Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:41 pm
Energy Transfer Partners is the company building the DAPL. Rick Perry has a stake in the company, a rather large stake actually, given he is a board member.
Thus there is no doubt Rick Perry was aware before it was released of the wording of ETP’s press release in response to the statement of the Department of the Army saying it would not grant the easement that would allow the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe in North Dakota.
As Kurt Eichenwald said,
“I read a press release from company where Perry works as director (the Dakota Access ppl.) Most dickish corporat[e] press release Ive ever seen…[the] most childish one Ive ever seen.”
Well, by all the evidence, “childish” and “dickish” certainly fits the overriding theme of the Trump administration to come. Read it for yourself:
Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners Respond to the Statement from the Department of the Army
DALLAS & NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 4, 2016– Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE: ETP) and Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (NYSE: SXL) announced that the Administration’s statement today that it would not at this time issue an “easement” to Dakota Access Pipeline is a purely political action – which the Administration concedes when it states it has made a “policy decision” – Washington code for a political decision. This is nothing new from this Administration, since over the last four months the Administration has demonstrated by its action and inaction that it intended to delay a decision in this matter until President Obama is out of office.
For more than three years now, Dakota Access Pipeline has done nothing but play by the rules. The Army Corps of Engineers agrees, and has said so publicly and in federal court filings. The Corps’ review process and its decisions have been ratified by two federal courts. The Army Corps confirmed this again today when it stated its “policy decision” does “not alter the Army’s position that the Corps’ prior reviews and actions have comported with legal requirements.”
In spite of consistently stating at every turn that the permit for the crossing of the Missouri River at Lake Oahe granted in July 2016, comported with all legal requirements, including the use of an environmental assessment, rather than an environmental impact statement, the Army Corps now seeks to engage in additional review and analysis of alternative locations for the pipeline.
The White House’s directive today to the Corps for further delay is just the latest in a series of overt and transparent political actions by an administration which has abandoned the rule of law in favor of currying favor with a narrow and extreme political constituency.
As stated all along, ETP and SXL are fully committed to ensuring that this vital project is brought to completion and fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe. Nothing this Administration has done today changes that in any way.
It is remarkable that the resistance of the Sioux people acting in defense not only of their sacred rights (and treaty rights) but also access to clean water, not to mention all the others who would be impacted by a pipeline leak, could be characterized as “a narrow and extreme political constituency.”
There is no doubt Speaker Paul Ryan agrees with this wording, however, as he has already characterized this very popular grass-roots resistance as “big-government decision-making.” Republicans talk a lot about acting on the will of the people, but when the people actually speak, they are reduced in Republican rhetoric to “anarchists,” “communists,” and worse.
Given Donald Trump’s own vested economic interest in the completion of the DAPL, there is no doubt at all that President Obama’s humane decision will be overturned by the narrow and extreme political constituency represented by the Trump administration. He already promised on Fox News Sunday:
“I will tell you, when I get to office, if it’s not solved, I’ll have it solved very quickly.”
A sentiment board member Rick Perry clearly agrees with. If you wondered what kind of Energy Secretary Rick Perry would be, now you have your answer. He would be a dickish one.
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