blog post 2
Problems with the Dakota Access Pipeline
The Dakota Access Pipeline is an underground oil pipeline in the United States. The pipeline starts in the oil fields of the Bakken Formation in northwest North Dakota and runs through South Dakota and Iowas to an oil terminal in Illinois. The Dakota Access Pipeline forms with the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas. These pipelines form the Bakken system. The pipeline system cost $3.78 billion and was announced in June 2014. Construction started in June 2016 controlled by Energy Transfer Partners. The pipeline was completed in April 2017 and the oil was delivered on May 14, 2017.
The environmental impact of the pipeline was not taken into deep consideration. The Dakota Access Pipeline runs through many sites that are sacred to the Native Americans. The pipeline provides a major threat to the water, including the main source of water used for drinking. The Sierra Club is a group that has been involved in protecting the land, water, and climate, from the destructive pipeline. In Iowa, the fight to shut off the pipeline is in the hands of the Iowa Supreme Court. The Iowa Sierra Club chair Carolyn Raffensperger stated that the “...Supreme Court hearing is the last chance we have to stop the oil flowing through the Dakota Access pipeline and protect the true necessity of the citizenry, our drinking water.” In Iowa, the law permits a pipeline can be accepted by the Iowa Utilities Board only if the pipeline advances “public convenience and necessity”. It should be clear that the pipeline is not benefiting the public and should not be taken priority.
In 2017, President Donald Trump announced that the construction would continue on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, both of these had been stalled under the Obama administration. The other side of the argument sees this as a great boost to the American economy. President Trump predicted that the construction of the pipeline would create 28,000 jobs. TransCanada, the owner of the pipeline said it would create 20,000 direct jobs in the U.S. and an additional 118,000. After a review by the State Department, the project was estimated to create 42,000 jobs directly and indirectly. These 42,000 jobs would only take place during the construction which was estimated to take a year. Only 3,900 would be full-time positions. The Washington Post conducted research and put the number of jobs to around 16,000 indirect jobs. Getting a job on the pipeline is also hard to come by since most of the pipeline was already constructed except for a piece under Lake Oahe. This section of land passes under a source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Towns around the construction of the pipeline might have an increase in customers, but as the jobs from construction, this influx of new customers would be temporary. The other side sees the pipeline as a great expansion for the economy, but the statistics show that the jobs would only be temporary. The protection of the Indigenous communities well being is more important than a temporary economic boost.
Protests against the pipeline erupted among indigenous nations around the country. The Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota had around 15,000 people around the world protesting and staging sit-ins. The pipeline affects the people’s water, but also runs through ancient burial grounds and cultural sites of historic importance. In April 2016, the Standing Rock youth and surrounding Native American communities organized a campaign to stop the pipeline. They are called “ReZpect Our Water.” Tribal historian LaDonna Brave Bull Allard established a water protectors’ camp for direct action, being inspired by the Standing Rock youth. The camp is a center for direct action and demonstrates spiritual resistance to the pipeline. In September 2016, construction workers bulldozed privately owned land that was the tribe’s sacred ground. When protesters began protesting in the area, security workers used attack dogs which attacked six protesters and one horse. In November 2016, police used water cannons on protesters in freezing weather. Conflicts like these and others gained national attention on social media which resulted in national and global support for the protests.
In March 2020, a United States district judge made a ruling that the government had not created an adequate environmental impact report on the “effects on the quality of the human environment.” The United States Army Corps of Engineers was ordered to conduct a new environment impact review. In July 2020, a District Court judge issues a ruling for the pipeline to be shut down and the oil to be emptied. The temporary shutdown order was overturned by a U.S. appeals court on August 5th. The pipeline continued until 2021. Joe Biden promised if he was to be elected that the project would be abandoned. On his first day of office, President Biden revoked the permit. The construction of the harmful pipeline has stopped, but this does not mean that the project is destroyed for good. President Obama halted the project, but when President Trump got elected, he immediately called for the project to continue. Many Republican politicians still want the Dakota Access Pipeline to be in effect. If the pipeline was to be reopened, the thick tar sands oil is more acidic and corrosive which would cause a leak in the pipeline. The Native American people would lose their sacred grounds and clean water once again. The tar sand oil which is being transported in the pipeline is a lot harder to clean up because it immediately sinks to the bottom of the water. The people and wildlife that come into contact are exposed to toxic chemicals. The Dakota Access Pipeline is shut down for now, but future presidents might have different agendas. The pipeline needs to be terminated permanently to protect the Native lands and the environment.
Sources
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Access_Pipeline_protests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakota_Access_Pipeline
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/22/us-supreme-court-dakota-access-pipeline
https://www.narf.org/keystone-xl/