Central ND News

The head of the League of American Workers (LAW) said that Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protestors were “radicals” who threatened North Dakota jobs and prosperity.

“Pipelines are a key to the prosperity of North Dakota, and all of America,” Steve Cortes, president and founder of LAW, told Central ND News. “Radicals want to shut down the responsible drilling and safe transporting of fossil fuels, even though American domestic energy is a crucial foundation for US security and success.”

“The extremists who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline threatened North Dakota jobs and left North Dakotans with the bill for policing and cleanup," said Cortes.

The DAPL is a 1,172-mile underground oil pipeline in the United States, running from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois. It was completed in 2017 and transports approximately 570,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It was constructed to provide a more efficient and cost-effective method of transporting crude oil from the Bakken oil fields to refineries in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Before the pipeline, oil from this region was primarily transported by rail, which is more expensive and poses a higher risk of spills and accidents.

The DAPL protests of 2016 and 2017 aimed to halt the construction of the reported $3.8 billion pipeline and “drew thousands of people to camp out” in Morton County, the Associated Press reported.

The protests resulted in 761 arrests, according to MPR News. Charges ranged from trespassing to more severe offenses. A significant number of those arrested were from out of state.

California resident and actress Shailene Woodley was arrested in October 2016. Other figures, including actors Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio, participated in the protests but were not arrested.

Certain days of the protests resulted in dozens of arrests, such as February 1, 2017, when 76 people were arrested after Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Rob Keller said a “rogue group of protesters” had trespassed on private property.

The State of North Dakota is currently suing the federal government to “recoup $38 million it claims it spent policing the protest camps,” Source NM reported.

Attorneys for North Dakota reportedly argued in court records that the protests “resulted from an illegal occupation on federal lands and led to ‘frequent outbreaks of illegal, dangerous, unsanitary, and life-threatening activity on federal, state and private property.’”

North Dakota Special Assistant Attorney General Paul Seby said in court that the aftermath of the protests “required a four-day cleanup of the camp and 600 bins to remove 9.8 million pounds of trash,” according to MPR News.

Former Morton County Commissioner Cody Schulz, who is now the director of the North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department, said in court that, “beyond the drain on law enforcement, the protests caused a range of impacts on Morton County — everything from minor inconveniences like sluggish traffic to damage to private property,” Source NM reported.

Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the pipeline, has filed a $300 million lawsuit in state court against the environmental activist organization Greenpeace for its role in the protests. The suit says Greenpeace “should be held responsible for trying to disrupt pipeline construction and damage the company’s reputation and finances,” the Associated Press reported. 

That lawsuit, and an attempted settlement, led to the recent ouster of Greenpeace’s Executive Director Ebony Twilley Martin, said the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Greenpeace.

Willem van Rijn, the group’s COO until April 2024, told E&E News that “Twilley Martin ‘advocated a way in which the organization would settle for a minor amount of money so that we could fight another day,’” and that the “board vehemently disagreed.”

Greenpeace last week launched a fundraising campaign to “raise awareness” of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed by Energy Transfer Partners in Morton County District Court is currently pending.

Cortes is a political advisor and commentator. He previously traded global currencies and interest rates for 25 years for large international hedge funds. He has been an on-air broadcaster for CNBC, Fox News, and CNN. Cortes founded LAW in 2022 to conduct research and develops proposals on public policies impacting American workers and the economy.

Founded in 2022 by political strategist and commentator Steve Cortes, LAW conducts research and develops proposals on public policies impacting American workers and the economy.