http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/44083-how-standing-rock-is-leading-by-example-on-renewable-energy
[links in on-line article]
How Standing Rock Is Leading by Example on Renewable Energy
Saturday, April 07, 2018
By Michael Sainato, Truthout | Report
The Trump administration quickly overturned the December 2016 decision
by the Army Corps of Engineers to halt the construction of the infamous
Dakota Access Pipeline -- almost as quickly as Trump took office.
Subsequent challenges in court failed to prevent the pipeline from being
completed and going into operation. Rather than concede defeat, Water
Protectors have shifted their focus and efforts to battling the oil and
coal industry on different fronts.
On the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the Water Protector camps are no
longer standing, but some organizers who lived and organized in those
camps are now shaping the movement to shift the reservation away from
its dependence on fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.
In 1956, the Standing Rock Sioux sued the Army Corps of Engineers and
was promised -- as part of the settlement over the creation of dams on
the Missouri River that stole part of the reservation's land and
resources -- free electricity for the reservation. Instead, the
reservation pays some of the highest rates for electricity in both North
and South Dakota. Some residents pay $1,000 a month in electric bills,
even as more than 40 percent of individuals on the reservation live
below the poverty line.
In order to alleviate these steep electricity bills and the
reservation's dependence on electric companies charging high rates for
usage, the reservation is working toward creating a mandatory renewable
energy standard, where, by 2030, 50 percent of North and South Dakota's
energy will come from renewable resources, with a long-term goal of
total renewable use. Currently, the majority of electricity in North
Dakota is powered by coal.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab's
"Disobedience Finalist Award" was given to the Standing Rock Water
Protectors in July of 2017. The award is given to responsible, ethical
disobedience in US society, and the Water Protectors received a $10,000
cash prize. On their behalf, Phyllis Young, Joseph White Eyes, Jasilyn
Charger and LaDonna Bravebull Allard accepted the award. Young and
Bravebull Allard called on MIT to develop a partnership to address the
issues facing the Standing Rock reservation.
In January 2018, Young, a former council member for the Standing Rock
Sioux tribe and the coordinator/organizer for Central Oceti Sakowin camp
-- the main camp of Water Protectors at Standing Rock -- organized an
energy summit on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation attended by several
faculty and staff members from Solve MIT, a resource to connect
technology innovators with financial partners and other technology
experts to implement solutions for specific societal challenges. Shortly
after, MIT announced the Solve fellowship with the Oceti Sakowin. Four
to six members of the Oceti community will receive grants this year to
complete renewable energy projects for the community. Fellows will
attend an MIT event in May 2018, and another one in Standing Rock in
August 2018.
As Solve MIT begins to identify fellows and projects to help support,
the Lakota People's Law Project, a North Dakota-based legal group
dedicated to "efforts to reclaim ancestral lands, and to stop all
threats to Lakota land and resources," identified SuperGreen Solutions,
a small renewable energy group in Bismarck, North Dakota, working to
increase energy efficiency and propose renewable energy systems using
wind and solar power. The company has already assessed two of eight
districts in the reservation to come up with specific proposals for
implementing new systems for energy efficiency.
"Tens of millions of dollars can be saved by Standing Rock and millions
of pounds of carbon prevented from entering the atmosphere," said Danny
Paul Nelson, deputy director of the Lakota People's Law Project.
"Anything we can do to save these communities' resources for social
welfare and basic living is a huge benefit from a social justice point
of view, but the environmental impact is immense too. There is an
opportunity here to set an example for the world -- not just how to
protest the creation of fossil fuel infrastructure, but also in how to
create renewable energy infrastructure as a response to being bullied by
the oil industry, which is how we interpret what happened with [the
movement against the pipeline]."
The Lakota People's Law Project is pushing for a petition to implement
what's known as a Renewable Portfolio Standard in North and South
Dakota, which would mandate a shift in each state to 50 percent
renewable energy by 2030. The group is also advocating for other
legislation that facilitates the shift toward renewable energy, like the
solar access law that would permit residents to install solar energy
infrastructure without the burden of regulations preventing them from
doing so.
"North and South Dakota have nothing right now in place to facilitate
the shift to renewable energy infrastructure. These states are heavily
reliant on fossil fuels, even though these other options exist," says
Nelson. He noted that Standing Rock can't act in isolation, and
statewide legislation would help make Standing Rock's transition easier,
as well as elevate awareness of renewable energy throughout North and
South Dakota.
"Coal and oil reign supreme in the Dakotas. They have so much power no
one even questions them, and people barely even know what solar is.
Rather than it being a battle, there is a vacuum of understanding and
interest in green energy. Our interest is in stoking vigorous
engagement, with Standing Rock providing leadership in making that
happen," he said.