North Dakota spent tens of millions of dollars grappling with activists who used federal land as a launch pad for repeated protests against the Dakota Access pipeline, and now state officials want the federal government to pay.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum asked President Trump for a major disaster declaration in order for the state to seek $38 million in reimbursement for expenses stemming from protests that ran from August to March.
The Republican governor also encouraged the administration to conduct a review of disaster declaration criteria “to include intentional human-made disasters,” saying that the months-long Dakota Access demonstration “underscored the changing nature of protests in America.”
“Passionate causes, millions of dollars of anonymous protest funding (over $13.5 million on GoFundMe.com alone) and sophisticated and inflammatory social media campaigns have forever changed the nature, duration, and reach of unlawful protests,” Mr. Burgum said in his letter on Saturday.
“Sadly, I believe this will become the new normal in America,” he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican, announced Monday that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved up to $15 million in federal funding to help with the state’s Dakota Access costs.
Thousands of activists flowed into makeshift camps erected on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ property starting in August, using the site as a staging area for demonstrations that included blocking highways, trespassing on private property and setting fires on roads and a bridge.
“This situation was complicated by political interference from the previous White House administration, providing a lawless base of operation on federal land,” Mr. Burgum said.
The Obama administration dragged out the protests by delaying and then revoking a previously issued easement allowing the final 1,100 feet of the 1,172-mile pipeline to run on the federally managed property under Lake Oahe.
Even so, the Corps failed to “enforce its regulations and maintain law and order on its property” near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in southern North Dakota, said the Republican governor.
“Such inaction requires supplemental Federal assistance to mitigate the disproportionate expense experienced by local governments and the state of North Dakota,” Mr. Burgum said in his letter.
The North Dakota lawmakers are likely to receive a friendlier reception under Mr. Trump, who issued a memorandum in January to expedite the pipeline review process, than under President Obama, who offered little in the way of federal assistance despite repeated pleas by state officials.
“The previous presidential administration restricted support from federal partners to technical and liaison work,” Mr. Burgum said.
The Standing Rock Sioux initially led the protests over concerns about the pipeline’s impact on water quality and historic relics as well as objections to the federal government’s tribal consultation process.
Fine each protester $1000 each and fine Soros 20 million bucks for this all