Pipeline workers “swarmed” by protesters, two chained to equipment

Arrest warrant for reporter Goodman said to be “a transparent
attempt to intimidate reporters from covering protests …”

MANDAN, N.D. — The Latest on the dispute over the Dakota Access pipeline, a thousand-mile pipeline under construction to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois:

1:55 p.m.

Authorities say several people have been arrested for interfering with the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline about 70 miles northwest of the main protest site, which is near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

Morton County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Donnell Preskey says several law enforcement authorities responded to the site near Glen Ullin late Tuesday morning.

She says construction workers were “swarmed” by protesters and that two people had chained themselves to equipment.

Preskey did not immediately know how many people had been arrested or what charges the might face.

This specific section of the pipeline is not part of the temporary work stoppage issued by a federal judge or the section that the federal government asked Energy Transfer Partners to voluntarily stop work on.

12:10 p.m.

The company building the Dakota Access oil pipeline says it is removing damaged construction equipment from the area near a protest site in North Dakota.

Asked Tuesday if the removal indicates Energy Transfer Partners is backing down on its plans to build the pipeline, spokeswoman Vicki Granado underlined comments in an internal memo saying the company is committed to the project.

Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the area to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which says the pipeline will harm water supplies and disturb sacred burial and cultural sites.

Morton County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Rob Keller says the company reported that protesters vandalized the equipment. Keller says about 30 bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy equipment were taken away on flatbed trailers Tuesday morning.

9:05 a.m.

A broadcast journalist reporting on a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline has been charged with criminal trespassing in North Dakota, a misdemeanor that an international watchdog says should be dropped.

Court records show Amy Goodman, the host of independent news program “Democracy Now,” was charged Thursday and a warrant for her arrest was issued in Morton County.

Carlos Lauria is senior program coordinator for the Americas with the Committee to Protect Journalists. Lauria says the warrant is “a transparent attempt to intimidate reporters from covering protests of significant public interest.”

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The Bismarck Tribune reports that court documents show the New York-based Goodman was charged based on video footage of a protest on private property during Labor Day weekend.

Goodman reported on a clash between private security guards and protesters.

8:50 a.m.

The company developing the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline says it is committed to the project, despite strong opposition and a federal order to halt construction near an American Indian reservation in North Dakota.

Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the four-state project is nearly 60 percent complete and that “concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the local water supply are unfounded.”

The 1,172-mile project would carry nearly a half-million barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota’s oil fields through South Dakota and Iowa to an existing pipeline in Patoka, Illinois.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota is suing federal regulators for approving the oil pipeline, arguing it will harm water supplies and disturb sacred burial and cultural sites.