Birds fly beyond a pump jack near a field of alfalfa in Bainville, Montana Sept 10, 2013. Back in 2008 the North Dakota oil boom started its ongoing period of extraction of oil from the Bakken formation. The amount of jobs the oil boom has provided North Dakota helped give it the lowest unemployment rate in the United States and and gave it a billion dollar surplus. Shale gas reserves has given the United States more independence over other nations such as Venezuela and countries in the Middle E (Photo by Ken Cedeno/Corbis via Getty Images)
