Former US Democrat presidential candidate said the US needs to “transform” its energy system and not “build more pipelines”.
The Senator made the comments after he was approached by a journalist on his way to a protest in North Dakota against a planned pipeline in the state.
His comments come after North Dakota’s governor activated 100 National Guard troops ahead of an expected ruling on a Native American tribe’s request to halt construction of a crude oil pipeline
which has drawn fierce opposition and protests.
The $3.7billion Dakota Access pipeline would carry oil from just north of land owned by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to Illinois where it would hook up to an existing pipeline and route crude directly to refineries in the US Gulf Coast.
Sanders said: “I think this is an issue which is gaining more and more support across the country. It’s an issue of climate change, the need to transform our energy system, not build more
pipelines and it is also the issue of standing with the people who have been exploited.
“I’m going to do everything I can.”
Opponents to the pipeline have said the project will damage burial sites considered sacred to the tribe.