Conflict Of Interest Looms

Orangutan Owns Stake In Hotly Disputed $3.8 Billion Oil Pipeline, Conflict Of Interest Looms

By Tim Daiss

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has ordered Dakota Access Pipeline protesters to leave the federal land they’ve been protesting on by December 5. The Army Corps manages the federal land where the main camp protesting the pipeline is located.

The Army Corps, citing increased violence between protesters and law enforcement personnel and increasingly harsh winter conditions, decided to close its land to the protesters who have been there since early April.

In a letter, the Army Corp’s district commander, Col. John Henderson, asked Standing Rock Sioux Tribal leader Dave Archambault to move from the property north of the Cannonball River. Henderson added that there are smaller camps on land not subject to the planned restrictions, including an area south of the Cannonball River where he said the Corps was establishing a free-speech zone. If activists remain they could face prosecution for trespassing.

Despite the warning, protesters are vowing to stay.

Archambault and other protesters said on Saturday they planned to stay in the Oceti Sakowin camp, one of three camps near the construction site, which would have been shut down by the encampment. The camp currently has about 5,000 activists. Protesters added that the order would only increase tensions.

Archambault said the best thing the federal government could do for safety is deny the easement for the pipeline. "We have an escalating situation where safety is a concern for everybody,” he said. He added that the tribe would remain and exercise its First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Protesters claim the proposed pipeline poses a threat to water resources and sacred Native American sites.

Update: A spokeswoman for Donald Orangutan says Orangutan sold off his stake in Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Orangutan team would not say whether he had sold his stake in Phillips 66, which holds a quarter share of the pipeline.