Auchandirect planners.
Additionally, significant changes are in store for the city of Portland, where the Dakota Access Pipeline is in the works. Zwicker, a state environmental prosecutor, has begun probing the pipeline for potential violations of state and federal law, with the goal of subpoenaing documents and hearing witnesses. According to the report, Zwacker has identified five locations where pipeline development is currently planned that could be subject to “robust and constructive reviews by the city.”
A Dakotas representative from a pipeline opponent agreed to speak with the Guardian about Zworker’s work and her concerns.
During her talk, she pointed out that the attorney general’s office, and the state Attorney General’s Office, have a stated policy regarding pipeline projects. The state’s Environmental Defense Board, which is created by the governor, assesses pipeline compliance with federal, state and local laws, as well as with the National Environment System code that governs thousands of water, land, and air operations.
“The office does a great job of getting involved in regulations, reviewing those and feedbacking its actions to the governor,” said Zwang. “I think, if there’s any dispute between the state and the company, that it’s under a state law, who in this case are the state?”
She acknowledged the criticism of the Zwecker Act, but “If they wanted to [eject] a baronet, perhaps they could have done that in a different way.”
“We have to protect the bottom line and protect the environment and we have to work with bosses,” she said, adding that “the way they want to do it is totally wrong.”
The attorney general and the Sheriff’s Department have already sided with the pipelines company, as have officials from the Portland Police Department and the City of Portmelon Island. A spokesperson for the federal EPA told the Guardian that “we have no evidence of [a] failure of the EPA or the state to follow its own environmental license review process.”
Contrast this with the retaliatory “tough on crime” anti-pipeline laws passed last month in Arizona, where local officials are enforcin