Response to DAPL Shutdown

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, July 6, 2020, 11:30 a.m. CDT
Contact Ed Fallon at (515) 238-6404 or [email protected]

Bold Iowa Responds to Court Shutdown of Dakota Access Pipeline
Group will urge Iowa Utilities Board to reconsider approval of expansion

DES MOINES, IOWA – In response to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit and a federal judge ordering the shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) effective August 5, 2020, Bold Iowa is calling on the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to reconsider its decision to allow Energy Transfer (ET) to double the flow of oil through DAPL. ET’s proposal has been approved by regulators in Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota, but not yet by the Illinois Commerce Commission.

If the shutdown proceeds as scheduled, no oil will flow through Iowa during what many believe will be a lengthy environmental review by the Army Corps of Engineers.

“This ruling is a huge victory for the coalition of Indigenous communities, landowners, farmers, and environmentalists who have fought this pipeline for six years,” said Ed Fallon, a former state representative who founded Bold Iowa and serves as the organization’s director. “One of our primary goals now is to make sure that the Corps’ review is comprehensive and that it examines DAPL’s impact on water, land, property rights, Indigenous sovereignty, and most urgently on the worsening climate crisis.”

Fallon indicated that his organization is preparing a letter to IUB president, Geri Huser, asking her to reconsider the Board’s recent approval of ET’s proposal to double the flow of oil through the pipeline.

Bold Iowa was founded in 2015 to fight the Dakota Access Pipeline. Bold’s e-mail list is just under 8,000 people, and its stated mission is to (1) build rural-urban coalitions to fight climate change, (2) prevent the abuse of eminent domain, (3) protect Iowa’s soil, air, and water, (4) defend the rights of farmers, landowners, and Indigenous communities, and (5) promote non-industrial renewable energy.

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