US District Court orders rule preventing natural gas waste on public lands to be reinstated

Flaring at a drilling rig near Bakersfield, CA.
CHRIS JORDAN-BLOCH / EARTHJUSTICE

U.S. DISTRICT COURT ORDERS OBAMA-ERA RULE PREVENTING NATURAL GAS WASTE ON PUBLIC LANDS TO BE REINSTATED
Victory: Judge says Trump administration illegally suspended rule without necessary public comment

Judge Laporte reaffirmed the important role the public has in preserving natural resources and protecting public health.

Robin Cooley
Attorney, Earthjustice
OCTOBER 4, 2017
San Francisco, CA — The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled today that the Trump administration illegally suspended the Obama-era rule preventing waste of publicly-owned natural gas on public and tribal lands.
“The Court FINDS and DECLARES that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq., when it issued a notice on June 15, 2017 . . . postponing the compliance date for certain provisions of the Waste Prevention . . . Rule . . . after the rule had already gone into effect,” said Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte in her ruling. “The Court hereby VACATES the Postponement Notice and ORDERS Defendants to immediately reinstate the Waste Prevention . . . Rule in its entirety.”

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
METHANE
New camera technologies now enable operators to easily see leaks of invisible natural gas.
VIDEO COURTESY OF FLIR OPTICAL GAS IMAGING
READ THE EXPLAINER
The Bureau of Land Management’s Waste Prevention Rule’s commonsense and cost-effective protections require the oil and gas industry to monitor wells for leaks, repair faulty equipment, reduce noisy and wasteful flaring, and capture natural gas emissions instead of releasing them into the atmosphere.

It went into effect in January 2017 after BLM received extensive public input at public hearings and tribal meetings in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and North Dakota. BLM received more than 300,000 written comments that overwhelmingly supported the rule during a 74-day public comment period.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke suspended provisions of the Waste Prevention Rule in June without engaging in any public process.

“Venting and flaring methane at drilling sites wastes valuable public resources, costing taxpayers millions in lost revenue each year,” said Robin Cooley, staff attorney for Earthjustice. “The Waste Prevention rule also has the same greenhouse gas benefits as taking nearly a million cars off the road each year and helps reduce the serious health hazards for surrounding communities.”

Zinke’s order to suspend the commonsense rule “unlawfully cut the public out,” Cooley said. “It arbitrarily short-circuited the rule-making process, ignoring the concerns raised by thousands of people over the months-long public process. Judge Laporte reaffirmed the important role the public has in preserving natural resources and protecting public health.”

Laporte’s decision reinstates the Waste Prevention Rule and restores the rule’s original compliance.

Earthjustice represents plaintiffs Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Western Organization of Resource Councils.



https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060062677

Trump meets with tribal leaders: Snakes crawl out to sell out the people, sell out the land

Photos by the White House On Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump hosted a tribal, State, and local energy roundtable at the White House. He was joined by Governors Paul LePage, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts, and Bill Walker, along with State and tribal leaders from around our great country, the White House said.

Trump meets with tribal leaders: Snakes crawl out to sell out the people, sell out the land

Trump pushes for toxic legacy

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans at NAIS
French translation by Christine Prat, video with French subtitles at:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4137

WASHINGTON -- President Trump -- using tribal sovereignty as a trump card -- says he will unlock vast treasuries of resources in Indian country -- naming "coal" specifically.
"We love Indian country, right?" Trump said during a roundtable with ten tribal leaders on Wednesday.
Trump said he is now targeting "untapped resources of wealth." This comes as he targets Indian country with more mining, the lifting of environmental protections, and more radioactive dumping, as in the case of Yucca Mountain. 
Trump said his intent is to "usher in a golden age of American energy dominance," while ignoring staggering rates of cancer and respiratory diseases in Indian country from coal-fired power plants and Cold War uranium mining.

Trump's push for exploitation of Indian country resources, comes as the United States and State governments push to steal Indian water rights.
Trump, ignoring the long legacy of death, disease and brutal relocation resulting from coal mining and coal-fired power plants on Indian lands, told Indian leaders about coal mining, "It’s been really restricted, the development itself has been restricted, and vast amounts of deposits of coal and other resources have, in a way, been taken out of your hands.  And we’re going to have that changed." 
At the conclusion of the roundtable, Trump was asked whether he believes climate change is a hoax. Trump ended the meeting without answering the question.
The following elected leaders in Indian country were at the roundtable:
Chairman Alvin "AJ" Not Afraid, Crow Tribe
Chairman Luke Duncan, Ute Tribe
Councilman Kevin Frost, Southern Ute Tribe
Gov. Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation
Speaker LoRenzo Bates, Navajo Nation Council
Chairman Herman Honanie, Hopi Tribe
Chairman Mark Fox , the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation (Fort Berthold, North Dakota)
Chief Gary Batton, Choctaw Nation
Chairman Jo Anne Battise, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe
Chairman Aaron Payment, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians

Video below: Trump ignores question on climate change, and whether Trump believes climate change is a hoax.

The White House
June 28, 2017
Remarks by President Trump and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry at Tribal, State, and Local Energy Roundtable

Roosevelt Room
11:41 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all for being here.  Very much appreciated.  We welcome you to the White House.  Have you all been to the White House before?  Have you been here before?
Q    Yes.
THE PRESIDENT:  That’s good.  Well you guys have been -- most people say no.  I’m very impressed with that count.
I’m thrilled to be joined by Governor Paul LePage, Kim Reynolds, Pete Ricketts and Bill Walker, along with state and tribal leaders from around our great country.  I’d also like to thank Secretary Perry and EPA Administrator Pruitt -- both here also -- for their work to help the United States achieve true energy dominance.  And that’s what’s happening.  We’ve made so much progress with respect to energy just in the last four months.  It’s been an incredible journey, I will tell you.  We’ve learned a lot and we’ve made a lot -- we’re here to talk about how we can create new prosperity for our citizens by unlocking vast treasures of energy reserves, which we have a great deal -- far more than anyone understood.  
I’m proud to have such a large gathering of tribal leaders here at the White House.  I look forward to more government-to-government consultations with tribal leaders about the issues important to Indian Country.  We love Indian Country, right?
Many of your lands have rich, natural resources that stand to benefit your people immensely.  These untapped resources of wealth can help you build new schools, fix roads, improve your communities, and create jobs -- jobs like you’ve never seen before.  All you want is the freedom to use them, and that’s been the problem.  It’s been very difficult, hasn’t it?  It will be a lot easier now under the Trump administration.
For too long the federal government has put up restrictions and regulations that put this energy wealth out of reach.  It’s just totally out of reach.  It’s been really restricted, the development itself has been restricted, and vast amounts of deposits of coal and other resources have, in a way, been taken out of your hands.  And we’re going to have that changed.  We’re going to put it back in your hands.
These infringements on tribal sovereignty are deeply unfair to Native Americans and Native American communities who are being denied access to the energy and wealth that they have on their own lands.  Many of our states have also been denied access to the abundant energy resources on their lands that could bring greater wealth to the people and benefit to our whole nation.  We’re becoming more and more energy dominant.  I don’t want to be energy free, we want to be energy dominant in terms of the world.
From my first day in office, we’ve taken swift action to lift the crushing restrictions on American energy.  Scott Pruitt has done an amazing job, an incredible job, in a very short period of time, and most people love him.  There are a couple that don’t but that’s okay, right?  (Laughter.)  We’re also putting our people back to work by doing this.  
Today’s conversation is a chance for these state, local, and tribal leaders to discuss how we can cooperate and support them even more in unleashing these domestic energy reserves.  They’re tremendous reserves that we never appreciated, we never understood, but now we understand them very well.
I’m confident that working together we can usher in a golden age of American energy dominance, and the extraordinary financial and security benefits that it brings to us.  So this means not only the Native Americans but all over the country.  And we're seeing it more and more and it's happening more and more.
I just also want to tell you that, yesterday, we had a tremendous meeting with the Republican senators -- met on healthcare.  And the meeting went really well.  We're talking about a great, great form of healthcare.  Obamacare is dying.  It's essentially dead.  If you don't give it the subsidy, it would die within 24 hours.  It's been a headache for everybody.  It's been a nightmare for many.  
And we are looking at a healthcare that would be a fantastic tribute to our country; a healthcare that will take care of people, finally, for the right reasons, and also at the right cost.  It would be a tremendous reduction in costs from what Obamacare is.  Yesterday, in Alaska, a great state, they had a -- it was announced a 216 percent increase.
So we have a plan that, if we get it approved -- it's very tough.  Every state is different, every senator is different.  But I have to tell you, the Republican senators had a really impressive meeting yesterday at the White House.  We had close to 50 of them.  We have 52; we need almost all of them.  That's never easy.  But we had, essentially, 50 show up for the meeting, and the other two are on our side.  I think we're going to get at least very close, and I think we're going to get it over the line.  There was a great, great feeling in that room yesterday.
And what also came out is the fact that this healthcare would be so good, would be far better than Obamacare, and would be much less expensive for the people, and actually much less expensive, also, for the country.  So those are a lot of good factors.
So we'll see what happens.  We're working very hard.  We've given ourselves a little bit more time to make it perfect.  That's what we want to do.  I think this has a chance to be a great healthcare at a reasonable cost.  People can save a lot of money.  We get rid of the mandates, we get rid of so much -- got rid of a lot of the taxes.  All of the bad parts of Obamacare are gone.  Essentially, it's a repeal-and-replace.  And I look forward to working with the Republican senators over a short period of time.  I know Rick is very excited about the healthcare that we're talking about.
SECRETARY PERRY:  Actually, having these governors sitting around the table is a great example of it.  And one of the things that -- I know Kim and Paul, they'd like to be able to put healthcare into place that they helped write and their citizens help write because I know these -- I don't know Bill that well, but my bet is he's the same.  You give him the authority to take care of their citizens, they can have more people covered and do it at less cost.  I am quite confident --
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, we're sending a lot of it back to the states where it belongs.  And this will be something really special if we can get it done.  Always tough.  It's probably the toughest subject from the standpoint of approval because every state is different.  Every state has different needs.  We have a tremendous opioid problem, and some states are more affected by that than others.  But overall, I have to tell you, this will be a tremendous plan.  It will really -- you're going to have a lot of very, very happy people in this country if we can get it done.  
So we're working very hard on healthcare, and I think we're going to have a great answer.  And hopefully, we're going to have it soon.  And we will keep you informed.  Thank you all very much.  Thank you.
Q    Mr. President, can you talk about the Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill?
THE PRESIDENT:  It's going to great.  This will be great for everybody.
END
11:49 A.M. EDT

Dineh Walking 'No Man Camps on Navajo Nation! No Pinon Pipeline!'

Nihígaal bee Iiná

Journey for our Existence

Dineh Walking against Fracking

"This property is proposed to become a permanent man camp. With the oil boom comes man camps, with man camps, comes violence against women, prostitution, drugs and trafficking."

NO MANCAMPS ON THE NAVAJO NATION! NO PINON PIPELINE!
Read Grace Her Many Horses' account of the violence against Native Americans in North Dakota in the region of oil and gas man camps.
Lakota Country Times

'Independent investigator' of Tex Hall is actually oil and gas lobbyist

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

The firm Dentons that the Three Affiliated Tribes hired to do an "independent investigation" of Chairman Tex Hall and the alleged oilfield corruption is actually a lobbyist for the Bakken oil and gas industry. The push for the probe comes as a murder investigation continues into one of Hall's business partners in the oil and gas industry. A second partner is missing.

Chairman Hall created his own business, Maheshu, to profit from the oil and gas industry on tribal land.

Another person, former North Dakota Attorney General Nicholas Spaeth -- who was in North Dakota working on oil and gas issues -- was found dead Sunday.

(The screen capture below shows Dentons is a lobbyist for the Bakken oil and gas industry in North Dakota.) http://www.dentons.com/en/global-presence/united-states/washington-dc.aspx

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Dentons, the 'independent investigator' of Tex Hall and oil field corruption is not only a Bakken oil and gas lobbyist, but Dentons was also responsible for removing a YouTube satire of the tarsands in Alberta: http://www.isidewith.com/news/article/law-firm-behind-removal-of-youtube-tar-sands-satire-fundraiser-t
Meanwhile, investigators are probing the murder of a business associate of Tex Hall in Washington state, Douglas Carlile, 63, of Spokane, and the disappearance of another business associate in North Dakota, KC Clark. At the same time, investigators say an informant said Hall was also targeted for murder.

Investigators are probing a string of businesses that Tex Hall and business associate James Henrikson, now in police custody, were involved with in the oil and gas industry on land of the Three Affiliated Tribes, also known as Fort Berthold.

A resolution states that Hall allegedly profited from a tribal payment for more than $588,000 for road watering work to one of the companies, Blackstone Oil Field Services.

Meanwhile, Chairman Hall created his own personal company, Maheshu Energy, to financially benefit from the oil and gas industry on tribal land. While tribal members struggled to protect the environment, Hall pushed for oil and gas leasing on tribal land and argued before a Congressional committee in favor of fracking.

Besides widespread devastation to the land, air and water, the Three Affiliated Tribes became infested with crime as a result of the ‘man camps’ of oil and gas workers.

In the news:

Former North Dakota Attorney General found dead Sunday:

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/429579/

Spokane Review: North Dakota chairman and murder for hire suspect linked

"The chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes – the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation – is linked in court documents to James T. Henrikson, 34, who is suspected of hiring another man to kill Doug Carlile, a business associate in Spokane. Henrikson has been charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm." Read article:

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/feb/14/nd-tribal-chairman-suspect-in-murder-for-hire/

Censored News: Background on resolution and links:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2014/02/by-brenda-norrell-censored-news-new.html

Terrance Nelson urges Aljazeera to voice truth about US gas exploitation

First Nations Terrance Nelson urges Al Jazeera to reveal the sharp edge of real news

By Terrance Nelson

Anishinaabe Roseau River

Censored News

Jorge;

I have reviewed the story put together by Wab Kinew on Elsipogtog.The link you sent me is as follows
Canada online: 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m0N-lDcq1PQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dm0N-lDcq1PQ
US online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWoRw_fYEGo

I am sorry to say that I view the story as told by Wab Kinew as lacking focus and context. I understand that in order to be an objective reporter Wab is restrained from telling the truth in a manner that we who as hard core activists can. Al Jazeera America must be seen as objective in order to continue to have access to North American markets. It is pretty clear that Al Jazeera has to be careful when it is held hostage to Canadian Broadcast system rules and regulation.

In a few sentences, the issue is about oil, the need of Americans to get foreign oil. Shale gas and fracking is about Americans taking what they need from other countries. 

Media Watch: Newspaper cheerleads for rape of Mother Earth

The road into New Town, North Dakota, on the land of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations (Fort Berthold, July 31, 2011.) Photo by Brenda Norrell/Censored News
Media Watch: Indian Country Today hits a new all time low
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

NEW TOWN, North Dakota -- The newspaper Indian Country Today didn't show up to cover the Protecting Mother Earth Gathering and now has an article cheerleading the rape of the earth and the ongoing devastation by the oil and gas industry.

Perhaps the newspaper would have been less likely to publish a press release, during the newspaper's downward spiral, if its reporters or editors had been present at the Gathering and listened to the people here, and witnessed the carnage by the oil and gas industry.

Perhaps if Indian Country Today had listened to Kandi Mossett tell of how her 23-year-old friend was killed by one of these trucks here, the newspaper would not have been so careless in what it posts for profit.

"We can't drink the oil," Kandi said, as the tears fell from her eyes, remembering her friend and others being driven off the road by these trucks.

Maybe if Indian Country Today had listened to Kandi, and the other Native youths, and elders here of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations, speak of how the land, water and air is being poisoned, how the truck diesel and pollution spills onto the land, the newspaper would not have been so irresponsible.

Perhaps if the newspaper's staff had listened to the elders here tell how greed for money is destroying the nation today, it would not have carelessly published an article cheering for the oil and gas industry and the elected politicians.

Perhaps if the newspaper's staff had heard the elders speak of how the Three Affiliated Nations at Fort Berthold, were devastated by colonizers during the smallpox genocide, the editors would have taken their responsibility more seriously to both show up for the Gathering of Indigenous Peoples from across the Americas, and then publish the facts.

Maybe if the staff of Indian Country Today had been there, choking on the dust and gagging from the gas flaring, the staff might not have rushed to support President Tex Hall's ongoing publicity campaign.

The minimum for a newspaper is to show up and report the facts.

For Indian Country Today to engage in a counter campaign to this Gathering, and carelessly support the destruction of the earth, while publicizing its favored politicians, is what this newspaper does best.

The newspaper hit an all time low.

Please continue to boycott this newspaper.
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Please listen to the audio files from the Protecting Mother Earth Gathering, on the land of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, July 28-31, recorded by Earthcycles and Censored News:http://www.earthcycles.net/ienearth

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