Letter to the Editor: An open letter to Strata

This letter is in response to the essay entitled “Environmentalists’ Questionable Tactics in North Dakota,” by William F. Shughart II (USU Professor and Senior Fellow at Strata), published by Real Clear Energy on Sept. 12, 2016.

I must admit, I was actually a little bit surprised when I saw your essay, published by Real Clear Energy, attacking the water protectors currently keeping global ecological ruin at bay in North Dakota. I thought that even your oil and shale covered hearts would be softened by the struggle of Native people, who have suffered so much already at the hands of capitalism and the state. But I clearly overestimated you. You really are as heartless as the Koch money you’ve got funneling through your college. Now, I know that you are about as amoral as the economic system you advocate for, so I won’t trouble you with the obvious ethical problems. I won’t remind you that Native people have been brutalized, colonized, and oppressed for centuries and that demanding that they accept this pipeline is just another example of American white supremacy. I won’t remind you that your claims of “private property” are only legally valid due to the violent conquest and theft of the land from the Natives by European settlers. I won’t even remind you of the fact that your college and its overly expensive new wing are currently sitting on Shoshone territory, and that the only reason you can spout off these self- absorbed opinions is because of the theft of their land as well. No, I won’t bother you with all of that. I know that you are all people of cold-blooded reason – so in order to refute your essay, I’ll just stick to the facts.

Your essay has at least 3 major factual errors that need to be corrected:

1. You claim that the North Dakota Access Pipeline will create over 1,200 “well-paying, permanent jobs.” It is difficult to know exactly where you got this figure, since you failed to cite any sources, but doing a quick comparison to other similar pipeline projects demonstrates that this figure must be grossly inflated. The Keystone XL Pipeline, which is a much larger project, only claims to create 35 permanent jobs – and that pipeline stretches from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico.
2. You claim that the Sioux Standing Rock reservation failed to protest at any of the planning meetings held prior to the start of construction. This one is probably the most easily refuted claim, and the one that most demonstrates how little research you did before writing your essay. Any of the results that come up on a Google search about the meetings will show that these meetings were attended by dissident Natives, and they did make their demands known before construction began.

3. You claim that the protectors were occasionally “violent.” You actually refute this claim yourself, since you don’t bring up any examples except for the heroes who chained themselves to construction equipment. I can’t think of any definition of “violent” that would describe that action. However, you completely failed to mention the fact that the company sponsoring the pipeline has regularly sent armed militias (sometimes with attack dogs) to intimidate the protectors.

Honestly, I don’t really expect any of you at Strata to take this letter seriously. I understand perfectly well that a Letter to the Editor can never speak as loudly as the oil money sitting in your pocket. However, I do hope that this letter reaches somebody who would be swayed against supporting the Natives at Standing Rock because of your essay. It is vitally important that we stand with our Native brothers and sisters to support free access to clean drinking water and a livable planet for our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

– Kason Hudman

1 This footnote is intended for anybody who doesn’t know who Strata is. Basically, they are local Logan-based, Koch-funded organization dedicated to the rapid destruction of life on earth. They are a bunch of economists pretending to be experts on natural resources, even though none of them have ever studied natural resources. 2 William F. Shughart II, “Environmentalists’ Questionable Tactics in North Dakota.” RealClearEnergy. September 12,

2016. Accessed September 26, 2016. 3 Katie Sanders, “CNN’s Van Jones Says Keystone Pipeline Only Creates 35 Permanent Jobs.” Politifact. February 3,
2017. Accessed September 26, 2016. 4 William F. Shughart II, “Environmentalists’ Questionable Tactics in North Dakota.” RealClearEnergy. September 12,
2018. Accessed September 26, 2016. 5 Naomi Schaefer Riley, “How the Standing Rock Sioux should have been able to stop that pipeline.” New York Post.

September 18, 2016. Accessed September 26, 2016. 6 William F. Shughart II, “Environmentalists’ Questionable Tactics in North Dakota.” RealClearEnergy. September 12,

2016. Accessed September 26, 2016.

7 “Dakota Access Pipeline Co. Attacks Native Americans with Dogs and Pepper Spray.” Narr. Amy Goodman.

Democracy Now!, September 6, 2016.