The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made news yesterday by denying easement of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a move that environmental activists cheered. Supporters of DAPL called the move a “purely political” one that “flies in the face of common sense.”

The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile pipeline made national news earlier this year when hundreds of American Indians and environmentalists converged on the project’s construction site near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.

DAPL does not cross tribal land, but crosses under Lake Oahe, which Standing Rock Sioux officials claim contains sacred sites. The tribe also claims the pipeline could harm their drinking water. Lake Oahe is a man-made lake made in the 1960s when the federal government dammed up the Missouri River.

The Army Corps of Engineers earlier this year approved easement of the pipeline, before activists swarmed the area. It wasn’t until the protesters, who have not been models of environmental quality themselves, began raising a ruckus that the government backtracked.

Rather than a victory for democracy, it feels more like final plea to the Left to honor and revere all he has done for them before he leaves. There is no scientific evidence that is being used to back up the decision, and it is clear that it has more to do with environmental activism than over matters of safety.