROY EID: I think it’s unprecedented
in terms of energy development in this country, that you’d actually have the
government’s lawyers, join in a statement, after they lost in court the same
day, that they’d go out and say, ‘By the way we’re pausing this project.’ They
didn’t convince the judge, so they did something else.
LEIGH PATERSON: Three months later,
as fall turned to winter, the protests continued to grow. Then the Obama
Administration blocked the final permit needed to build under the river.
PROTEST ANNOUNCEMENT: The Corps of
Engineers is gonna deny the easement!”
LEIGH PATERSON: For the protesters
and the tribe, it felt like victory. But it would be short-lived.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: “This is with respect to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.”
LEIGH
PATERSON: Seven weeks later, on his fifth day in
office, President Trump issued an executive memorandum instructing the Army
Corp of Engineers to expedite the permitting process. Just last week, by order
of North Dakota’s Governor, protesters left their camps near the pipeline site.
Before going, some burned their tents and other structures. Police arrested
dozens of protesters that defied the order and forcibly removed them.
###
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER THIRD |
1 |
0:29 |
KEVIN WASHBURN FMR. Assis. Secretary
for Indian Affairs, Bureau of the interior |
2 |
0:44 |
JON MOLL Deputy, Morton
County Sheriff’s Department |
3 |
0:57 |
JULIE FEDORCHAK North Dakota Public
Service Commission |
4 |
1:26 |
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II Chairman, Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe |
5 |
2:57 |
TROY EID Former U.S. Attorney
for Colorado |
6 |
3:39 |
JULIE FEDORCHAK North Dakota Public
Service Commission |
7 |
4:34 |
DAVE ARCHAMBAULT II Chairman, Standing
Rock Sioux Tribe |
8 |
7:06 |
TROY EID Former U.S. Attorney
for Colorado |