Trump's Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline executive orders draw big emergency protest

On the 24th of January, "Fuhrer" Donald Trump signed executive orders to restart the Keystone XL approval process and attempt to ram through the Dakota Access Pipeline. At 5PM, with just 4 hours notice, protesters started gathering at the White House to denounce this reckless decision. What began at 5PM with hundreds swelled by nightfall to what several Twitter posters estimated as more than 1,500 protesters.

Trump is going to have a problem with the Keystone, because the Nebraska state courts overturned the eminent domain process used by TransCanada to get a route. No matter what Trump says or does short of Federalizing eminent domain for pipelines, there is no route in Nebraska and won't be during Trump's 4 years in office.

As for the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline), Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said "President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,”continuing "Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream." Archambault also called the DAPL decision "political payback" to campaign contributors and personal friends in the DAPL project.

Most likely there is no way Trump can order either pipeline built without overturning both state and tribal laws. Still, under Fascism anything can happen so water protectors, tribal activists, and environmentalists are leaving nothing to chance.

Related: Arrests reported by far-right sources in NYC's #NoDAPL street march

Video from the start of the rally, before speakers even started. The rally grew so rapidly that in just minutes of filming the crowd extended further back, more completely surrounding banners that had once been in the front.