Funny that this story came out today;
Construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline is scheduled to begin next spring in northwestern South Dakota. Officials in the nine counties affected by the pipeline construction are preparing for protests to break out along the route.
If protests become significant, the costs to manage the scenes will first fall on county governments, according to a state law.
Some are concerned that drawn-out protests such as the 7-month encampment of protesters opposed to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota in 2016 could develop. A large protest could strain the budgets of the mostly rural counties along the Keystone XL route.
In the first of two stories, South Dakota News Watch reporter Bart Pfankuch examines the potential costs and outlines an effort to change the law. Find this story and other in-depth reporting at www.sdnewswatch.org.
I was just telling my barber that the Lakota Sioux tribes are very proud people, and they are going to fight this to the end. What do they have to lose? Really? We have taken everything else from them, all they have left is their dignity and reservation land. Keystone XL is going to have a rude awakening I’m afraid, and President Trump’s decision to allow this pipeline without the builder being responsible for security is going to cost South Dakota taxpayers a lot of money in defense costs. The PUC really needs to stop this before the protests begin. We really don’t need to be giving up our land, resources and capital for a foreign Canadian company to transport oil to shipping ports that send the oil to China.
What’s evident is there’s a ‘Wall’ between the Trump camp and all minority groups. Other than a few temporary construction jobs, the pipeline hardly benefits the state. Rather, a high pressure line can burst and become a major environmental issue.