Tag Archives: bakken

Dave Glatt, the environmental health section chief for the Department of Health, talks Thursday, July 18, 2013, about the state's efforts to crack down on oil waste in western North Dakota. (TJ Jerke/Forum News Service)

North Dakota Regulators Owe the Public a Better Explanation for Spill Underreporting

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North Dakota Regulators Owe the Public a Better Explanation for Spill Underreporting

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“I get it – people want more information.” That’s what North Dakota Environmental Quality Chief Dave Glatt told the Associated Press, responding to controversy over a situation were hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid natural gas was described as merely 10 gallons in an official state report. But does Glatt get it? So far…

North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak explains a point at a commission meeting Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. Bismarck Tribune photo

Give Commissioner Fedorchak Credit for Sticking With North Dakota’s Rail Inspection Program

- May 30, 2019 - ,

During the 2015 legislative session Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak fought a pitched battle, mostly behind-the-scenes, against cantankerous lawmakers who were skeptical of her desire to create a state-level rail inspection program. With 20/20 hindsight, we can now see that Fedorchak had the right of this issue. The Legislature, grudgingly, authorized a temporary program with…

Plain Talk: Industry Spokesman Says Reducing Oil Production Isn’t the Way to Curb Flaring

- May 29, 2019 - ,

The issue of natural gas flaring in North Dakota is making regional, and even national, headlines again. Ron Ness from the North Dakota Petroleum Council talks about the issue on this episode of Plain Talk. North Dakota is an oil play, but the wells here also produce a lot of natural gas as a byproduct…

An oil jack extracts crude from the Bakken oil field in western North Dakota. Forum News Service

Even at Its Peak Violent Crime in the Bakken Oil Patch Was About the Same as the Surrounding Region

- February 19, 2019 - ,

Recently my colleague April Baumgarten produced a very thorough report on crime in the region of the Bakken oil fields during the oil boom years. A lot has been written about that topic. North Dakotans are pretty familiar with the “dark side of the boom” genre of journalism which were endemic to reporters covering the…

Wells operate in the oil fields of Texas, where an oil boom is also under way but in a bit of a lull currently. Forum News Service file photo

North Dakota, With Some of the Highest Oil Tax Rates in the Nation, Is Hardly a “Cheap Date”

- December 3, 2018 - ,

Our left wing friends like to live in a fairy tale land where North Dakota is some noxious petrostate in the thrall of corrupt politicians who have sold out to the Big Oil barons. Of course, this fairy tale has little to do with reality, which is why Democrats struggle to win elections in North…

Crews work at an oil well site near Williston, N.D., on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016. Amy Dalrymple/Forum News Service

We Should Use a Term Other Than “Spill” for Oil Field Incidents That Don’t Result in an Actual Spill

- July 19, 2018 - ,

Environmental activists, many of whom would like to stop the development of oil resources entirely, like to talk a lot about oil spills in North Dakota. Which, on the face of it, is entirely fair. Oil spills are unequivocally bad. Nobody wants them to happen. When they do happen the public should be aware of…

North Dakota Sales Tax Revenues up Nearly 10 Percent in 2018’s First Quarter, but the Increases Were Mostly in Oil Country

- June 28, 2018 - ,

With lawmakers probably looking at more budget belt tightening in their 2019 session which begins in January news of increased tax revenues is very welcome. That’s exactly the news we got today from Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger’s office. “Taxable sales and purchases for January, February and March 2018 were nearly $4.1 billion, a 9.55 percent…

Unfortunately for North Dakota’s Democrats Oil Tax Revenues Were up 25 Percent in 2017

- June 22, 2018 - ,

Ever since the Republican-controlled Legislature passed reforms to North Dakota’s oil tax code during their 2015 session, eliminating a tax exemption triggered by low oil prices and lowering the top tax rate, our Democratic friends have been griping that this was a gimme for the oil industry. Some of their candidates, notably Tax Commissioner candidate…

Landowners Steve and Patty Jensen are shown Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, in their former wheat field near Tioga, N.D., where an oil pipeline spilled 20,600 barrels four years earlier. Amy Dalrymple / Bismarck Tribune

It Turns Out Oil Spills Aren’t the End of the World

- May 29, 2018 - ,

Reasonable people understand that oil is a product that’s necessary to the quality of life we enjoy today. We all benefit from oil development because we’re all using oil every day of our lives. One day some other energy source, or combination of energy sources, may replace oil. That day is not today, or any…

Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Department of Interior, was keynote speaker Wednesday at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in the Bismarck Event Center. Tom Stromme / Bismarck Tribune

Podcast: “We’ve Gone From Surviving to Thriving”

- May 24, 2018 - ,

Live on location at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference yesterday I interviewed a number of people from North Dakota’s oil and gas industry about the state of affairs in the Bakken play. We talked about recovering oil prices, a new sense of optimism, and the challenge of North Dakota’s chronic labor shortages. “We’ve gone from…

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