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The key to America's national and energy security rests with our ability to provide for our own energy needs with our own natural resources, personnel and infrastructure.

A proposed $3.7-billion pipeline is planned for a 1,200-mile span from the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota to Illinois. This will allow North Dakota to export half of its daily crude output to the rest of America.

The Dakota pipeline will create over 8,000 immediate jobs in the construction sector. It will be a huge boost to regional employment, especially for welders, mechanics, electricians, pipefitters, heavy equipment operators, truckers and other complimentary trades in the manufacture of the materials needed to build the pipeline.

The economic benefit to the construction of the pipeline with the state and local economies is an estimated $129 million annually to property and income taxes. The service industries will also see a benefit through additional income to hotels, restaurants, etc. Once the pipeline is operational, it is estimated that state and local governments can see an estimated $50 million annually in property taxes and $74 million in sales taxes for the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, pipelines are the safest mode of transporting crude oil. The Dakota crude oil pipeline is designed to exceed stringent federal standards and will be built and operated using the most advanced technology and monitoring systems.

An exhaustive review process begun in 2014 for the building of the pipeline and to date there have been close to 400 meetings, surveys, hearings and lawsuits. This pipeline has been fully reviewed and approved by all four states affected as well the Army Corp of engineers. The North Dakota Public Service Commission is also in support of the pipeline and has been involved in the review process from its start. This project has been green-lighted and the necessary permits have been issued for construction to begin.

So why then is the pipeline not being constructed?

It is being reported that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, represented by the radical group EarthJustice, filed a lawsuit to halt construction. It is documented that the Sioux, despite their claims they were not given the opportunity to make their own review of the effects on "cultural sites" as well as environmental impact on their lands, did not participate in the approval process in spite of outreach to them.

A handful environmental rabble-rousers with a radical agenda seek to stop a multibillion dollar project based solely upon unsupported facts, threats and innuendo.

Presently before the federal court is the application by the opponents for an injunction enjoining the construction of the pipeline and thereby denying that which the nation and states affected wants and needs. I say the court should either deny the motion for an injunction outright or require the parties seeking an injunction to post with the court a $1 billion dollar bond in good faith of their allegation and claims.

We as a nation cannot cower or bow to environmental extortion. The administrative process played out as intended and just because a minority of activists does not like the decision cannot deny parties what they are entitled as a matter of law.

The court must put an end to frivolous lawsuits whose sole purpose is to bully, threaten, provoke and obstruct. The court should also consider sanctions and the awarding of attorneys' fees as a further message of deterrence. In addition, local authorities need to exercise police powers in making sure criminal laws are not being violated by protesters and those in opposition who are engaged in trespassing, threats, destruction of property or worse.

In America, we must work within a system that respects the rule of law and the outcome of lawful processes that have run its course.

The Dakota pipeline is needed. It will create a new and safer mode of transporting needed domestic crude to our nation. It will provide much-needed jobs and is in our national security and energy needs.
Blakeman is professor of public policy, politics and international affairs at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies and was a member of President George W. Bush's senior White House staff from 2001 to 2004. He is also a frequent contributor to Fox News and Fox Business Channel. The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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Why we must build the Dakota Access pipeline now

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The key to America's national and energy security rests with our ability to provide for our own energy needs with our own natural resources, personnel and infrastructure. A proposed $3.7-billion pipeline is planned for a 1,200-mile span from the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota to Illinois.

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Thousands of protesters have been camping out for months in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a proposed 1,172-mile oil project that would shuttle half a million barrels of North Dakota-produced oil to refining markets in Illinois.

The protesters, which include representatives from more than 100 Native American tribes, have camped out on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation nestled along the border between North Dakota and South Dakota along the Missouri River.

They are there because the proposed pipeline would pass through North Dakota's Lake Oahe, a burial site sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux and a major source of drinking water for the community. "The main reason it's such a big deal here is that it's going to affect our water supply," Aries Yumul, an assistant principal at North Dakota's Todd County School District and a self-identified water protector with the Oceti Sakowin, the proper name for the people commonly known as the Sioux, told Business Insider.

Should the pipeline leak or burst, the impact could be devastating.

And leak pipelines do. Since 1995, more than 2,000 significant accidents involving oil and petroleum pipelines have occurred, adding up to roughly $3 billion in property damage, according to data obtained by the Associated Press from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. From 2013 to 2015, an average of 121 accidents happened every year.

Actors Shailene Woodley, Susan Sarandon, and Rosario Dawson are among celebrities who have joined thousands of activists in nearby rallies and demonstrations in support of the Standing Rock Sioux. The project has been halted since last month, when t he Obama administration blocked construction on federal land and asked the company behind the project, Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners LLP, to suspend work nearby.

Contaminated water is a massive health problem

An in-depth 2010 report from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which looked at the effects of three major oil spills, found increased incidences of cancer and digestive problems in people who had ingested the oil directly (in drinking water) or indirectly (through eating the meat of livestock exposed to the oil).

In addition, people who had used contaminated water for bathing or laundry appeared to experience a higher incidence of skin problems, ranging from mild rashes to severe and lasting eczema and malignant skin cancers.

With risks this high, most large-scale environmental projects require extensive legal review

To build the pipeline, the Army Corps of Engineers, the group in charge of the project, must comply with several environmental laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act. Passed in 1970, NEPA's basic policy is to ensure that the government considers the potential environmental impacts of any federal project, like a new highway or airport, before building it.

The Standing Rock Sioux claim this review process, in the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline, was not done properly. In a lawsuit it filed in July against the Army Corps of Engineers, the group claims the permitting process was rushed and undertaken largely without its input.

If the pipeline were to leak or burst, it would send oil deep into the Missouri River, the Standing Rock Sioux's single source of water- water the group relies on for everything from bathing to drinking. For that reason, the Standing Rock Sioux say the Army Corps of Engineers could violate not just one but two laws: NEPA as well as the Clean Water Act. The 1972 Clean Water Act makes it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from single identifiable source - such as a pipe - into certain bodies of water without a permit.

"The Missouri River is the tribe's only source of water. If this leaks, it is going to spill into the river. So the tribe's legal stance - that they were not adequately consulted, that there are potential water issues here - their legal concerns are strong," Devashree Saha, a senior policy associate at Brookings Institution, told Business Insider.

Dakota Access responded to Business Insider's request for comment by stating in an email, " Crude pipelines in the country have a very specific review and approval process that must be followed. Crude/oil lines are approved at the state level, which is why all of the review and environmental analysis was done by the four states through which this pipeline passes. The exception to that is the crossing of waterways and federally-owned land, which are under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers to review and approve."

The pipeline was originally designed to run much farther north, near the North Dakota capital of Bismarck. But as Bill McKibben writes in The New Yorker, officials rerouted it when people there raised concerns that it could put that community's water supply in jeopardy.

But now, instead of risking Bismarck, the new route could threaten the Standing Rock Sioux.

"Our aquifers and rivers are fed by this river," Yumul, the assistant principal, said. "If it were to get contaminated, it would affect all of the tribal nations. The idea of that ... it would be a death sentence at this point."

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People at the front lines of the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline are calling it a 'death sentence'

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Thousands of protesters have been camping out for months in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a proposed 1,172-mile oil project that would shuttle half a million barrels of North Dakota-produced oil to refining markets in Illinois.

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Here’s What You Need To Know About The Dakota Pipeline Protest

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The fight is nowhere near over. Facebook friends “check in” as demonstrators settle in for what could be a long winter.