#NoDAPL: Energy Transfer is a Corporate Sociopath
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Today, Standing Rock Sioux (and the rest of the entire world) is standing strong in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline — a project being pushed forward by Energy Transfer, a pipeline company co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Kelcy Warren. The Dakota Access Pipeline is projected to be the first to transfer 570, 000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Bakken shale originating from North Dakota, Montana, and parts of Canada to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. This would mean that the advancement of this crude oil would make millions in property and income taxes in state and local revenues — yet this would be at the expense of a minority group and of the environment.
Egotistical Traits:
It is implied by Energy Transfer that the true need is to no longer be dependent on foreign imports, however the monetary benefits that the entrepreneurial company would receive cannot be ignored. Energy Transfer is guilty of maintaining the wellbeing of their few shareholder’s wallets rather than the wellbeing of the water that an entire tribe relies on through acquisitions. This form of acquisition could be described as empowerment for this sociopath corporation at the expense and disempowerment of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. This type of acquisition allows for Energy Transfer to not pay “federal income tax as long as it pays out most of its cash to shareholders.” In order for acquisitions to occur, there needs to be a deregulation, a form of logic of the market. A capitalist corporation, such as Energy Transfer, ideally wants to continue to be part of a deregulated market. A deregulated market enables the ability to engage in selfish, unethical, and insensitive activity for the sole benefit of a corporation at the expense of a group. Deregulation embodies neoliberal rationalism that is defined as “[recognition of] no sovereignty apart from entrepreneurial decision makers (…) and which displaces liberal democratic legal and political principles such as universal inclusion, equality, liberty, and the rule of law with market criteria.” In other words, it is the firm belief of entrepreneurs and corporations that the government and the state should stay out of the market because neither have any control over how the market will fluctuate therefore by removing themselves the market will balance itself out by the invisible hand. Neoliberal rationalism is a dangerous practice that allows for the neoliberal sovereignty to be held onto by entrepreneurial companies. A key characteristic of neoliberal sovereignty is the control of capital such as the 8,000–12,000 local jobs that Energy Transfer promises to create, but only maintain during the construction of the pipeline. Deregulation would allow for Energy Transfer to continue to make large amounts of money for its shareholders through self-centered actions with no concern of negative consequences to the disempowered party.
Impaired Empathy and Remorse:
Energy Transfer is company that would rather make profit off of land while simultaneously causing irreversible effects to it in addition to the possibility of a decrease in drinkable water and the destruction of sacred sites. It is this impaired empathy and lack of remorse that allows for a company to go forth in its unethical plans. Energy Transfer is a prime example of an entrepreneurial company that has gone forward with its project with granted approvals of some state utility boards, commissions, and even some agreements from property owners, but has not fully completed the National Historic Preservation Act including various environmental statutes. It is this dangerous belief that corporations can have neoliberal sovereignty that enables the destruction of any other decision making group. This is an example of the formation of god-sanctioned political violence that is evident in the mishandling of this situation in part by private security violence that includes attack dogs that have bitten peaceful protestors, mace that has been sprayed women and children, and shooting beanbags. Human rights have been ignored as some of the Water Protectors have been arrested, “stripped, marked with numbers, and held in [possible] dog kennels.”
Anti-social Behavior:
Energy Transfer has also completely disregarded the invitation to communicate with Standing Rock Sioux. Standing Rock Sioux and tribes across America are recognized by the Federal Indian Law as tribes that have been present since immemorial which incorporates statures and consultation requirements. The dismissal of consultation with the tribe of Standing Rock Sioux highlights the little care that the corporation has for the concerns that the tribe members and environmentalists have. Among the concerns of the destruction of the rightfully owned land of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, there is also a concern of the wellbeing of the future of the children’s land, the possibility of oil spills and leaks from the pipeline to exclusively special waters that are of great importance to the tribe. In addition, there is a grave concern of the impact that it will have on the habitat of wildlife species and potential threats to the world climate.
Energy Transfer has entered into the realm of global capital that is defined as “governing flows of labor and goods while permitting the unrestricted flow of capital.” This greedy company has taken the control of income of this tribe and it’s community into their own hands. If the DAPL is approved there is irreversible damage that will be done to the economy of the tribe, their wellbeing and the future of their children. This corporation’s sociopathic behavior is instructed by Kelcy Warren. A man who, bell hooks would believe to be, is a victim of patriarchal violence that left an impression on him that men are unstoppable figures of dominant power and authority. Patriarchal violence, synonymous with domestic violence, is an agent in society that chains it’s victims into a continuous cycle of learned behavior in which the initial victims become the later agents of patriarchal violence. This patriarchal violence can be acted in imperialistic ways, a form of domination, that Warren has subjected the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to through the acquisition of their land.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe relies on their water and their sacred land and I believe that it should continue to be rightfully theirs and not taken away or constructed on. Let it be known to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that nothing is more dangerous or feared than a minority population that refuses and will not be driven out. As bell hook states — political solidarity will challenge patriarchy. #NoDAPL.
