Standing With North Dakota’s Native Peoples To Resist Tar Sands Oil Refinery

Honor’s work against tar sands expansion first took the form of supporting Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) tribal members on the Fort Berthold Reservation in central North Dakota to combat a proposed oil refinery that would process tar sands crude oil on their lands. The project is ironically called a “clean fuels” refinery.

Honor submitted comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the refinery in September, 2006.  We worked with the Environmental Awareness Committee, a grassroots group on the reservation, to create materials to inform community members about the local impacts of constructing what would be the first new oil refinery in the US in 30 years. These materials featured viable energy alternatives, such as wind.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the project was just released in late August, 2009. Despite the environmental and financial risks associated with the refinery, the project continues to move forward.

We are continuing to work to halt the construction of the oil refinery. It is our belief that our communities, who face unparalleled poverty and unemployment, should not have to choose between their ecosystem and an economy. It’s time to break the cycle of saddling Native communities with the toxic impacts of our oil addiction. Positive alternatives exist.

The Fort Berthold reservation has thousands of times more wind power potential than it could use, making it a strong candidate to export clean power to the region. Fort Berthold leaders can still choose to develop the reservation’s wind resources instead of developing fossil fuels. Local jobs and tribal revenue can be generated in a way that nurtures rather than erodes our peoples’ health and land.