Protesters gathered at the offices of the Iowa Utilities Board on Monday to celebrate the Army Corps of Engineers stopping pipeline construction in North Dakota. Iowa’s Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition also delivered a letter to the state utilities board, urging it to revoke the pipeline’s Iowa permit.
The Army Corps’s decision to not allow the pipeline to cross a reservoir near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation is not a fatal blow to Dakota Access. The pipeline could be rerouted, and the Corps’s decision may be appealed.
So opponents of Dakota Access aim to keep up the pressure on the IUB.
"For far too long, big oil has acted like they are God," says Kari Carney, who spoke at a demonstration held before the letter was delivered. "Our elected officials and government agencies have kowtowed to them, and let them do whatever they want."
Demonstrators are planning other events to resist the pipeline, including a Wednesday sit-in.
