North Dakota oil boom
The boom created new jobs and economic growth in tandem with long-lasting negative effects, such as environmental degradation, pollution and infrastructure collapse.
North Dakota had ranked 38th in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001, and rose steadily with the Bakken boom.
Bruce Gjovig, head of the UND Center for Innovation Foundation in Grand Forks, estimated that the boom was creating 2,000 millionaires per year in North Dakota.
[7][8] In addition to severance taxes, the state of North Dakota owns extensive mineral rights, which are leased by competitive bidding.
[16] The industrialization and population boom put a strain on roads, water supplies, sewage systems, and government services in the Bakken Formation and Williston Basin area.
Long term viability of a boom area generally will not last, as the services do not expand at the same rapid pace of population growth.
Lower quality of life creates more difficult in attracting additional population needed to support growth of services.
However, the longest residing people, such as the Standing Rock Sioux and Lakota tribes, were completely disregarded in decision making in land usage and development for oil fields.
The pipeline also directly violates the Fort Laramie Treaty (Article II), which guarantees [20] the 'undisturbed use and occupation of the sovereign nation's reservation lands.
[19] Further studies have shown that this increase was dramatic and did not correspond with rates of violent crime in areas outside of the Bakken region, which actually decreased during this time.
[22] It is also not possible for tribal law enforcement to prosecute non-Indigenous peoples for violent crime against Indigenous women and children that occur outside of their lands, specifically inside man camps.
This ability also falls to federal and state governments, which some Native advocacy groups have deemed unwilling to prioritize violent crime against Indigenous peoples.
[22] No background checking and disregard for criminal history in the employment process for the extraction industry exacerbates these increased rates of sexual violence.
[21] After the boom, it was determined by the US Marshall Service and the Fort Berthold tribal law enforcement agency that 20% of sex offenders present in the man camps were unregistered, compared to around 4-5% in the state of North Dakota in general.
[22] The lack of adequate attempts made by state governments, the federal government, and local law enforcement to quell the rise in violent crime committed against Indigenous peoples, specifically the sexual assault of Indigenous women and children, by workers at the rig further exacerbates the MMIW(link MMIW wiki article here) crisis in the US.
[24] Ethane acts as a greenhouse gas when released during extraction, contributing to air quality reduction, pollution, and global warming.
[26] The price returned just as the U.S. economy recovered from the Great Recession which resulted in difficulties recruiting workers back to the region.
