Blue state Minnesota compels pipeline company to work with tribes at sacred site

So, how is it that Republicans are militantly divided over the utility of eminent domain for private enterprise for pipelines to move CO2 but are just fine with employing it for the entrepreneurial transport of oil and gas? 

In 2012 and 2013 ONEOK drove piplelines through sage grouse habitat in eastern Montana and Wyoming with little pushback from residents even though a segment of a newly-built high pressure TransCanada gas pipeline exploded 20 miles west of Gillette, Wyoming. In 2018 ONEOK drove yet another gas pipeline that runs parallel to its existing ones right through at least 23 prehistoric sites near Devils Tower National Monument, some of which are archaeological treasures eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Even though the US Army Corps of Engineers is required to perform archaeological surveys of major river and stream crossings imagine these projects going through cemeteries where people of European descent are buried. 

In southwestern Minnesota Pipestone National Monument is still an oasis but now it's surrounded by Earth hating Republicans, glyphosate-saturated cornfields and overkill concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs.

On Tuesday members of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission rescinded a September decision to grant a specific route permit for a gas line near Pipestone National Monument, a site sacred to tribal nations. Magellan Pipeline Company supplies over half of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel used by consumers in eastern North Dakota, eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota. The company is owned by ONEOK, Inc., an Oklahoma-based company. [Minnesota regulators require studies along possible routes before pipeline construction near sacred site]

It's not impossible Pipestone will be an Amtrak stop someday.

Image: Indian Country Today Media.