Opponents of the controversial Virginia pipeline projects joined a rally in Richmond on Tuesday as part of a national day of action to call on President Obama to permanently reject the Dakota Access Pipeline. The rally was one of over 100 across the country to show solidarity with Native Americans and other Indigenous leaders protesting the controversial project.
“We’re proud to stand in solidarity with the indigenous leaders in North Dakota who are leading the fight against this climate disaster,” said Glen Besa, former director of the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, which organized the Richmond event. “The struggle against the fossil fuel industry for the fate of our planet is one that affects all of us. Many Virginia communities have pipelines, fracking wells, or other fossil fuel infrastructure they’re struggling against in their own backyard. To see such deep and powerful opposition at Standing Rock is in inspiration for us all.”
“Citizens across Virginia see a connection between the Dakota Access Pipeline and their own local struggles against Dominion Virginia Power’s Atlantic Coast and the Mountain Valley Pipelines,” said Besa. “That is why we organized this demonstration in front of Dominion’s office building.
“We see the fight here in Virginia as connected to the struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline,” said Besa. “All these projects will have a serious impact on communities and the climate. People all across the country know that the only way to address the climate crisis is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Our solidarity makes us stronger.”
One of the largest rallies of the day took place in Washington, D.C. where Senator Bernie Sanders joined indigenous leaders to address people outside the White House. Over the last week, hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions calling on President Obama to reject the Dakota Access pipeline once and for all.
On Friday, the Federal Government took a first, surprise step in that direction. Just hours after a federal court denied a request by a Tribal Governments to stop construction on the pipeline, the Department of Justice, Department of Interior, and Department of the Army intervened, saying construction must stop on Army Corps of Engineers land until a more thorough and proper consultation with Native American tribes could take place. Now, groups are calling on President Obama to go a step further and reject the project once and for all.
The controversial Dakota Access pipeline would carry 450,000 barrels of oil through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois — cutting through communities, farms, sensitive natural areas, wildlife habitat, and tribal lands, including the Standing Rock Sioux’s ancestral lands that are within half a mile of its current route.1
“Not only would the Dakota Access fracked oil pipeline threaten sacred sites and culturally important landscapes, it would also cross under the Missouri River just upstream of the Tribe’s drinking water supply, where an oil spill would pose a serious threat to the Tribe’s health, culture, and way of life,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the national Sierra Club. Despite these risks to the Tribe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved this project without sufficient consultation with the Standing Rock Sioux, using a technicality that allowed them not to consider the potential impacts of an oil spill.
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