Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

In Dakota Access pipeline controversy, Obama's ties to tribes played pivotal role

The Washington Post: Three months ago a young Malaysian woman asked President Obama about the protests taking place over the Dakota Access pipeline: She wanted to know what the president was doing “to ensure the protection of the ancestral land, the supply of clean water, and also environmental justice.”

Obama was at a town hall with young leaders in Luang Prabang, Laos, thousands of miles from the sit-in on the Great Plains, and he did not have an answer: “I’d have to go back to my staff and find out how are we doing on this one,” he said.

The standoff, which evolved into a massive gathering of tribal representatives, environmentalists, veterans and other activists from across the nation, took the president and his aides by surprise. But it quickly captured their attention.

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