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Controversial Dakota pipeline to go ahead after Army approval

north dakota national guard near dakota access pipeline

By Valerie Volcovici and Ernest Scheyder

WASHINGTON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army will grant the final permit for the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline after an order from President Donald Trump to expedite the project despite opposition from Native American tribes and climate activists.

In a court filing on Tuesday, the Army said that it would allow the final section of the line to tunnel under North Dakota’s Lake Oahe, part of the Missouri River system. This could enable the $3.8 billion pipeline to begin operation as soon as June.

Energy Transfer Partners <ETP.N> is building the 1,170-mile (1,885 km) line to help move crude from the shale oilfields of North Dakota to Illinois en route to the Gulf of Mexico, where many U.S. refineries are located.

Protests against the project last year drew drew thousands of people to the North Dakota plains including Native American tribes and environmental activists, and protest camps sprung up. The movement attracted high-profile political and celebrity supporters.

The permit was the last bureaucratic hurdle to the pipeline’s completion, and Tuesday’s decision drew praise from supporters of the project and outrage from activists, including promises of a legal challenge from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

“It’s great to see this new administration following through on their promises and letting projects go forward to the benefit of American consumers and workers,” said John Stoody, spokesman for the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.

The Standing Rock Sioux, which contends the pipeline would desecrate sacred sites and potentially pollute its water source,

vowed to shut pipeline operations down if construction is completed, without elaborating how it would do so. The tribe called on its supporters to protest in Washington on March 10 rather than return to North Dakota.

“As Native peoples, we have been knocked down again, but we will get back up,” the tribe said in the statement. “We will rise above the greed and corruption that has plagued our peoples since first contact. We call on the Native Nations of the United States to stand together, unite and fight back.”

Former President Barack Obama’s administration last year delayed completion of the pipeline pending a review of tribal concerns and in December ordered an environmental study.

Less than two weeks after Trump ordered a review of the permit request, the Army said in a filing in District Court in Washington D.C. it would cancel that study. The final permit, known as an easement, could come in as little as a day, according to the filing.

There was no need for the environmental study as there was already enough information on the potential impact of the pipeline to grant the permit, Robert Speer, acting secretary of the U.S. Army, said in a statement.

Trump issued an order on Jan. 24 to expedite both the Dakota Access Pipeline and to revive another controversial multibillion dollar oil artery: Keystone XL. Obama’s administration blocked that project in 2015.

At the Dakota Access construction site, law enforcement and protesters clashed violently on several occasions throughout the fall. More than 600 people were arrested, and police were criticized for using water cannons in 25-degree Fahrenheit (minus 4-degree Celsius) weather against activists in late November.

“The granting of an easement, without any environmental review or tribal consultation, is not the end of this fight,” said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the primary groups protesting the line.

“It is the new beginning. Expect mass resistance far beyond what Trump has seen so far.”

LEGAL CHALLENGE TOUGH

Any legal challenge is likely to be a difficult one for pipeline opponents as presidential authority to grant such permits is generally accepted in the courts. The tribe said in a statement the decision “wrongfully terminated” environmental study of the project.

Deborah Sivas, professor of environmental law at Stanford and director of Stanford’s Environmental Law Clinic, said a challenge by the tribe would likely rely on the reasons the Army Corps itself gave for why more review was needed in December.

“The tribe will probably argue that an abrupt reversal without a sufficient explanation for why the additional analysis is not necessary is arbitrary and should, therefore, be set aside,” she said in an email.

Supporters say the pipeline is safer than rail or trucks to transport the oil.

Shares of Energy Transfer Partners finished up 20 cents at $39.20, reversing earlier losses on the news.

(Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in HOUSTON and Brendan Pierson in New York; Writing by David Gaffen and Simon Webb; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

U.S. could grant final permit for Dakota pipeline as soon as Friday: government lawyer

police barricade north of Dakota Access Pipeline

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army secretary could make a decision on the final permit needed to complete the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline as soon as Friday, the government’s lawyer told a Washington, D.C., court on Monday.

The Army Corp of Engineers told the court it has submitted its recommendation to Robert Speer, the acting secretary of the Army, on whether it needs to complete a full environmental review before it can grant the final permit allowing work to start on a contested tunnel under a lake. The review was requested in December by former President Barack Obama.

Opponents argue that letting the pipeline cross under Lake Oahe, a reservoir that is the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, would damage sacred lands and could leak oil into the tribe’s water supply.

Proponents believe the pipeline is necessary to transport U.S. oil safely and that it would create jobs.

Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux, said the tribe will challenge the U.S. government in court if the Army grants the easement. The tribe, along with other Native American groups, environmentalists and other activists, have opposed the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline led by Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>.

He said it is unclear whether construction could begin while the decision is challenged or whether the court will grant an injunction blocking the work.

“Our position is the tribe’s treaty rights and the law require the full (Environmental Impact Study) process that the government initiated in December. Issuing the easement without that process will be a serious violation of the law,” Hasselman told Reuters.

A spokesman for the Army was not immediately available to comment. Energy Transfer Partners declined to comment on the legal proceedings.

At the hearing at the D.C. Circuit Court on Monday, lawyers for ETP said the pipeline would become fully operational around 90 days after construction begins. If the easement is granted, oil can start crossing under the lake, a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River, as soon as 60 days after construction starts.

(Additional reporting by Liz Hampton in Houston; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Dakota Access pipeline moves closer to completion: lawmakers

Police monitor outskirts of Dakota Access Pipeline protest

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will grant the final approval needed to finish the Dakota Access Pipeline project, U.S. Senator John Hoeven and Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said on Tuesday.

However, opponents of the $3.8 billion project, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation is adjacent to the route, claimed that Hoeven and Cramer were jumping the gun and that an environmental study underway must be completed before the permit was granted.

For months, climate activists and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have been protesting against the completion of the line under Lake Oahe, a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River. The one-mile stretch of the 1,170-mile (1,885 km) line is the only incomplete section in North Dakota.

The project would run from the western part of the state to Patoka, Illinois, and connect to another line to move crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Hoeven said Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer had told him and Vice President Mike Pence of the move. “This will enable the company to complete the project, which can and will be built with the necessary safety features to protect the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others downstream,” Hoeven, a Republican, said in a statement.

Representatives for the Army Corps of Engineers could not be reached immediately for comment late on Tuesday. The Department of Justice declined to comment.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week allowing Energy Transfer Partners LP’s Dakota Access Pipeline to go forward, after months of protests from Native American groups and climate activists pushed the administration of President Barack Obama to ask for an additional environmental review of the controversial project.

The approval would mark a bitter defeat for Native American tribes and climate activists, who successfully blocked the project earlier and vowed to fight the decision through legal action.

On Tuesday evening, the Standing Rock tribe said the Army could not circumvent a scheduled environmental impact study that was ordered by the outgoing Obama administration in January. “The Army Corps lacks statutory authority to simply stop the EIS,” they said in a statement.

The tribe said it would take legal action against the U.S. Army’s reported decision to grant the final easement.

To view a graphic on the Dakota Access line route, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2kpvmic

“JUMPED THE GUN”

Jan Hasselman, an Earthjustice lawyer representing the tribe, told Reuters that Hoeven and Cramer “jumped the gun” by saying the easement would be granted and that the easement was not yet issued.

Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environment Network, which has been a vocal opponent of the pipeline, said on Twitter that lawmakers were “trying to incite violence” by saying the easement was granted before it was official.

There have been numerous clashes between law enforcement and protesters over the past several months, some of which have turned violent. More than 600 arrests have been made.

Heavy earth-moving equipment had been moved to the protest camp in recent days to remove abandoned tipis and cars, with the camp to be cleared out before expected flooding in March.

There were more than 10,000 people at the camp at one point, including Native Americans, climate activists and veterans. Several hundred remain.

A spokesman for Hoeven, Don Canton, said it would probably be a “matter of days rather than weeks” for the easement to be issued.

Oil producers in North Dakota are expected to benefit from a quicker route for crude oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.

North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp said the timeline for construction was still unknown but said she hoped Trump would provide additional law enforcement resources and funding to ensure the safe start of pipeline construction.

“We also know that with tensions high, our families, workers, and tribal communities deserve the protective resources they need to stay safe,” Heitkamp said.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Eric Beech in Washington, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles, David Gaffen in New York and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)

Clean-up begins at Dakota pipeline protest camp

Law enforcement officers monitor outskirts of protests for Dakota Access Pipeline

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Dump trucks and heavy machinery rolled into the protest camp near the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday, and crews began filling large dumpsters with garbage that has accumulated, much of it now buried under snow.

The clean-up marked cooperation among authorities and camp organizers. The decision to clean the site, where a few hundred protesters remain, was made on Sunday by state and local officials and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

Those involved said it was not an effort to destroy the camp, which sits on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers land, but a move to prevent waste contaminating water sources.

“I’m not going to run people’s camps over. I’m not going to take anyone’s property or do anything like that,” Hans Youngbird Bradley, a construction contractor from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe said during the meeting.

There are dozens of abandoned cars and structures as well as waste at the camp.

“It is paramount for public safety, and to prevent an environmental disaster, that the camps be cleared prior to a potential spring flood,” said North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican who supports the completion of the pipeline, in a statement.

Land is being leased on the Standing Rock Reservation for protesters who wish to remain in the area.

Protesters rallied for months against plans to route the $3.8 billion pipeline beneath Lake Oahe near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it threatened water resources and sacred Native American sites.

At one point, nearly 10,000 people had flocked to the site. But the number dwindled to several hundred after the Standing Rock Sioux asked activists to leave when a permit to drill under the lake was denied in December.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to speed up the completion of the project, dealing a blow to protesters.

(Writing by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

S&P 500, Nasdaq hit record highs on bank, tech gains

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq touched intraday record highs on Tuesday and the Dow was poised for its best day of the year, lifted by gains in financial and technology stocks.

The advance comes as investors assess quarterly earnings reports, while trying to find more clarity on President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Trump signed two executive orders on Tuesday to move forward with construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, rolling back key Obama administration environmental actions in favor of expanding energy infrastructure. He also met with chief executives of the Big Three U.S. automakers to push for more cars to be built in the United States.

“He is demonstrating that he is extremely business friendly, and I thought he had a good day today,” said Stephen Massocca, Chief Investment Officer, Wedbush Equity Management LLC in San Francisco.

“The protectionist stuff will spook the market, the rest of it is spot-on.”

Profits of S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 6.7 percent in the latest quarter, marking the strongest growth in two years, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Despite stalling in recent weeks, the post-election rally has contributed to somewhat lofty valuations. The S&P 500 is trading at about 17 times forward 12-month earnings, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream, compared with the 10-year median of 14.2.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 133.5 points, or 0.67 percent, to 19,933.35, the S&P 500 gained 16.27 points, or 0.72 percent, to 2,281.47 and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.03 points, or 0.83 percent, to 5,598.98.

GM shares were up 1.5 percent and Ford rose 2.3 percent, while Fiat Chrysler jumped 6.7 percent. The S&P financial sector climbed 1.5 percent. The index had surged more than 16 percent in the wake of the election to the end of 2016 but has struggled in the new year, losing more than 1 percent through Monday.

Materials jumped nearly 3 percent and were on track for their best day since February. The sector was bolstered by a 5 percent rise in DuPont, which reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

IBM, up 2.9 percent, and Intel, up 2.6 percent, were among the top boosts to the S&P 500 and helped lift the tech sector by 1.1 percent to put the sector on track for its best day this year.

Yahoo rose 3.3 percent after the company reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue and said the sale of its core internet business to Verizon should be completed in the second quarter.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2.95-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 42 new 52-week highs and two new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 107 new highs and 28 new lows.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by James Dalgleish)

North Dakota tribe formally calls on pipeline protesters to disperse

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – A Sioux tribal council on Saturday formally asked hundreds of protesters to clear out of three camps near its North Dakota reservation used to stage months of sometimes violent protests against the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on Friday unanimously passed a resolution calling for the camps to be dismantled, it said on its Facebook page on Saturday. The tribe has been encouraging protesters to go home since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to an environmental review of the $3.8 billion project in December.

Despite earlier discussions about alternative sites, the resolution made no provision for relocating the estimated 600 protesters, which include non-native environmental activists and Native Americans from outside the tribe.

“The pipeline fight has moved beyond the camps and our strategy must evolve with the process,” Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault II said in a statement dated Saturday.

The council said heavy snowfall in the area had raised the danger of flooding, and this week’s clashes with police could imperil the environmental review process.

“Because we worked together, the federal government will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement,” the tribe said. “Moving forward, our ultimate objective is best served by our elected officials, navigating strategically through the administrative and legal processes.”

Native Americans and environmental activists have said that the pipeline would threaten water resources and sacred lands.

The tribe, which launched the effort to stop the pipeline last year, won a major concession when the government denied Energy Transfer Partners an easement for the pipeline to travel under Lake Oahe, a water source upstream from the reservation.

The tribe’s resolution formally called on protesters to leave the area in 30 days, in part because of the potential for environmental damage and safety issues raised by the encampments.

But a former council member said the tribe was also concerned that recent clashes could delay the reopening of a highway linking the reservation to Bismarck, the state capital, an hour’s drive to the north.

“Our main venture that we have on Standing Rock is the Prairie Knights Casino, and Highway 1806 is the main access road,” said Phyllis Young, who currently serves as a consultant to the tribe on the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Tensions increased this week near the construction site, with repeated clashes between protesters and police ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, an unabashed supporter of the project.

Police used tear gas and fired beanbag rounds to disperse crowds, and have arrested nearly 40 people since Monday, law enforcement officials said.

One of the main groups representing protesters in the camp signaled a willingness to abide by the tribe’s resolution.

“Our network respects the decision of the Cannon Ball district and the tribal council of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,” said Tom Goldtooth, the executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “Vacating the camp does not mean abandoning the resistance.”

But Olive Bias, a Cherokee from Colorado who has been at the camps since September, said she expected some people would refuse to leave camp.

“Some will (leave). Others won’t. It’s pretty inevitable,” she said.

(Writing by Frank McGurty, editing by G Crosse)

Tensions rise at North Dakota pipeline as Trump set to take White House

By Terray Sylvester

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Tensions have increased this week near the construction site of the Dakota Access pipeline, with repeated clashes between protesters and police ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, an unabashed fan of the $3.8 billion project.

Police used tear gas and fired bean-bag rounds to disperse crowds, and have arrested nearly 40 people since Monday, many of them on a bridge that has been the site of frequent confrontations, law enforcement officials said.

Demonstrators at the shrinking protest camp have voiced desperation and declining morale, citing weaker support from the local Standing Rock Sioux tribe that launched the effort last year and the backing that Trump, a Republican, will provide the pipeline once he takes office on Friday.

“It’s closing in on the inauguration, and people want to make sure that their voices are heard while they still have a chance,” said Benjamin Johansen, 29, a carpenter from Iowa who has been at the camp for two months. “There’s a very real possibility that once the new president is inaugurated, our voices won’t matter.”

This week’s clashes between protesters and police are the most serious since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement in December for the pipeline to travel under Lake Oahe.

Native Americans and environmental activists have said that the pipeline threatens water resources and sacred lands.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation is near the pipeline, asked protesters to disperse following the Corps’ decision, but around 600 remain in the main camp, now called Oceti Oyate.

The tribe is asking that the camp be evacuated by Jan. 29, and is offering an alternate site on reservation land that avoids any risk of flooding. Tribal leaders and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum have warned about potential flooding at the protest site in early March.

The call for the protest to end has left those still on site in a darker mood, said Amanda Moore, 20, an activist with Black Lives Matter.

“We’re stressed with Donald Trump’s inauguration coming so soon, and feeling that we have to stop the pipeline now,” she said.

Protesters and law enforcement faced off early Thursday morning on Backwater Bridge for the third straight night, with demonstrators throwing snowballs at officers and climbing onto a barricade before being pushed back.

Law enforcement fired a volley of bean bags and sponges at protesters at around 2 a.m., sending protesters fleeing from the ice- and snow-covered bridge, according to a Reuters witness. Police said they also used pepper spray.

The skirmish came as the Army began the process of launching an environmental study of the pipeline.

At least one protester was taken to the hospital, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. Since Monday, 37 have been arrested, adding up to 624 since August.

“They come and say they want to pray and want us to fall back, then they get aggressive and try and flank our officers and get behind us,” Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department said. “What they say and what they do are two different things.”

Both Herr and protesters conceded that communication between the two sides had deteriorated in past months.

Kalisa Wight Rock, a volunteers from Georgia working as a medic, said focus shifting away from the protest had left some feeling abandoned after the widespread attention the opposition to the pipeline garnered last year.

“A lot of people think this is over and that we’re not still here,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago; Editing by Ben Klayman and Jonathan Oatis)

Dakota Access company files motion to halt environmental study

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Energy Transfer Partners has filed a motion to bar the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from initiating an environmental study for its controversial Dakota Access pipeline crossing at Lake Oahe in North Dakota.

Energy Transfer Partners requested on Monday that a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia stop the Corps from initiating the environmental impact statement process until a ruling has been made on whether the company already has necessary approvals for the pipeline crossing.

The Corps said it would publish a notice in the Federal Register on Wednesday stating its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for the requested easement at Lake Oahe. The notice will invite interested parties to comment on potential issues and concerns, as well as alternatives to the proposed route, which should be considered in the study.

The Corps in December denied Energy Transfer Partners an easement to drill under Lake Oahe, a water source upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux reservation that has been the focus of protests. Members from the Standing Rock Sioux and others say the line could damage drinking water and desecrate sacred grounds.

In July 2015, the Corps had granted Energy Transfer Partners permission for its proposed pipeline crossing at Lake Oahe.

A representative from Energy Transfer Partners did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for comment.

The 1,172-mile (1.885 km) Dakota Access Pipeline will transport 570,000 barrels per day of crude from the Bakken shale of North Dakota to the Midwest.

The Standing Rock Sioux said the tribe was confident the environmental impact statement would support its claim that the pipeline cannot cross under the lake, adding that the best way to analyze new routes is through an environmental impact statement.

Comments on the scope of the environmental impact statement will be due no later than Feb. 20, the Army Corp said.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Dan Grebler)

New North Dakota governor expects controversial pipeline to be built

man holds American flag at Dakota Access Pipeline protest

By Ernest Scheyder

(Reuters) – North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who took office last month in the height of tensions surrounding the Dakota Access Pipeline, said he believed the line would eventually be built and asked opponents to clean their protest camp before spring floodwaters create a potential ecological disaster.

A centrist Republican with no prior political experience, Burgum was elected in a landslide on a platform of streamlining government and improving relations across the state. Burgum built a successful software business before selling it to Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> in 2001.

Burgum told Reuters that approval of the pipeline appeared to be a foregone conclusion once Donald Trump moved into the White House.

“I expect the world’s going to change dramatically on that day relative to finding resolution on this issue,” Burgum said in an interview. “I would expect that (Energy Transfer Partners <ETP.N>) will get its easement and it will go through.”

A coalition of Native American groups, environmentalists, Hollywood stars and veterans of the U.S. armed forces protested the $3.8 billion oil project at a North Dakota camp, which at one point held more than 5,000, though that number has shrunk in size during the winter.

Opponents contend construction would damage sacred lands and any leaks could pollute the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

Last month, President Barack Obama denied a key permit needed to complete the pipeline, but Trump has said he will review that decision.

Local law enforcement have voiced concerns that any reversal by the federal government could cause the area to swell again with protesters, straining resources.

David Archambault, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, has repeatedly asked protesters to leave the area and let the pipeline fight play out in courts.

Burgum said he agrees with Archambault and asked protesters to help clean up the camp before it threatens the environment itself. More than 300 vehicles, along with dozens of temporary dwellings and other detritus, have been abandoned at the campsite, which sits in a flood plain that is likely to be overrun by spring rain and snowmelt.

State officials are concerned that floodwaters could carry that material away.

“The amount of cleanup that needs to take place is enormous,” Burgum said. “We’ve got a potential ecological disaster if this land floods and all the debris flows downstream into tribal lands.”

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Only the hardiest remain at Dakota protest camp

A couple of the remaining activists, hold up signs as they grapple with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota,

By Valerie Volcovici

CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) – Two weeks after a victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, most protesters have cleared out of the main protest camp in North Dakota – but about 1,000 are still there, and plan to remain through the winter.

These folks say they are dug in at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, despite the cold, for a few reasons. Most are Native Americans, and want to support the tribal sovereignty effort forcefully argued by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is adjacent to the pipeline being built.

Others say they worry that Energy Transfer Partners LP <ETP.N>, the company building the $3.8 billion project, will resume construction without people on the ground, even though the tribes and the company are currently locked in a court battle.

Future decisions on the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline are likely to come through discussions with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, or in courtrooms.

“I’ve seen some of my friends leave but I will be here until the end and will stand up to Trump if he decides to approve the permit,” said Victor Herrald, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, who has been at the camp since August.

At one point the camp had about 10,000 people, including about 4,000 veterans who showed up in early December – just before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a key easement needed to allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.

After the Corps decision, Standing Rock chairman Dave Archambault asked protesters to go home. The camp’s population now runs from 700 to 1,000, depending on the day, and many come from the nearby Standing Rock reservation where they live.

Those left say they are there to “show our strengths,” as Bucky Harjo, 63, of the Paiute tribe, from Reno, Nevada, put it, while the tribe deals with the legal battle.

Logistics are key for those still at the camp, located on federal land. Theron Begay, a Navajo journeyman who is a certified construction worker and heavy machine operator, has been put in charge of winterizing the camp. He is training volunteers to build structures that can withstand sub-zero temperatures and bitter winds, as well as compost toilets.

Some people at the camp have gotten pneumonia, and they and others went to an emergency shelter that was built three miles away to escape the cold.

Because the Oceti Sakowin camp is located on a flood plain, waste from the camp poses risks to the nearby Cannonball River. Tribal leaders have said the camp may need to move if it wants to remain active. Begay said the structures can be “disassembled like a puzzle in two hours” and re-established on drier ground.

North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple said in a Tuesday statement that he and Archambault recently met to discuss reducing tensions between the tribe and law enforcement. They are discussing reopening the nearby Backwater Bridge on state highway 1806, which has been blockaded since Oct. 27, when activists set vehicles on fire.

Harjo said he will leave “when I see the drill pad removed and DAPL out of here, and when they reopen 1806 and when we are free to go at our own will and not be targeted on the highway.”

NEXT STEPS

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and a constant presence in the camp, said the protest is transitioning “to the next level of our campaign” to stop the pipeline.

Some still at the camp worry that if they leave, Energy Transfer Partners will restart construction. ETP asked a federal judge on Dec. 9 to overrule the government’s decision and grant the easement. The judge declined that request; the parties are due back in court in February. The Army Corps is considering alternatives, which could take months.

Trump, who owned ETP stock through at least mid-2016, according to financial disclosure forms, could order the Army Corps to grant the permit. His choice for U.S. Energy Secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, is on ETP’s board. Standing Rock Sioux representatives met with members of Trump’s transition team this week to urge the incoming president to deny the easement.

Protesters who remain at the camp are still receiving donations of money and supplies from people across the United States. On a recent visit to the camp’s emergency shelter it was filled with boxes delivered via Amazon.com.

Goldtooth said tribal leaders are talking about an exit plan for the camp. “We will continue to provide infrastructure support to those who stay here,” he said. “We’ll make sure they’re safe and warm.”

(Reporting By Valerie Volcovici in Cannon Ball, N.D., additional reporting by Andrew Cullen and Ernest Scheyder; Writing by David Gaffen; Editing by Andrew Hay)

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