Demonstrators opposing the controversial Dakota Access oil pipeline staged events across the country Tuesday, including in the North State.
Thousands marched down Market Street in San Francisco Tuesday morning, burning sage before blocking access to an office of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Protesters urged the corps and political leaders to revoke approvals for the pipeline, aimed at delivering North Dakota shale oil to Gulf Coast refineries.
A few hundred also picketed a Corps of Engineers office in Los Angeles. In Chico, about 30 people turned out to pressure Wells Fargo and US Bank, two institutions helping finance the pipeline.
Julia Murphy of Chico was among them. She urged people to close their accounts and bank elsewhere.
“If they, uhhh, keep their money in this bank, then they are uhh, they are giving their consent,” Murphy said.
The protests, led by Native Americans in North Dakota, are trying to block or at least re-route the pipeline, which they say, poses risks to local drinking water.