Boston Entrepreneur & West Roxbury Protest Lateral Pipeline & Dakota Access Pipeline
Lor Holmes isn’t just a Boston entrepreneur running CERO- she’s also one of the many voices in Boston protesting the #DakotaAccessPipeline and the #WestRoxburyPipeline.
Lor, and many other protestors, have been protesting Spectra’s construction of the West Roxbury Lateral Pipeline because of the overwhelming negative impacts pipelines have on the community and the environment. The pipeline was not approved by the local permitting process, but federal regulations allowed Spectra to continue construction anyway. Last week, 23 peaceful protestors (including Al Gore’s daughter Karenna Gore) were arrested on counts of “resisting arrest and disturbing the peace”.
Lor and the Boston protestors are also using this form of protest as a way to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe,a First Nation peoples fighting against the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Thousands of people from over 200 other First nation tribes, along with allies, have come out to support the Standing Rock Sioux at Standing Rock.
What’s The Big Deal About Pipelines?
Pipelines pose a number of of risks and detrimental possibilities to the environment and consequently, to the surrounding communities.
However, due to pipelines usually being of federal interest as sources of energy, pipelines are often built without the consideration of the people living in the affected area or of the potentially catastrophic affects they could have on the environment.
This means that pipelines can (and are) built without accountability or the consent of the local population. We see this happening right here in West Roxbury with the Lateral Pipeline.
Here’s what you need to know about pipelines and the Dakota Access Pipeline:
- Since 1995, there have been more than 2,000 accidents involving pipelines carrying crude oil and refined petroleum products- this has cost the government about $3 billion in property damage (source).
- First Nation peoples have been historically and continously forced off of their ancestral lands, stripped of land ownership rights and disenfranchised by the U.S government.
- Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline has already destroyed sacred land and religious sites of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Protestors have been maced and attacked by dogs sent in by private agencies, agencies with long standing interests in the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- Environmental groups and First Nation Peoples have expressed extreme concern over the very real possibility that the pipeline could contaminate the Missouri River, a major source of water.
- Technically, the U.S is violating The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 which guarantees complete and total access, undisturbed access, [of the land] to the Great Sioux Nation of the Oceti Sakowin. You can read more here on the treaty.
- The U.N Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has told the U.S that the Sioux must have a say in the construction of the pipeline- the U.S has violated the U.N Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples because of their failure to consult with the Sioux over the pipeline project.
What Can I Do To Help?
Get familiar with the fight here at home. Understanding how the pipeline affects your community is the first step in understanding the protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline. You can visit Resist The Pipeline at their Facebook page and website, sign up to receive newsletters and contribute in whichever way you can.
You may not be able to get out to Dakota to protest but here’s what needs to be done: Resist the Pipeline is encouraging everyone to share this information and donate.
- “The Chiefs, called Headsmen, of the Oceti Sakowin, or 7 Council Fires, are the Traditional Leaders of the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Nation need funds to travel to DC to Federal Injunction Hearing on September 9th to stop the “Dakota Access” Pipeline(DAPL)”. You can donate and share the word on the fundraiser here.
- Follow and spread the hashtags #NoDAPL- we can use social media to bring more awareness to the protests and hold the government and these “private agencies” accountable for their transactions against civil rights.
