Tribes bring North Dakota pipeline fight to Congress

WASHINGTON — Native American tribes took their fight to Washington on Thursday, Sept. 22, to stop development of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline, as Democrats in the U.S. Congress urged the federal government to scrap construction permits and reconsider the project.

Representative Raul Grijalva, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, called on the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers "to withdraw the existing permits for Dakota Access pipeline."

He said the agency should then initiate a new, "transparent permitting process" that includes "robust" consultation with tribes and environmental review. The underground pipeline would traverse both federally-managed and private lands in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

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