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
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…
Even at Its Peak Violent Crime in the Bakken Oil Patch Was About the Same as the Surrounding Region
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…
North Dakota, With Some of the Highest Oil Tax Rates in the Nation, Is Hardly a “Cheap Date”
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…
We Should Use a Term Other Than “Spill” for Oil Field Incidents That Don’t Result in an Actual Spill
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
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
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…
It Turns Out Oil Spills Aren’t the End of the World
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…
Podcast: “We’ve Gone From Surviving to Thriving”
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…
North Dakota’s Flaring Problem Has Its Roots in Excessive Regulation
The environmental activism aimed at impeding, and sometimes even blocking, the build-out of energy infrastructure such as pipelines and refineries/processing plants is bad for the environment. Don’t believe me? Witness the problems the oil and gas industry is having in addressing the flaring issue here in North Dakota. Back in 2014 our state developed, along…