American Elephants

The Dakota Access Pipeline was big news all over the world last fall, and I devoted eight posts to the elaborate protests. Progressives and progressive celebrities rallied to the opportunity to protest, held marches and raised over a million dollars on social media. Thousands of people traveled to North Dakota and the Standing Rock Reservation to join the main protest camp. It was the final mile of the 1,200 mile long pipeline that was the center of everything. Lots of blather about saving our sacred water and that sort of thing. All noise, no content.

The Obama administration drummed up a new environmental study that would have taken around two years to complete and was announced by an Assistant Secretary of the Army who overruled the Army Corps of Engineers recommendation that the pipeline be approved, just a couple of days before President Trump was inaugurated. On February 7th, the new Trump administration ended the study, approved construction, and a few weeks later the police arrived to clear out the mess left by the protesters.

It was some mess!  It took 240 rollout dumpsters and more than a million dollars to clean up the debris left by the protesters, including some abandoned dogs and puppies, who were rescued. If progressives are  so sure that they care deeply for the environment, are they oblivious to the fact that their actions belie their smugness.

The 1200-mile long pipeline is transporting light, sweet crude oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a distribution point in Illinois and the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline on down to the Gulf Coast. Energy Transfer Partners said they have commitments for about 520,000 barrels of oil daily. This is more direct, cost-effective and far safer and environmentally responsible than the alternative modes of transportation like rail and truck.