Later today the EPA will be announcing that Kari Cutting, Vice President of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, will be appointed to the agency’s Board of Scientific Counselors. You can read the full list of BoSC appointees below. You can see appointments to the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee and the Science Advisory Board here and here,…
Order For Oil Conditioning Was Likely Too Much Micromanagement For Industry's Taste
Back in November, as the North Dakota Industrial Commission was considering new regulations for conditioning crude oil before shipment, I interviewed North Dakota Petroleum Council Vice President Kari Cutting (audio at the link). In addition to representing the industry, Cutting is a chemist with a long history of working with oil, and I asked her what…
ND Petroleum Council Wants Guideline For Stabilizing Oil, But Not Mandate For The Method
The debate over oil stabilization can be a confusing one. It’s important to a lot of people because we’ve all read the headlines about, and seen the pictures of, explosive train derailments. But the information we get about the issue is often conflicting (and very often driven by politics, I’m afraid). Currently the North Dakota…
The Question Of Bakken Crude's Volatility Must Be Settled
There is a sharp disagreement between the oil industry and the federal government over the volatility of Bakken crude oil. This matters because, while more than 99 percent of hazardous rail shipments arrive at their destinations without incident, there have been high-profile derailments in places like Quebec and Casselton, North Dakota, that have resulted in…
Industry-Backed Study Concludes That Bakken Oil Isn't More Dangerous To Ship
The North Dakota Petroleum Council has released their final study into the volatility of Bakken crude oil. With environmental activists in North Dakota and elsewhere referring to trains hauling Bakken crude as “bomb trains,” this is a pretty important issue. “This study provides the most thorough and comprehensive analysis of crude oil quality from a…