From: Public News Service [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2017 6:07 AM
Subject: INS story: Worth County Spill Fueling Fight Against Dakota Access

 



Worth County Spill Fueling Fight Against Dakota Access
<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2017-01-30/energy-policy/worth-county-spil
l-fueling-fight-against-dakota-access/a56140-1> 

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January 30, 2017 - Mary Kuhlman, Public News Service (IA)


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 <http://www.newsservice.org/getimage.php?p=c2dpZD01NjE0MCZzaWQ9MQ==> The
Dakota Access pipeline is to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois,
cutting through 18 Iowa counties. (Lars Ploughman/Flickr)


The Dakota Access pipeline is to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois,
cutting through 18 Iowa counties. (Lars Ploughman/Flickr)

DES   <http://www.publicnewsservice.org/articlepx.gif?key=56140-1> MOINES,
Iowa -- A Northern Iowa oil pipeline rupture is adding more fuel to the
heated argument against construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in North
Dakota. 

Cleanup continues on the nearly 140,000 gallons of diesel fuel mix that
leaked from the pipeline Wednesday, just one day after President Trump moved
to revive the Dakota Access project along with construction of the Keystone
XL pipeline. 

Kathy Holdefer of Jasper County said she witnessed the destruction of land
when part of the Dakota Access pipeline was laid just a few hundred yards
from her backyard. She said she believes the Worth County incident could be
a harbinger of things to come with Dakota Access. 

"A 30 inch pipeline carrying over half a million barrels of crude oil a day;
the immensity of any leak - no matter if it's a few minutes, a few hours or
what could be a few days or weeks before it's detected - is insurmountable,
insurmountable," Holdefer said. "It could never be cleaned up."

The president and other supporters of the project contend the pipeline will
reduce the demand for crude oil from the Middle East and spur job creation. 

The Dakota Access Pipeline will carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois,
cutting through 18 Iowa counties. A Polk County district judge is expected
to rule soon on a case brought by the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club
challenging the use of eminent domain to seize land along the route. 

Wally Taylor, legal chair for the Sierra Club's Iowa Chapter, argued that
the risks posed by fossil fuels are just too great not to move toward more
clean sources of energy.

"We just really cannot support fossil fuels any longer," Taylor said. "There
are alternatives. I think that the public, the citizens, need to make it
clear to the decision makers that we want to get off fossil fuels and get on
renewable energy."

Ed Fallon, director at Bold Iowa, added that policymakers need to listen to
the voices of concerned citizens. 

"The more people see the aspects of this fight," Fallon said, "the more they
agree with us. The president right now is backing big oil. They want this
thing badly. They're going to make a ton of money on it. And he's doing this
against where I think the trend is, where more and more people are seeing
that this is problematic."

Opponents to the projects gathered outside the Neal Smith Federal Building
in Des Moines Saturday to rally against their construction.


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