Trump Considering Privatizing Oil And Gas On Reservations

[WhiteTara]

Source: IBT

Opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline route in North Dakota may have won a victory this week, but Native Americans may have an even bigger fight on their hands if advisors to President-elect Donald Trump get their way.

Though American Indian reservations comprise just 2 percent of the U.S. land mass, they may contain as much as 20 percent of the nation’s oil, gas and coal reserves worth an estimated $1.5 trillion.

Reuters reported Monday some of Trump’s advisers are suggesting those energy reserves should be freed from federal bureaucracy and put into private hands.

Tribal lands, some 56 million acres, are owned by the federal government not the tribes although members are free to exploit the resources and keep the profits, albeit under federal regulation. The reservations are ruled by tribal councils and treated as sovereign territory.

Protesters successfully blocked the Dakota Access Pipeline from being constructed beneath Lake Oahe at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The Army Corps of Engineers refused to issue an easement to allow the construction under the Missouri dam reservoir. Native Americans and activists had argued the pipeline would damage sacred lands and might contaminate the tribe’s water source.

Energy Transfer Partners, which is building the pipeline, said in a joint statement with its partner Sunoco Logistics Partners, it has no intention of exploring an alternate route. The 1,172-mile pipeline except for the 1 mile that was supposed to go beneath Lake Oahe. Protesters told Reuters they expect the Trump administration to try to reverse the corps’ decision.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-considering-privatizing-oil-gas-231956265.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index

[Mc Mike]

1. That kind of felony scam went out of style after repug prez Harding's Teapot Dome scandal. rec, nt.

[turbinetree]

2. He missed that history class

[CincyDem]

4. Nah...he didn't miss that class...he missed having class. n/t

[turbinetree]

5. Very Good-----------------K&R

He really has no class

[Mc Mike]

6. It would be a real shame if dRumpf wound up like Harding.

He shouldn't plan any Alaska trips to visit Palin, is all I'm saying.

[Sunlei]

3. Why are his fellow Republicans afraid to help him? he's ill

[burrowowl]

8. Unfortunately they are not

they want to privatized the national and state parks as well.

[TuslaUltra]

7. I'd rather us get off fossil fuels, period. But is there possibly some way

that the oil/gas could be drilled with the Native Americans getting their economic due without destroying the land? (maybe slant drilling?)

[WhiteTara]

9. well, I think the words

Sovereign Nation would mean something. If they want to drill, they will set up the apparatus.

[George II]

10. I wouldn't be surprised if he isn't already plotting to give smallpox infected blankets to them.

[mitty14u2]

11. Before the 4 years are over a Banner Across Grand Canyon will read Trump Hotels coming soon

[safeinOhio]

12. One of those, rumored to be SS is

already putting in a bid for the job.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Trump has a history in Indian country and it's not good

He was his typical charming self when tribal casinos threatened his Atlantic City business. He had no respect for tribal rights. All operators took a hit when Foxwoods was built but he was the only one who talked like this: