Dallas pipeline exec compares Dakota protesters to terrorists

A top executive at the company building the controversial Dakota Access pipeline on Wednesday compared pipeline opponents to terrorists.

Joey Mahmoud, executive vice president of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, said protesters have “assaulted numerous pipeline personnel,” destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of construction equipment and even fired a pistol at law enforcement during months of demonstrations against the 1,200-mile pipeline, which will carry North Dakota oil to an Illinois terminal.

Mahmoud said in written testimony to Congress that the protest movement “induced individuals to break into and shut down pump stations on four operational pipelines. Had these actions been undertaken by foreign nationals, they could only be described as acts of terrorism.”

Mahmoud omitted the comment about terrorism as he read his testimony aloud to a House energy subcommittee Wednesday. The comment was included in written remarks submitted to the panel.

The chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux, one of two tribes suing to stop the project, called Mahmoud’s comments unfair to opponents.

“The majority of them are there in prayer,” Chairman Harold Frazier told reporters after The Associated Press reported Mahmoud’s remarks. “From what I’ve seen [law enforcement officers] are the terrorists.”

Law enforcement has used rubber bullets, tear gas and water sprays against protesters during clashes in southern North Dakota near the pipeline route, Frazier said, adding that he personally has been hit by rubber bullets and tear gas.

In his prepared testimony, Mahmoud also blasted the Obama administration, which twice delayed the project last year.

“The Department of the Interior, and most likely senior members of the White House staff, interfered deeply and inappropriately in the waning stages of the regulatory process,” Mahmoud said. “Even a company as large as Energy Transfer is helpless in the face of a government which will neither obey nor enforce the law.”

Mahmoud called the delays “politically motivated actions” that were “accompanied by a host of half-truths and misrepresentations in both social and mainstream media.”

A federal judge on Monday refused to stop construction on the last stretch of the pipeline, which is progressing much faster than expected and could be operational as soon as next month.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that as long as oil isn’t flowing through the pipeline, there is no imminent harm to the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River tribes, which are suing to stop the project. Another hearing is scheduled on Feb. 27.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 1:53 PM with the headline "Dallas pipeline exec compares Dakota protesters to terrorists."