Dakota Access pipeline builders are 'enthusiastic' about Trump presidency
The builder of the Dakota Access oil pipeline is "enthusiastic" about the coming presidency of Donald J. Trump.
Kelcy Warren, CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC, said Trump's surprising victory this week was a triumph for the U.S. oil and gas industry.
"We find ourselves in, I believe, a really good position," Warren said Thursday on a quarterly earnings call. "Overall, I'm very, very enthusiastic about what's going to happen with our country."
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The Dakota Access pipeline has drawn fierce opposition from Native American activists and their allies, who are gathering in North Dakota's prairie lands to physically block construction of a particular segment.
Confrontations between protesters and police intensified in recent weeks after law enforcement officials moved in with mace, rubber bullets, water blasts, sound bombs and attack dogs.
Opponents are aiming to stop the 1,170-mile pipeline from running beneath Lake Oahe, a large reservoir on the Missouri River. The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, home to about 15,000 members, sits just downstream of that river crossing.
Tribal leaders said they're worried the $3.8 billion pipeline could contaminate the region's water supplies and destroy culturally significant sites. Energy Transfer Partners has said the pipeline would include advanced safety designs and wouldn't cross sacred or cultural sites along the route.
The Texas energy company has already completed about 84 percent of Dakota Access, Warren said.
But the company can't finish the pipeline until the Obama administration grants it a final piece of approval: an easement to build a tunnel beneath the federally protected river.
President Barack Obama last week suggested that approval might not come for at least a few weeks. He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers instead is looking at possible alternative routes for Dakota Access.
The pipeline company has rebuffed the Obama administration's repeated requests to voluntarily halt construction near Lake Oahe due to the protests.
On Tuesday, Dakota Access LLC issued a statement saying the company expected to bring all its drilling equipment to the lake within two weeks, after which point it would start drilling.
In response, the Army Corps's Omaha office said it was "concerned" by the company's reluctance to delay construction.
Trump has not announced a public position on the Dakota Access pipeline. But he has expressed broad support for the fossil fuel industry and is vowing to dismantle Obama's climate change and environmental policies.
Trump has invested between $500,000 and $1 million in Energy Transfer Partners, according to his financial disclosure forms, the Guardian reported in October.
Warren, the firm's CEO, gave $103,000 to Trump's presidential campaign and gave an additional $68,000 to the Republican National Committee after the real estate mogul secured the GOP's presidential nomination, records show.
"Overall, having a government that actually backs up what they say, that actually says we're going to support infrastructure, we're going to support job creation, we're going to support growth in America, and then actually does it -- my god, this is going to be refreshing," Warren said.
"We're really, really enthusiastic about our future."
Topics Elections
Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.
