Sanders joins protesters against the pipeline build: The Refute

Joining the tens of thousands of protestors against the Dakota Access Pipeline, Senator Bernie Sanders calls out President Obama to strongly reevaluate the plans. This all went down while protestors rallied near the White House. Having a political leader such as Sanders help bring the protestor together to spread the word on how much of a negative impact it will have on not only the community, but more importantly the environment. The Hill reported that Sanders called on President Obama to analyze the impact it will have and not continue the project. If the pipeline were to continue, it will have the impact on the planet as putting 21 million new cars on the road and 30 coal plants. For this reason, the green party and the local Standing Rock Sioux tribe are trying to push the plan of scraping the $3.8 billion project.

Along with the peaceful protests, some members of the tribe went to even sue
administration to stop this threatening project. With drinking water and sacred land at stake, it was vital that Sanders did everything in his power to convince administration to bring the project to a halt. Even though the judge ruled that the project were to move forward, it was decided that construction would not continue. Using this halt as a window of opportunity, protestors began putting even more pressure on Obama to permanently stop construction of the pipeline. There was a special guest at the rally who believed he could really get the attention of the White House, former advisor of the green jobs in the Obama administration, Van Jones. Jones attended the rally as he is against the pipeline and strongly believes in the same morals as everyone else.

In his words, “Simple as I can say it, water is life and oil is death.” Sanders praise all the tribes for standing up for what is theirs and getting the message across that what is being built detrimental. “We are not leaving” says Jasilyn Charger, one of the representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux. Having big names political leaders definitely shows that it isn’t just the people endangered getting involved, but also those higher in charge who have the connections do something about it.