Attorney General Stenehjem gives Dakota Access 30 days to explain land purchase
[font color="navy"size="3"]BISMARCK — Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem on Tuesday, Sept. 27, gave the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline 30 days to explain how it intends to use thousands of acres of ranchland purchased last week around the pipeline route in Morton County — and how it complies with the state's anti-corporate farming law.[/font]
Stenehjem said he received the deed on Tuesday, Sept. 27, for the sale in which Dakota Access LLC, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP, acquired most of the historic Cannonball Ranch from ranchers David and Brenda Meyer of Flasher in a deal totaling more than 7,000 acres for an undisclosed price.
The property in southern Morton County is just north of where thousands of American Indians and other pipeline opponents have been camping for weeks, drawing international attention. It also includes the land where the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe alleges Dakota Access bulldozers disturbed ancestral burials and other sacred sites, a claim the company denies.
Stenehjem said his office will review the case for compliance with the anti-corporate farming law, which prohibits corporations and limited liability companies from owning or leasing farmland and ranchland and from engaging in farming or ranching, with an exception for family corporations and LLCs with up to 15 related shareholders.
Attorney says DAPL land purchase violates anti-corporate farming law
"We'll treat this just like we do every case," he told Forum News Service.
The law also contains exceptions for corporations to own farmland or ranchland when it's "necessary" for residential or commercial development and industrial or business purposes. Dakota Access indicated on the deed that it intends to change the use of the agricultural land, but it didn't say how.
In a letter Tuesday to Dakota Access, the attorney general's office asked the company to reply within 30 days "stating the purpose for which the land is used and, if it is farm or ranch land, whether it meets any exceptions to the law."
http://www.inforum.com/news/state/4124339-stenehjem-gives-dakota-access-30-days-explain-land-purchase