Format of public comment meetings for Dakota Access oil pipeline upsets opponents

BISMARCK, N.D. — Opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline are taking issue with the format of private oral testimony in meetings for public comment on a draft environmental review of the controversial pipeline. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of two public comment meetings in Bismarck, North Dakota, the first held Wednesday, the second set for Thursday. The public comment meetings should be held on the reservation, said Peter Capossela, one of Standing Rock’s attorneys. “If the Army Corps is genuinely interested in hearing the views of tribal members and learning about the potential environmental impacts of an oil spill at the DAPL/Lake Oahe crossing, it would have held public hearings on the reservation that’s going to be polluted by a spill,” Capossela told the AP.