Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad And Earl Pomeroy Secure $1 Million In “Re-Elect Us” Pork For UND

According to reports North Dakota Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, along with Rep. Earl Pomeroy, secured for the University of North Dakota a $1 million chunk of pork intended to fund “study” of the much-hyped Bakken oil formation in western North Dakota (as well as parts of Montana and Canada).
The problem? Why in the world are taxpayers forking out pork to study what is currently one of the fastest developing oil reserves in America? If not the world?
Western North Dakota is literally crawling with oil drilling companies right now. They’re everywhere. If there’s oil to be pumped in the Bakken, those guys are going to find it and pump it. So why do we need UND out there too?
What’s more, Dorgan (and to a slightly lesser extent Conrad and Pomeroy) hates the oil industry. He accuses them of making too much profit. “Wind fall profits,” as he calls it, and he wants to redistribute those allegedly excessive profits to the government. So why, if the oil company has too much money, are the taxpayers spending $1,000,000 to explore the Bakken formation for the oil companies?
And, finally, why is Dorgan willing to make the taxpayers spend $1,000,000 on exploring oil shale deposits in North Dakota when he voted against lifting restrictions on oil shale exploration in Colorado when it came in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee?
Because really this earmark isn’t about helping the oil companies. It’s about getting Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad and Earl Pomeroy re-elected.
They send a big, fat pile of taxpayer dollars over to their buddies at UND and then their buddies at UND help pull strings to keep the big three in office.
Meanwhile, you and I pick up the tab for this mutual back-scratching.