North Dakota’s Reckless Oil Boom

My great-great-grandfather Theodore Roosevelt has the accurate reputation of being one of our country’s greatest conservationists. Images of TR embracing the great American outdoors by roping cattle on his ranch, hunting buffalo on the plains, and standing next to the Grand Canyon are just as ubiquitous in American history as the images of him working behind his desk in the Oval Office. His love for the natural world became one of his crowning policy achievements as president. To put it in context, the U.S. Forest Service once calculated that he preserved 230 million acres of land, or 84,000 acres for each day he was president.

TR seems to have been drawn to the natural world almost from birth, but it took the Badlands of North Dakota where he lived from 1884 to 1886 to finalize his transformation from a sickly child born into urban wealth into a hardy individual with a lifelong passion for conservation. As he put it: “I have always said I would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.”

In recognition of TR’s great work as a conservationist and his commitment to the natural world, Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created in 1978 in western North Dakota. The park preserves the natural splendors of the Dakota Badlands and is a testament to the Western spirit that instilled in TR a lifelong commitment to the great American outdoors. But, in a twist of bitter irony, the recent Bakken oil boom in North Dakota threatens to consume the integrity of a national park that has been referred to as the birthplace of the American conservation movement.

That is why I felt it was important to narrate a short documentary video produced by the Center for American Progress. In the video, we explore the ways in which Theodore Roosevelt National Park has already felt the impacts of nearby drilling in progress. The serious impacts of this drilling include disruptions from truck traffic on the road to the park, the sound of diesel-generated pumpjacks reverberating in the campgrounds, and the dozens of lights from drilling rigs and cell towers ruining the park’s deep night skies.

As the video shows, the situation is only going to get worse around the park as more and more wells are drilled. Unfortunately it appears that, once again, the short-term gains of special interests are coming at the expense of the long-term cultural and natural health of our country. Just last week, XTO Energy, a company based in Texas, announced that it was scrapping its proposal to drill only 100 feet from the historic site of TR’s Elkhorn Ranch. That a company would even consider such a plan is beyond my comprehension.

To be sure, the Bakken oil boom has brought jobs and wealth to North Dakota at a time when the state needs it the most. But the headlong rush to drill has caused a number of social and environmental consequences that are just too startling to ignore. To mention a few, cities and towns in this region have been stuck with the bills incurred from caring for temporary workers, housing shortages are rampant because the demand is so high, and North Dakota’s unique and fragile Badlands ecosystem is being irrevocably changed.

Of course, it doesn’t need to be this way. Slowing down and planning for the boom—even if the oil companies and state leaders are reluctant—is the only way to manage its impacts. As Clay Jenkinson, a prominent Roosevelt scholar interviewed in the video puts it: “When there’s that much oil, and that much profit, and that much employment, we as an enlightened people can afford to say, ‘but we don’t have to do all of it.’”

Our national parks were set aside to protect America’s natural, cultural, and historic resources for future generations. More than 400 national park units exist in the United States today, and they are visited by 275 million people every year.

Not being nearly as eloquent or elucidative as my great-great grandfather, I will leave the great man to speak for himself. He said: “Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.”

If you are outraged like I am that a national park could be sacrificed in the oil and gas industry’s quest for selfish profit, it’s time to take action. Call the White House, call your Congressmen and Senators, call your local elected officials and tell them that we must put energy development on equal ground with conservation and that our national parks and other lands belong to all Americans born and yet to come.

12 Comments on "North Dakota’s Reckless Oil Boom"

BillT on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 11:15 am 



Greed is causing our extinction…

SOS on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 11:50 am 



This author is selfish and oblivious of the human suffering the green movement has caused. People need energy but others need to satisfy themselves emotionally no matter what the cost in human suffering caused by peak oil politics. Emotionalism is not a bedrock for policy. Any affects of the energy development are transitory the human suffering advocated by this author is real, leaves permanent scars and is reprehensible in its blatant cruelty.

Econ101 on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 11:52 am 



This author is selfish and oblivious of the human suffering the green movement has caused. People need energy but others need to satisfy themselves emotionally no matter what the cost in human suffering caused by peak oil politics. Emotionalism is not a bedrock for policy. Any affects of the energy development are transitory the human suffering advocated by this author is real, leaves permanent scars and is reprehensible in its blatant cruelty.

Beery on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 1:42 pm 



Nice to finally see proof that SOS and Econ101 are indeed, as many of us suspected, the same nutcase.

DC on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 1:52 pm 



RoFL! Too funny.

DC on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 2:08 pm 



Sock-puppetry is against pretty much all websites rules, including, I hope this one. Maybe a nice temporary banning or warming from the admins is in order for SoS. Its not like he started doing this last week or anything, its been going on for ages.

GregT on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 2:23 pm 



Multiple personality disorder?

Plantagenet on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 6:22 pm 



Here’s a simple and cheap solution—the park service could provide earplugs when people buy their park pass, so hikers and campers wouldn’t be disturbed by the sounds of oil drilling going on outside the park boundaries?

Beery on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 6:35 pm 



You can see more evidence for the sock-puppetry in his Peak Oil News posts. Both Econ101 and SOS use the non-standard spelling ‘crack pot’ to describe Hubbert and/or peak oil. A Google search turns up both Econ101 and SOS talking about ‘crack pot’.

rollin on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 10:09 pm 



Teddy was a great man and a great president. It’s a good thing we had him or there wouldn’t be much left.
Keep the oil drillers away from the boundaries, time is on our side. In a few short years their oil boom will be oil bust and they will zoom off to their next debacle (if any exist).
Oh, I heard that shale oil was found under the capitol building. Get drilling boys! Probably will turn out to be a bunch of natural gas.

sheila chambers on Tue, 2nd Apr 2013 11:26 pm 



The greatest cause of human suffering is our total dependance upon temporary fossil resources!
These resources allowed the worlds human population to increase far beyond the worlds carrying capacity, we have condemned billions to die of starvation, wars and diseases. We should have seen the danger of uncontrolled population growth fed by a temporary resource but instead, we deluded ourselves with the belief that endless growth was possible of both population, consumption and the economy.

In the end, reality of limits will have the last word and billions of us will suffer and die because we refused to recognize that reality.

BillT on Wed, 3rd Apr 2013 5:07 am 



If both SOS & econ are the same, it must stretch his limited brain cells, the two that still function, to be able to remember both avatars.

I would like to see some event that spikes oil to $200 and puts an end to this madness while my grand kids still have a livable planet. $200 oil would crush the financial system and bankrupt most oil companies and gas companies as their market would collapse. Permanently.