The Karuk Tribe, located on the Klamath River in Northern California, today announced its opposition to the Jordan Cove LNG terminal and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline projects, joining the Yurok and Klamath Tribes in officially opposing the controversial project.

“The proposed pipeline would carry fracked natural gas across or under 400 bodies of water in the Klamath, Rogue, Umpqua, Coquille and Coos watersheds,” according to a statement from the Karuk Tribe. “The 36-inch underground pipeline would travel from Malin, OR to a proposed terminal in Coos Bay and require a permanent 232-mile long and approximately 100-foot wide clear cut through these already impaired watersheds. The terminal, built in the tsunami zone, would export liquefied natural gas abroad.”

“With our fisheries and water quality already compromised, we simply cannot afford the risks associated with running a natural gas pipeline beneath the Klamath River,” said Karuk Chairman Russell ‘Buster’ Attebery.

Area Tribes and conservation groups see this issue as very similar to the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL) struggle in North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies have been faced with police brutality, rubber bullets, dog attacks and other violence as they fight to protect their land, sacred sites and nation’s second longest river, the Missouri.

Many in the Karuk Tribal community will join members of the Yurok Tribe, Klamath Tribes, Klamath Riverkeeper and the Klamath Justice Coalition at the capitol building in Salem, OR today, Monday, November 14 at 1 pm to demand that the Oregon Department of State Lands put an end to the project.

The Yurok Tribe announced its opposition to the terminal and pipeline in a statement issued on November 9.

“The impacts to salmon, other fish and native wildlife, in combination with the inherent risks to human populations, are unacceptable,” the Tribe stated.

You can expect to see campaigns against fracking, the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines and the expansion of offshore drilling to build momentum as incoming President Trump promotes increased fossil fuel extraction across the nation.

On Friday, Trump’s  transition team released their “energy” plan that proclaims their plans to expand onshore and offshore oil drilling on federal lands and waters — and to “streamline” the permitting process for all energy projects. Their statement is absolutely chilling for anybody who cares about fish and wildlife, people, water, the environment and the public trust:

‘Rather than continuing the current path to undermine and block America’s fossil fuel producers, the Trump Administration will encourage the production of these resources by opening onshore and offshore leasing on federal lands and waters. We will streamline the permitting process for all energy projects, including the billions of dollars in projects held up by President Obama, and rescind the job-destroying executive actions under his Administration. We will end the war on coal, and rescind the coal mining lease moratorium, the excessive Interior Department stream rule, and conduct a top-down review of all anti-coal regulations issued by the Obama Administration. We will eliminate the highly invasive “Waters of the US” rule, and scrap the $5 trillion dollar Obama-Clinton Climate Action Plan and the Clean Power Plan and prevent these unilateral plans from increasing monthly electric bills by double-digits without any measurable effect on Earth’s climate.’

Also on Friday, Representative Devin Nunes (CA-22), one of the most extreme Congressional opponents of fish and wildlife restoration in California, the West and the nation and one of the strongest backers of increasing Delta water exports to corporate agribusiness, joined the 16-member executive committee of Donald Trump’s transition team.

“Today I was honored to have been named to the executive committee of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team,” said Nunes. “In this role, I will advise President-elect Trump on the appointments of his Cabinet members and on appointments to other top positions in the new administration. I look forward to helping to assemble an energetic and forward-looking team that will capably lead our country toward more economic growth, greater opportunity, and a safer homeland for all Americans.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Politico reported Wednesday that David Bernhardt, a lawyer who co-chaired the natural resources department at the firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and served as a George W. Bush Interior Department official, is leading the transition’s Interior Department team.

According to Congressional disclosures, his current lobbying clients include the Westlands Water District, considered the Darth Vader of California politics by Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists, and one of the biggest proponents of exporting more Delta water. Bernhart  represented the Westlands Water District on litigation involving the Delta and the Endangered Species Act. (www.politico.com)