Earlier this week Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Williston, North Dakota. He specifically took a close look at the oil industry there, coordinating with the North Dakota Petroleum Council to visit an oil rig. He also discussed life in the oil patch with a group of residents there, then wrote about it. On Facebook, naturally.…
Audio: Line 3 Pipeline Project Manager Says There Will Be More Environmental Impacts if Old Line Isn’t Replaced
UPDATE: This post originally said the public hearings were being held by Enbridge. That was an error. They’re being held by the State of Minnesota. Public hearings regarding Line 3 pipeline replacement project have begun in Minnesota. And of course, because pipelines are a hot political topic these days, those hearings are featuring push back from…
There Was Never a Bust: North Dakota’s Oil Industry Is More Efficient, More Resilient Than Ever Before
“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…
UND Economist on North Dakota Economy: “If We’re Not at Rock Bottom We’re Close”
Economic activity in North Dakota has been in decline for a couple of years now, dragging tax revenues for state and local governments down with it. As a result lawmakers had to shrink state budgets during a bruising session earlier this year (let’s hope local governments do the same instead of hiking property taxes). Populations…
Governor Doug Burgum and the Land Board Need to Get in Control of Their Bureaucrats
There is a land grab being pursued by some North Dakota bureaucrats, an immoral sort of expropriation of valuable private mineral rights, that is now in defiance of not only decency but legislative intent. Our state’s elected leaders serving on the Board of Trust Lands need to step in and restore order. They need to…
Could North Dakota Have as Many as 80 Oil Rigs Operating Again by Next Year?
North Dakota’s oil boom is over, and the state just went through a bruising budget process during the legislative session earlier this year to prove it, but I think the question a lot of people are wondering is what’s next? We’re seeing some headlines about a new Bakken “boomlet,” so I had Rob Lindberg from…
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…
There Is No Version of Reality in Which a $600 Million Tax Hike Is Really a Tax Cut
Democrats really, really want “Republicans cut taxes for big oil” to be a viable part of their political platform heading into the 2018 election cycle. The big obstacle they face is that it isn’t a true statement. What they’re hoping is that if they just keep repeating the claim, over and over again, the public…
“The Future Is Still Incredibly Bright”
“More than two years after the state’s unprecedented oil bonanza fizzled to a lull, North Dakota — the nation’s No. 2 oil producer behind Texas — is experiencing a sort of boomlet that has pushed daily production back above 1 million barrels daily,” the Associated Press reported recently. “There is a long-term optimism that was…
Ron Ness: Senator Heitkamp Failed to Support North Dakota
This week, the industry was dealt a serious blow when the Senate failed to repeal the BLM Waste Prevention rule. This was not without a lack of effort on behalf of Senator Hoeven and Congressman Cramer who showed great leadership in the effort and showed their support for the more than 72,000 people whose jobs…
