The Dakota Access Pipeline protest came to Boulder on Tuesday as more than 200 activists rallied in sympathy with protesters at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, with a man and woman locking themselves to the entrance of the Wells Fargo Bank on the Pearl Street Mall.
The Boulder demonstration was part of a national day of action staged across the country by those seeking to put pressure on the Army Corps of Engineers to call a halt to the 1,174-mile, $3.7 billionDakota Access Pipeline, which would cross four states and go just past the northeast corner of the Standing Rock Sioux land.
On Monday, the Army Corps of Engineers dealt a blow to the pipeline’s immediate progress. It issued a letter saying that more analysis and discussion with the tribe is needed before it can grant an easement enabling Houston-based Energy Transfer Partners to drill under Lake Oahe, on the Missouri River, to complete the pipeline on its proposed route.
But activists who gathered on the Pearl Street Mall on Tuesday — including many who have participated in the months-long protests in North Dakota, or who plan to go there soon — don’t want delays. They want the project shuttered.
Payu Harris, who claims residence in both Rapid City, S.D., and Boulder, has been at Standing Rock the last few months. But he is in Boulder briefly to help organize another shipment of supplies to protesters settling in for a long, hard winter in North Dakota.
He said last week’s election of Donald Trump, who campaigned as an ally to extraction-oriented energy businesses, creates an interesting challenge for environmentalists.
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