“A Shale-Oil Boomtown Climbs Back From the Bust” That was a headline from the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. It was an article, focused on Watford City in McKenzie County, describing about oil jobs and oil activity rebounding. The rebound is very good news, and a story worth telling, but I take issue with describing the…
North Dakota Oil Producers Helped Topple OPEC
OPEC, the global oil cartel which worked to fix prices for the benefit of its members, is dead. So writes Pascal-Emanuel Gobry in The Week. The group isn’t officially dead, but they’ve lost their ability to dominate the global oil markets. The reason? Shale oil, particularly here in the United States. Fracking has “massively expanded oil…
It’s Almost Like Building Pipelines Like DAPL Leads to Safer Transportation of Oil or Something
Remember over the last few years when the enemies of oil development were hyping oil train derailments? To be fair those derailments – some of them hugely explosive and damaging, some even costing people their lives – were a legitimate thing to be concerned about. But when some, including this observer, argued that the solution…
Reform to North Dakota’s Oil Spill Guidelines Is Imperfect but an Improvement Over the Status Quo
The problem with a lot of the reporting on oil spills in North Dakota is that it tends to lump all spills of all sizes together into one uniform number. As if all spills were created equal. But that’s just not the case. Most spills are very small. Most spills are entirely contained and have…
North Dakota Oil Production Falls, but Drilling Activity Seems to Have Stabilized
The latest report on oil and gas activity in the State of North Dakota is out from the Department of Mineral Resources. You can read the entire “director’s cut”, as well as past reports, right here. Not surprisingly, the report details a continued drop in North Dakota’s oil output. For the first time in 28…
A North Dakota law enforcement officer officers food and water to an anti-Dakota Access Pipeline protester who locked himself to an excavator. video via Facebook
Video: Cop Helps Dakota Access Protester Eat, Drink After Being Taunted as a “Pig”
There was a lot of drama earlier today as Dakota Access Pipeline protesters locked themselves to construction equipment along state Highway 6 south of Mandan (this is a different location from where the protests have been taking place to date). The last protester has been unlocked from the construction machinery, and arrests have been made.…
Dakota Access Protester Chains Himself to Machinery at Pipeline Construction Site
News this morning is that one of the Dakota Access Pipeline protesters has trespassed on the construction site and chained himself to a piece of construction machinery. This from one of the protest Facebook pages: Previously protesters have trespassed and vandalized construction equipment, but this is the first time they’ve gone this far. According to…
Law Enforcement Officers at Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Take Precautions After Social Media Threats
Law enforcement personnel working at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation are taking precautions not to advertise their identities after threats were made to specific officers both online and in person. Currently work on the pipeline has been halted by Energy Transfer Partners due to safety concerns related to the on-going…
There Doesn’t Seem to Be Anyone Really in Control of the #NoDAPL Protest and That’s a Little Scary
The impression one gets from media reports of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, located on and near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, is that they have been organized by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and joined by other tribes and organizations from across the nation. Standing Rock tribal chairman David Archambault is written of as…
Should Dakota Access Protesters Reimburse North Dakota Taxpayers for the Cost of Law Enforcement Presence?
Earlier this year bombastic presidential candidate Donald Trump visited North Dakota, addressing a conference in Bismarck put on by the North Dakota Petroleum Council. Trump, I don’t need to tell you, is a controversial figure, and with about 7,000 people in attendance at the conference and protests of the visit planned, local law enforcement put…
