There seems to be some confusion over the recent denial of the permit for Energy Transfer Partners to continue its drilling for the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, where demonstrations organized by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have been taking place.
The Water Protectors have been trying to defend from drilling by the oil company a body of water that serves not only the Standing Rock reservation but also 18 million people downstream.
In the past 20 years, 9,006 pipeline incidents have resulted in 548 deaths, 2,576 injuries, and $8.5 billion in damages.
A western North Dakota pipeline was recently shut down after a spill released an undetermined amount of crude oil.
President Barack Obama's recent permit denial did not call an end to the project. It mandated that Energy Transfer Partners conduct an environmental impact study, which includes a cost/benefit analysis of the project.
This same analysis was responsible for stopping the Keystone XL pipeline project because it forced the company to disclose the true costs and benefits of its activities - namely, that it would create fewer than 35 jobs and that the oil would would not, as originally stated, be used exclusively in this country but would be shipped to Asia. The same would be true of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Although some people believe that Obama's actions did stop the project entirely, that is not accurate. It could continue after the cost/benefit analysis.
But this delay gives the public the opportunity to decide if the project would be worthwhile, due to its risk of contaminating the water supply and the land for 18 million people and its threat of dramatically worsening the efforts to curtail climate change.