Dear President Obama Page #4

and said, "Hey, let's go

to North Dakota,

let's go do oil.

They're making $20-30

starting out."

[singing continues]

Got here...late one night.

Crashed at a Wal-Mart

parking lot.

Um, and just from there,

just put out jobs

and we were hired

three days later.

It's unbelievable out here.

(Mark)

The energy industry has always

always been a boom

and bust business.

For a few short years,

the fracking boom

turned North Dakota

into the go-to state

for industrial jobs.

Truck driving,

construction, rig working.

And the economy

went into overdrive.

(Sierra)

What drew me here

was my husband.

We had a hard time

finding jobs and working

in Las Vegas where we were from.

Like, within a week

he found a job.

'I started my company

called Black Gold Tees.'

There's shirts

for all the jobs here

pipe-liners, roughnecks,

roustabouts, riggers, whatever.

Driller's loving life

is an oilfield wife

because there are

so many of us here

and I've sold so many

of these because of that.

'We've got it all.'

It's overwhelming

how many people are here

'cause you don't see them

all the time

but you see all the housing

you see all the construction

always happening here.

(Mark)

Jobs are in such demand

that in 2009,

the cost of renting

a one bedroom apartment

in Williston, North Dakota

was higher

than in New York City

or San Francisco.

Behind the flow of fossil fuel

and its promise

of financial freedom

workers with big dreams

and families in tow

poured into North Dakota

from every state

and from around the globe

all hoping to cash in.

You'll get different, different

nationalities down here

you'll get, like,

people from Sudan

Ethiopia, Sierra Leone

Ghana, Kenya.

You get a lot

of African people here.

I came to Williston,

North Dakota to look for job.

To be able to

take care of my kids.

Because it's getting tough

to get a job.

And...my goal is to work enough

and save enough money

and go back to Liberia

and start, uh, my business.

Hoping for probably, like,

two-three months from now

I can start going

to the oil field.

And I already gave my

application over there so..

That's where the money is.

You can work

other jobs around here.

You're not gonna make

according to what

you're gonna make in

that oil field for two weeks.

[speaking in foreign language]

I believe one of the, uh

the number one reason for people

migrating from A-Africa

and to come to the United State

or any part of the world

to the United State

is for a better life.

It's-it's for the American dream

as they call it.

[indistinct chattering]

As we all know in life..

...everything has advantages

and disadvantages.

But I just

left that last Sunday..

As much as these oil, fuel jobs

are helping a lot of lives

it has some disadvantages.

[intense music]

(male #2)

It is another brutal day

for America's financial market.

The Dow is getting hammered

as the price of oil

continues to drop lower.

(female #1)

'Crude is now

below $30 a barrel.'

'The plummeting price sending

shockwaves around the globe..'

(Mark)

Today so many new wells have

been drilled across the US

that production of oil and gas

is far outstripping demand.

The result is that oil prices

have dropped to new lows

and oil field operators

in Williston

are shutting down rigs,

laying off workers

even declaring bankruptcy.

Once again

boomtowns are going bust.

I think a lot of folks

in Williston

can see the writing on the wall

and they know that, you know

they're gonna be able to make

a little more money

for the next few months,

but after that

you know,

it's basically all over.

Well, we see

what we've often seen

in the history of

the oil and gas industry

and that's overproduction.

And then what we see

is a collapse of prices.

People whose lives depend on-on

work in-in the, uh,

oil and gas industry

are going to

have to find other work.

And the people

who were benefitting..

The hotel owners

and the restaurant owners

and the truck drivers

and-and the day laborers

and the construction crews.

All of which were indirectly

benefitting from this boom.

[blows air]

[whirring]

(Mark)

On top of the slowdown

in production

the industry is simultaneously

facing another looming

and immediate problem

the health of its workers.

These oil field jobs

are fleeting.

Often the highest

paying positions

are imported from out of state

while only the cheapest labor

is sourced locally.

Worse, it is the workers

at the bottom of the ranks

who are most at risk of injury.

Being around

all those chemicals

violent explosions

and heavy machinery

has taken a toll.

[whirring]

[instrumental music]

I would say that every worker

that we've talked to has been..

Has started off

being very gung ho.

They've really...go into it

and they love the industry.

They love what they're doing.

And then with time

things start to change.

They start seeing

people being injured.

So, with time

at least some of the people

that we have interviewed

have changed their mind

and-and left the industry

because of that.

Some of them have left

with serious illnesses.

Others have left

before they got sick.

[engine revving]

(Jason)

I am, I'm a CDO driver.

I've been working

in the industry

for six to seven years.

I've done anything

and everything

you could possibly think of

when it comes to driving a truck

for the industry.

Production water is the water

that's left over

after the frack

and whenever the gas comes up

out of the well

it brings that water up

with it.

So, once the tanks

get to a certain point

we come out in a vacuum truck.

Hook up our hoses

and pull the water out.

If you haul gasoline

if you haul acid

you haul anything over the road

DOT makes you have a hazmat

endorsement on your license.

You have to know

what you're carrying.

You have to understand

what happens

if you have an accident.

Or what happens

if you have a leak.

As far as the oil field

they just consider it as water.

I mean, it doesn't matter.

You're okay.

I-it doesn't matter

if you spill it on the ground.

It doesn't matter if it blows

out of the top of the tank.

You know,

they're taking this water

and shoving it down

another hole

somewhere else.

If you made a spill

or if you had

an accident or something else

you called your supervisor,

the dispatcher

and told 'em what happened

and they came out there

and they cleaned it up.

So we wouldn't have to pay

any of the fine

or regulations.

If you left location

after making the spill

and somebody else found it

that's when you got fired.

It was easier just to take

a tractor out there to

kinda cover it up.

You know, we were

making really good money.

And you didn't wanna complain.

You didn't want to say

that there is something wrong

or something happened.

One of the ways

that they get bonuses

is to have

a certain length of tunnel

or have a drilling operation

uh, progress

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