To hear some environmental activists put it, you’d think North Dakota were an industrial wasteland where energy industry titans are allowed to pollute the land and air with impunity. Those of us who actually live here can see that lie for what it is with our own eyes. Our state has a proud tradition, stretching…
Environmental Activist: “We Have a Moral Responsibility to Blow up Wells and Eliminate Fracking and Workers”
“If the oil and gas industry puts fracking wells in our neighborhoods, threatening our lives and our children’s lives, then don’t we have a moral responsibility to blow up wells and eliminate fracking and workers?” environmental activist Andrew J. O’Connor wrote in the Boulder Daily Camera on April 19. It was a letter to the…
Senator Heitkamp’s Fence Sitting on Federal Flaring Rules Is Perplexing
There is a push in Congress right now to disapprove an Obama administration regulation aimed at the oil industry. The so-called “venting and flaring” rule imposed by the Bureau of Land Management is so colossally broad it impacts not just federal lands but state lands as well. This rule creates a jurisdictional quagmire, which I’m…
Obama Administration Exempts Wind Power From Consequences For Slaughter Of Birds
Back in 2011 Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon tried to prosecute a group of oil companies operating in North Dakota over 28 dead ducks. The ducks were found after a months-long investigation by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which probably could have found about the same number of dead water fowl along the state’s…
North Dakota Considering Limitations On Who Can Comment Officially At Oil/Gas Hearings
Current North Dakota state law allows “interested parties” to comment, in person and in writing, at hearings before the North Dakota Industrial Commission which regulates oil and gas development in the state. But “interested parties” isn’t defined in the law. Now a proposal coming from the Department of Mineral Resources would provide a definition which…
ND House Votes To Give Legislature Oversight On Oil And Gas Regulations
HB1187 is one of the bills introduced by Rep. Keith Kempenich (R-Bowman) taking aim at the North Dakota Industrial Commission. That commission, for the uninitiated, is one of the most powerful governing bodies in the state. It consists of the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Agriculture Commissioner. Among other things, it regulates oil and…
Hey Kevin Cramer, The Lights Are Already Going Out In Minnesota
North Dakota Congressman Kevin Cramer has an op/ed in the Wall Street Journal today headlined, “Where Will You Be When the Lights Go Out?” “The North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), a regulatory authority that monitors the U.S. and Canadian power systems, released a study on Nov. 12 concluding that the long-term reliability of the U.S.…
Rep. Kevin Cramer: "I will not sit idly by and watch this President steal the jobs, hopes, and dreams of my constituents."
“I will not sit idly by and watch this President steal the jobs, hopes, and dreams of my constituents,” Rep. Kevin Cramer said today on the floor of the House of what he described as President Obama’s war on coal. “Nor will I sit idly by while he and his EPA impose their mediocrity on…
Obama On Climate Change: "We Don't Have Time For A Meeting Of The Flat Earth Society"
“Nobody has a monopoly on what is a very hard problem, but I don’t have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real,” President Obama said today during his climate change/global warming address. “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might…
With Carbon Emissions Already Dropping, Why Do We Need "Sweeping Action" On Climate Change?
“Obama to take sweeping action on climate,” reports the Washington Post. “President Obama will announce his intention to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, increase appliance efficiency standards and promote renewable energy development on public lands in a speech Tuesday outlining his plan to use executive powers to address climate change.” In other…