Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Thursday declined to side with people protesting the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, and instead staked out a middle ground by saying everyone’s “voices” should be heard on the project, and stopping short of supporting protesters.
The Democratic nominee’s campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., was occupied by protesters demanding that she stand on their side in opposing the construction of the nearly 1,200-mile oil pipeline that traverses the states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa. Dozens were arrested trying to block the pipeline’s construction in North Dakota as riot police and soldiers moved in with military vehicles while spraying tear gas.
But Clinton’s campaign responded by saying both the pipeline developers and the protesters have a say in the project, and did not side with those opposing the project.
“From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects,” said Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokeswoman for Clinton, in a statement.
“Now, all of the parties involved — including the federal government, the pipeline company and contractors, the state of North Dakota, and the tribes — need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest,” Hinojosa said. “As that happens, it’s important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators’ rights to protest peacefully, and workers’ rights to do their jobs safely.”
Clinton is not as sympathetic to these types of activist causes as Democrats might hope. In emails published by WikiLeaks earlier this month, a transcript from a private meeting between Clinton and union members showed her telling activists to “get a life.”
“[M]y view is I want to defend natural gas,” Clinton said in the transcript sent last September to her campaign. The emails are from the hacked accounts of Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta.
“I want to defend repairing and building the pipelines we need to fuel our economy. I want to defend fracking under the right circumstances,” she said. “I want to defend this stuff.”
The pipeline project has become a major focus of environmental activists siding with the claims made by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that the oil pipeline would harm its only source of freshwater, while defiling its sacred tribal burial grounds.
The tribe’s claims have gone before two federal courts, and both have ruled in favor of continuing the project. The Obama administration has stepped in to block the project by not approving an easement for the last few hundred feet of the pipeline, as the Army Corps of Engineers conducts further reviews.
The governors of the three states the pipeline traverses sent a letter this week to the Army Corps asking that it move forward, and that the project had met all reviews and permitting requirements months before the protests began and the legal challenges brought by the Sioux.
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has spent well over a year reviewing the permit and it is now time for the Corps of Engineers to proceed with the last step of the process so that our states can begin to realize the benefits and opportunities provided by this important and vital piece of energy infrastructure,” read the letter signed by Republican Govs. Terry Branstad of Iowa, Jack Dalrymple of North Dakota, and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota.
