Once the pipeline is there, it’s not going anywhere

So Biden allows the Dakota Access Pipeline to keep operatings, despite it having no Environmental Impact Statement. I am not too surprised. Why should you still care? One of the most intriguing thing about studying pipelines is this: the construction of pipelines as our mode of shaping the world. In German there is a term for that: “Fakten schaffen”–“creating facts”. Implying that while your counterpart still contemplates about what action to take–or even before that stage, you take action, do something, anything. The intent being that by just by acting first, you get to decide, you get to take your preferred action. A fitting example would be buying an expensive car before consulting your husband or wife. Nothing you can do about it now, the contract is already signed!

In 2017, the Trump administration waived the need for a full environmental review for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Energy Transfer Partners managed to build the pipeline within Trump’s tenure. The story that follows is pretty convoluted, a court ordered the pipeline to be shut down while the environmental review is completed, another court overturned that order before it went into effect, and the Biden administration now confirmed that DAPL can keep operating. What I am getting at is that academia is speding a whole lot of time contemplating things while the world keeps moving. While we study the environmental effects on one ecosystem, two more have already fallen victim. I think there is a lot of merit to analyzing the world as a burst of decisions that flow from our social structure, rather than contemplating about the ins and outs of individual decisions.