This guest post was submitted by Minot resident Roscoe Streyle. Do more, pay more, we hear it every day from the Democrats. The only thing they know how to do is attack the Oil and Gas Industry. The question is why? This is an industry that directly and indirectly supports over 70,000 North Dakota jobs,…
Latest Tactic in the Environmental Left’s Drive to Obstruct Human Progress Is to Declare That Plants Have Rights
If plants had rights, would you even be able to mow your lawn? Laugh if you want, but that’s the direction far-left activists like Winona LaDuke want to take us. “Manoomin (wild rice) now has legal rights,” she wrote in a recent column. “At the close of 2018, the White Earth band of Ojibwe recognized…
Plain Talk: People Targeted by “Red Flag” Law Have to Pay to Defend Their Gun Rights, Oil Industry Pays Half of All North Dakota Taxes
Over the weekend I had an interesting Twitter conversation with state Rep. Karla Rose Hanson, the sponsor of so-called “red flag” legislation which would allow law enforcement, or even just friends/family, to initiate a process through which a person’s guns can be seized based claims that they’re a danger to themselves and/or others. During that…
Over the Past Five Years North Dakota’s Oil Industry Has Paid 50 Percent of All Taxes Collected in the State
“During the Bakken development oil extraction and production taxes are more than 44% of all taxes collected by the state,” a study commissioned by the North Dakota Petroleum Council and the Western Dakota Energy Association states. “During the Bakken development oil extraction and production taxes are more than 44% of all taxes collected by the…
State Rep. Pamela Anderson (D-Fargo) looks on as state Senator Merrill Piepkorn speaks at a press event. Via Facebook
Why Can’t North Dakota Democrats Stop Lying About Oil Tax Revenues?
During the 2015 legislative session state lawmakers made two changes to North Dakota’s oil tax code. First, the eliminated an enormous extraction tax exemption which kicked in when oil prices were low, almost cutting the combined oil extraction and production tax in half. Second, the lowered the extraction tax from 6.5 percent to 5 percent.…
Doing Bad Things to the Environment in the Name of Environmentalism
Certain very large, very noisy factions of the American left have taken to opposing the construction of pipeline infrastructure vigorously. I’m not just talking about political and legal obstruction. Roadblocking a pipeline by gumming up the regulatory process, or seemingly endless litigation, is one thing. But often these projects are opposed with violence and criminal…
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…