Clergy of many faiths from across the United States participate in a prayer circle Nov. 3, 2016, in front of a bridge in Standing Rock, North Dakota, where demonstrators confront police during a protest of the Dakota Access pipeline. (CNS/Reuters/Stephanie Keith)
Jessica Reznicek, a 39-year-old environmental activist and Catholic Worker from Des Moines, Iowa, was sentenced in federal court June 30 to eight years in prison for her efforts to sabotage construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
In November 2016, Reznicek and Ruby Montoya, a former preschool teacher, set fire to heavy construction equipment at a pipeline worksite in Buena Vista County, Iowa.
DAPL Avoids Shutdown in Latest ‘Twist’ in Oil Pipeline Litigation
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is free to keep flowing Bakken Shale oil while an environmental impact statement (EIS) is completed after a coalition of Native American Tribes failed in the first test for an injunction.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (DC) Judge James Boasberg last year axed a key permit for the pipeline to cross underneath Lake Oahe, which necessitated the EIS. In seeking an injunction, the tribes, led by the Standing Rock Sioux, failed to demonstrate that among other things they would likely suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an order closing the pipeline.