Curtis Jundt: North Dakota Oil Industry Will Be A "Revenant"

The movie The Revenant has already won a boatload of awards this year. Its leading actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, was stellar in his bloodied role. His return from near death to be revenant, was a true example of the depths of man’s will to survive.

For the fossil fuel industry (coal, oil and natural gas), we too have a story in play to where we have been beaten and “bloodied” extensively over recent years. Coal has been pounded heavily since Clinton-Gore took office. But just as that industry had spent billions of dollars reducing emissions, Al Gore found a “new” assault all fossil fuels; namely carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Fossil fuel energy providers have endured years of ever-increasing aggressive and harsh EPA regulations on top of years of low natural gas prices, now collapsed oil prices and decades of oppression toward the coal-fired power industry. The very energy industry that provided the economic driver for America to become a leading industrialized nation and economic superpower is under an unprecedented assault by a movement of irrational activism that wants us “all but gone.”

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]…as we gather for the 2016 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference to address complex issues, we must be reminded that America cannot survive without fossil fuels.[/mks_pullquote]

Yes, fossil fuels are a “finite” natural resource. And yes, we owe it to future generations to find “economic” alternative forms of energy against an exponentially exploding global population. But the untimely deployment of uneconomic alternative energy sources is economic suicide for this country in an ever-expanding global marketplace. And being economically weak now will not make for an economically strong future.

Back to Leonardo – and I mean DiCaprio, not da Vinci – the two being nothing alike. Recently, DiCaprio joined the Sioux Nation to stand against the now permitted oil pipeline that will transport North Dakota crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries. It is the most environmentally safe and most economic means for moving petroleum to market. Then days ago DiCaprio took an 8,000-mile jet trip to accept an environmental award in New York where he stated: “Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species. We need to work together to stop procrastinating…Let us not take this planet for granted.”

It’s just another “do as I say not as I do” theatrical display whose number one beneficiary is always they themselves. The most “urgent threat facing our entire species?” Based on fuzzy science? Ask the millions of people globally who are jobless, poor, homeless, starving, sick, persecuted, etc. – how much they believe Climate Change is the most urgent threat. Then follow the money trail of the climate activists and you will see who they truly care about. Al Gore got very fat and wealthy all at our expense. He, like DiCpario, consume gross quantities of fossil fuels as they live their posh lives of conspicuous consumption.

It is an irreverent display of conduct toward America’s fossil fuel energy providers working every day to bring safe and affordable energy to fuel America’s economy. This all on top of a federal deficit approaching 20 trillion dollars that cannot keep blowing billions more dollars on foolish premature Solyndra Solar-type boondoggle renewable energy projects.

Nevertheless, the amount of fossil fuels used in the making of DiCaprio’s latest blockbuster hit movie “The Reverent” had to be without question, mind boggling including massive amounts of fuel, materials made from fossil fuels, etc. Blatant irreverence. Blatant hypocrisy.

So, as we gather for the 2016 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference to address complex issues, we must be reminded that America cannot survive without fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry is and will be the leader in economically transitioning America’s complex energy production mix to include other forms of energy production that make sense rather than just feel good no matter what the cost is to the consumer.

America has a wealth of da Vinci-like brilliant inventors, engineers and innovators. We will continue pioneering new forms of energy to economically fuel our nation and a global population that is on its way to eight (8) billion souls. And we will do it with reverence as we emerge from this difficult time to show we too can be a “Revenant.”