‘Monumental Victory’: Tribes and Climate Activists Celebrate Court-Ordered Shutdown of Dakota Access Pipeline
By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams
July 6, 2020
A U.S. district court on Monday delivered a major win to local Indigenous organizers and climate activists—and a significant blow to the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration—by ordering the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down and emptied of oil by Aug. 5 while federal regulators conduct an environmental review of the project.
DAPL, as the Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) pipeline is widely known, transports crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale basin to a terminal in Illinois. The pipeline has gained international notoriety in recent years due to protests—particularly on and around the Standing Rock Indian Reservation—by environmentalists and Native Americans who live along the route.