USA

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Standing Rock Sioux's effort to block a four-state oil pipeline got a lifeline when the federal government temporarily stopped the project, a move some say likely may forever change the way all energy infrastructure projects are reviewed in the future.

Three Canadian banks are among the more than two dozen financial
institutions identified as backers of the controversial Dakota Access
Pipeline and its associated companies. The pipeline has been the focus of
intense opposition from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota, who
fear that a spill would poison their water supply, as well as from other
Native Americans, Indigenous peoples in Canada, and environmentalists.
 
The planned pipeline would bring oil from North Dakota to Illinois, but has

Scientists’ warnings that the rise of the sea would eventually
imperil the United States’ coastline are no longer theoretical.

On September 3, the Dakota Access pipeline company attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they protested against the $3.8 billion pipeline’s construction. If completed, the pipeline would carry about 500,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota’s Bakken oilfield to Illinois. The project has faced months of resistance from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and members of nearly 100 more tribes from across the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. is expected to reach a major carbon emissions milestone this year: For the first time, carbon dioxide emissions from burning natural gas in the U.S. are set to surpass those from burning coal — the globe’s chief climate polluter.

Emissions from burning natural gas are expected to be 10 percent greater than those from coal in 2016, as electric companies rely more on power plants that run on natural gas than those that run on coal, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.