Section of Keystone pipeline leaks in South Dakota

Crews from TransCanada shut down its Keystone pipeline after 5,000 barrels of crude oil spilled near Amherst in Marshall County, South Dakota.

An assessment and investigation are underway after the leak was detected around 0600 local time. Hackers with nefarious intent have been stepping up attacks against American infrastructure recently and overloading sensors that control pipeline pressure has not been ruled out.

The spill comes just days before Nebraska rules on a permit for the Keystone XL.

Human error is cited as the cause in a Sunday spill in North Dakota that leaked 270 barrels, or 11,340 gallons of saltwater mine waste because crews there failed to close a valve.

The Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux have filed court documents urging a federal judge to reject the recent arguments of federal officials and the pipeline developer that the tribes' proposals aren't needed. The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an additional court-ordered review of the pipeline's impact on tribal interests. While that's done, the tribes want additional protections such as emergency equipment staging at the pipeline's Lake Oahe crossing on the Missouri River, which is their water source. [KSFY teevee]

In 2016 even earth hater South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson said the Keystone XL won’t happen without State Department approval.

Launching a $30,000 fundraising drive for a kitchen at Wiconi Un Tipi Camp, the No KXL Dakota Alliance announced a November 21 signing ceremony for the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred Against Tar Sands and the KXL Pipeline. The camp in Lower Brule is strategically located to block the path of a proposed power line that TransCanada Corp. has slated to carry electricity to a pumping station on the Keystone XL tar-sands crude pipeline route through unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory.

Read that here.

Despite the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Excess Pipelines fuel costs in the region are soaring.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is expected to take up two water rights settlement bills next month.

How much global warming since 1950 is due to us? Pretty much all of it. New post by @khaustein about his recent study https://t.co/lMKjzG8rIe pic.twitter.com/isduCjXakL

— Carl Zimmer (@carlzimmer) November 16, 2017