The Dark Side of the North Dakota Oil Boom

Let's face it - most of what we see and hear in the local media about the state's oil boom paints a fairly rosy picture. Only rarely - as in this article from the Tribune shows - do we get a glimpse of the dark side of the issue. In it, the article discusses how 29 workers were killed on the job last fiscal year. Of those deaths, nearly half of them occurred in oil patch-related occupations, while seven were the result of vehicle crashes.

While North Dakota's economy has reaped the benefit of oil, there are certainly some downfalls associated with it. Have you had any second thoughts about the oil situation in our backyard?