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White House Suggests Trump Will Move to Push Through Dakota Access Pipeline

HeadlineJan 24, 2017

Spicer also suggested Monday that the Trump administration would move quickly to push through the contested $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer: “I’m not going to get in front of the president’s executive actions, but I will tell you that areas like Dakota and the Keystone pipeline, areas that we can increase jobs, increase economic growth and tap into America’s energy supply more, that’s something that he has been very clear about. … I think the president is very, very keen on making sure that we maximize our use of natural resources to America’s benefit. It’s good for economic growth, it’s good for jobs, and it’s good for American energy.”

The pipeline has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota, members of hundreds of indigenous nations, as well as their non-Native allies. On Monday, here at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, water protectors blocked the entrance to a Chase Bank lounge to protest the connection of one of the festival’s leading sponsors to investment in the Dakota Access pipeline. This is Bobbi Jean Three Legs of the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota.

Bobbi Jean Three Legs: “Right now we’re on a lockdown in front of Chase Bank, because we want people across America to divest their money from these banks. The big banks—Chase, Wells Fargo—all the big banks, these are paying for the pipelines around the country. We want you to know what your money is being paid for and what it’s being used for. And pretty much our lives are at risk right now—everybody. There’s already people’s waters ruined around the country. And we’re just trying to protect that. We want to know that seven generations ahead, that our children are going to be OK.”

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