Dakota Access Pipeline Brings Power To The People

This week, Inside Sources featured a piece by Ben Lieberman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, drawing attention to the true impact of largescale energy infrastructure projects the Dakota Access Pipeline. Lieberman highlights the widespread community support when a new pipeline creates much-needed job opportunities, tax revenues, and affordable energy for its residents and local economy.

Lieberman writes: “It is worth noting that the local support for energy in such places is often non-partisan, as Democrats in states like West Virginia, Louisiana, and Alaska frequently join Republicans in support of the job-creating projects that extract energy and put it into the stream of commerce.”

To provide evidence of democratic support for energy projects, Lieberman describes the most targeted of all: the Keystone XL. Remaining unknown to most, the majority of elected officials– the ones that the people in the path of the pipeline actually choose to represent them– are Keystone XL supporters.

In the same way, this communal support stands true for DAPL. Since 2017, DAPL has safely carried North Dakota oil through South Dakota, Iowa, and into the existing pipeline network and refineries in Illinois. Found in a recent nationwide poll sponsored by the GAIN Coalition, nearly 80% of Americans believe that the U.S. should not shut down existing pipelines that have been in safe operation. Moreover, 73% of Native Americans in North Dakota believe that DAPL should not be shut down. Pretty contradictory to what the activists are alleging, isn’t it?  

Becoming a stronghold of these states’ energy supply, DAPL provides an immense amount of jobs and heaping tax revenues to these states and local communities. A recent analysis in Bloomberg Law estimated that up to 7,400 jobs and $900 million dollars would vanish if DAPL did.

Strong energy infrastructure feats like DAPL reduce the need to transport oil on our rails and roads, which are less safe, less efficient, and pose a greater risk to the environment. The locals high-energy producing states and its communities are well-aware of this fact and know that modern pipelines like DAPL are the greatest method to win both environmentally and economically.