The Color of Climate

The Dakota Access Pipeline Shutdown Is a Bitter Win

Environmental justice activists are ‘cautiously optimistic’

Indigenous protesters march to the site of a sacred burial ground that was disturbed by the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) on September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Photo illustration. Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from OneZero exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.

Environmental justice activists in the United States celebrated two monumental wins in the fight against fossil fuels this week. The construction of two fossil fuel pipelines, both threatening the lives of Black, indigenous, and poor people, was suddenly halted after several years of opposition from activists.

On Sunday, Dominion Power and Duke Energy announced the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) project, citing “ongoing delays and increasing cost uncertainty.” The pipeline was slated to run 600 miles through poor white communities in West Virginia and Virginia, as well as Black and indigenous communities in North Carolina.

The next day, a federal judge suspended construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performs a thorough review of the project’s potential environmental impacts. The DAPL, planned by Energy Transfer Partners, is a 1,172-mile long project that threatens several Sioux tribes…