Food & Water Watch: Who's Digging In On The Dakota Access Pipeline?

Food & Water Watch has published a significant update, and action alert, re: its watchdogging of the Dakota Access Pipeline's (DAPL) major investor, Enbridge Oil of Canada.

Enbridge is infamous, after it caused the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history: 1.4 million gallons of Canadian tar sands crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River in Marshall, MI in late July, 2010.

The Food & Water Watch update/action alert is sub-titled: Consolidation in the oil and gas industry, like the proposed Enbridge-Spectra merger, only increases the industry’s power to influence politicians and regulators.

Please take action, as Food & Water Watch urges at the links above, by contacting the U.S. Department of Justice, and urging it block the Enbridge-Spectra merger.

Unicorn Riot: "Water Protectors Blockade Highway in Bismarck, Some Charges Dropped"

Unicorn Riot is a volunteer-operated, horizontally-organized, non-profit media collective. It is actively researching the many ongoing court cases resulting from arrests of #NoDAPL water protectors in North Dakota. It will provide updated legal information as we receive it, and will continue to provide updates from the front lines.

Its latest coverage is entitled "Water Protectors Blockade Highway in Bismarck, Some Charges Dropped."

Note, however, that Unicorn Riot's coverage of the NoDAPL protests extend back to March, 2016 (see links at bottom of post, above).

Midwest Energy news headlines today on DAPL and other pipeline related matters

OIL AND GAS:
• Oil-by-rail shipments from the Midwest have plummeted as North Dakota’s oil production falls to a two-year low. (LaCrosse Tribune)
• A North Dakota facility that treats oilfield waste is shutting down due to ongoing permit violations. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Plans for a new natural gas plant in southern Michigan are revived. (South Bend Tribune)

PIPELINES:
• Federal officials say shortfalls still exist in Enbridge’s emergency response plan should an oil spill occur in the Straits of Mackinac. (MLive)
• Another 14 protesters are arrested in North Dakota over the weekend at Dakota Access pipeline protests. (Bismarck Tribune)
• Law enforcement authorities are closely watching Dakota Access pipeline protesters. (EnergyWire)

BREAKING NEWS: North Dakota Prosecutor Seeks "Riot" Charges Against Amy Goodman For Reporting On Pipeline Protests

Breaking news from Democracy Now!:

North Dakota Prosecutor seeks “riot” charges against Amy Goodman

New charges have been filed against Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman for filming the attack on Dakota Access Pipeline protesters.

Bismarck, North Dakota—A North Dakota state prosecutor has sought to charge award-winning journalist Amy Goodman with participating in a “riot”  for filming an attack on Native American-led anti-pipeline protesters. The new charge comes after the prosecutor dropped a previous criminal trespassing charge against Goodman.

State’s Attorney Ladd R. Erickson filed the new charges on Friday, October 14 with District Judge John Grinsteiner, who will decide on Monday, October 17 whether probable cause exists for the riot charge.

Amy Goodman has traveled to North Dakota to face the charges and will appear at Morton County court on Monday October 17, at 1:30 pm local time (CDT) if the charges are approved.

In an e-mail to Goodman’s attorney Tom Dickson on October 12, State’s Attorney Erickson admitted that there were "legal issues with proving the notice of trespassing requirements in the statute."

The charge in State of North Dakota v. Amy Goodman stems from Democracy Now!’s coverage of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline.

On Saturday, September 3, Democracy Now! filmed security guards working for the pipeline company attacking protesters. The report showed guards unleashing dogs and using pepper spray and featured people with bite injuries and a dog with blood dripping from its mouth and nose.

Click here to see Democracy Now!'s exclusive report, which went viral online—it was viewed more than 14 million times on Facebook and was rebroadcast on many outlets, including CBS, NBC,NPR, CNN, MSNBC and the Huffington Post.

On September 8th, a criminal complaint and warrant was issued for Amy Goodman's arrest on the trespassing charge.

"I came back to North Dakota to fight a trespass charge. They saw that they could never make that charge stick, so now they want to charge me with rioting, " said Goodman. "I wasn’t trespassing, I wasn’t engaging in a riot, I was doing my job as a journalist by covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

“Filming Native Americans being violently attacked as they defend their land is not rioting, it’s called journalism, it is protected by the First Amendment, and indeed, it is an essential function in a democratic society,” said Professor Katherine Franke, Chair of the Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

The pipeline project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of over 100 other tribes from across the U.S., Canada and Latin America.  Click here to see our complete coverage of the pipeline and the protests.

Tune in Monday to Democracy Now! (stream live at democracynow.org at 8am ET or check your local listings for broadcast times) and look for updates on our website at DemocracyNow.org.

Update on October 15, 2016 by admin

Lizzy Ratner in The Nation has published an article, "Amy Goodman Is Facing Prison for Reporting on the Dakota Access Pipeline. That Should Scare Us All."

Josh Fox, famed filmmaker of Gasland and Gasland II, also published an article at The Nation, "The Arrest of Journalists and Filmmakers Covering the Dakota Pipeline Is a Threat to Democracy—and the Planet."

Fox himself was arrested while filming for his documentary Gaslands II -- arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police on the Hill, by orders of a pro-fracking committee chairman, at a supposedly public hearing.

Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone has also published a powerful defense of Amy Goodman's 1st Amendment right to practice "freedom of the press" journalism.

Senators Ask President to Halt Construction of Dakota Access Pipeline

As posted on the website of U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA):

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 – Senators Edward J. Markey, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.) sent a letter to President Barack Obama Thursday requesting the administration halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline until affected tribes are consulted and a full environmental review is conducted.

“In light of the decision of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for a temporary halt to construction, the project’s current permits should be suspended and all construction stopped until a complete environmental and cultural review has been completed for the entire project,” the senators wrote. 

Over the past several weeks, hundreds of Native American tribes have mobilized to draw attention to the pipeline’s encroachment on sacred lands, bringing about a groundswell of opposition to the project.

“Until there has been full and meaningful tribal consultation, all pipeline permits and easements should be revoked or denied,” the members wrote.

The Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Army Corps of Engineers previously requested that the pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, halt construction while an environmental and cultural impact review was conducted. The pipeline company declined to stop the project, and a federal circuit court gave a partial emergency injunction to halt construction. After hearing the full injunction argument, the court denied the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s request to halt the project, a ruling that was affirmed Saturday by a federal appeals court.

The president can order the Army Corps to conduct a full review of the pipeline.

“If there is one profound lesson that indigenous people have taught us, it is that all of us as human beings are part of nature,” the senators wrote. “We will not survive if we continue to destroy nature.”

Click HERE to read the letter.