The Future

In 2014, Dakota Access, LLC, announced plans to build a $3.7 billion pipeline that would stretch from North Dakota to Illinois, about 1,170 miles across four states. The pipeline while being built is to create 8,000 to 12,000 jobs and once completed, predicted to haul approximately 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration advocate pipelines to be the safest option for transporting oil and natural gases because unlike rail cars and trucks, there is not a possibility of wreckage, therefore no chance of large spread fires. 

However this has brought light to another frequent issue, that of leakage and ruptures. For example, in 2013, an Enbridge Energy pipeline broke open and spilled 843,000 gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo river in Michigan, which resulted in a cleanup that cost millions and took years.

Over the past several months, the DAPL has received national attention and attracted thousands of protesters. Worried of the potential health hazards the pipeline could bring to the surrounding inhabitants, environmentalists and tribe members (primarily from Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) from all around have begun peaceful protests. The Sioux object because part of the pipeline is to be built on sacred burial lands, but the overwhelming majority of the pipeline is built on private property. Only a small portion of the pipeline is slated to be built on federal land. Therefore the Federal Government has very limited options on what it can do to help the Sioux Nation oppose the construction of the DAPL. 

I believe fossil fuel is the fuel of the past and the United States government should not support a private industry major investment in the infrastructure of the fossil fuel economy. Furthermore, as a government and a nation, we should not jeopardize the environment or waste money and effort to maintain a diminishing and inefficient fuel source. I believe the U.S. government should respect the wishes of the Sioux Nation and support them in their opposition to the construction of the DAPL. I would rather see private industry, with government support, use the $3.7 billion to build an energy infrastructure that furthered the production, delivery, and use of alternative and sustainable energy sources. The way of the future.