Tracing the Moneyed Interests Behind the Dakota Access Pipeline

FEATURING HUGH MACMILLAN – As the occupation at Cannon Ball River in North Dakota led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe continues, details are now emerging about Wall Street’s financial interests in the project facing mass protest. The Dakota Access Pipeline will carry crude Bakkan oil, obtained from fracking operations across four states. Several federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers quietly approved permits months ago and Energy Transfer, the company overseeing the pipeline construction, is actively digging up the earth and laying down pipes.

But the project that is desecrating native burial grounds and threatens drinking water supplies from the Missouri River, is a potential cash cow for dozens of big corporations. All told, the Energy Transfer group of companies has obtained more than $10 billion in loans and credit from more than 3 dozen banks including  JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.

Find more at www.fwwatch.org and read Hugh MacMillan’s article HERE.

Hugh MacMillan is a senior researcher in the water program at Food & Water Watch. Previously he served one year as a legislative fellow and science advisor in the U.S. Senate and five years as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Clemson University.