Thoughts While Getting The House Ready For Winter

 

A few years ago, a lifelong Williston resident said to me: "we were doing just fine before all this happened and everyone (like you) came here". It was a community, which like most smaller North Dakota communities was experiencing the slow generational shrinkage due to changes in agriculture. He said, "you might see the occasional oil truck, but that was all". Among long time residents who have seen things come and go, there is a skepticism that I share.

 

Did the masters of the universe who drove the boom and still drive what is happening here, replace something that was relatively sustainable with something that will eventually leave many of us as economic refugees, left with valueless homes and defunct businesses? Will thousands of lives be upended when the companies pull out and leave us hanging? Will the people of North Dakota be stuck picking up the bill for a mess they didn't create when masses of bankruptcies leave uncleaned up oilfield messes? I don't trust the masters of the universe any farther than I can throw them. 

 

The fracking boom caused many like me to move here, not for oilfield jobs, but to teach, start businesses and create a life, but it is based on a house of cards that could collapse at any moment and nobody is there for the common person. We saw a partial shutdown during Covid. A sort of prequel to the eventual total shutdown when what is happening here becomes unprofitable. It was without warning and it was hard to know what was going on. I was compelled to shift teaching jobs because my job "evaporated" with the population shrinkage. 

 

To my knowledge, there has been little thought to what happens "after"-and there will be an after, whether it is next year or next decade. If something is built, there needs to be a plan for sustainability or this will be just another North Dakota town with falling down buildings and broken dreams. There is a Lakota idea about planning for the 7th generation. That is the type of thinking we need. What is the 7th generation plan for the Bakken? I don't think any of the masters of the universe even know or care.