Say Anything Blog

From the Investor’s Business Daily:

The price of crude hit a record $112 a barrel last week, just about the time the U.S. Geological Survey released its assessment of the oil and gas potential of a region known as the Bakken Formation.

The USGS estimates that the shale formation straddling western North Dakota and Montana contains 3.65 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil.

The oil is trapped in a thin layer of dense rock nearly two miles beneath the surface. The USGS estimate may be conservative and is based on current technology.

Leigh Price, a USGS scientist, authored a study before his death in 2000 estimating that the entire formation, which extends into Saskatchewan and Manitoba, may hold up to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil, an amount that dwarf’s the 16 billion barrels in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). . . .

In a press release announcing the study results, North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan said:

“The substantial amount of oil that it estimates is in the Bakken Shale should attract significant new investment to this region. This is an exciting time for North Dakota’s oil industry. We’re going to see new growth that will boost our economy and help our country shed its dependence on foreign oil.”

Apparently there aren’t many pristine areas or caribou in North Dakota.

This is a senator who has opposed drilling in a tiny portion of ANWR’s frozen tundra.

There aren’t any caribou in North Dakota, outside of zoos anyway, but there are plenty of pristine areas.  And with a bit of government oversight of the oil industry those areas will remain pristine.

Which is how it would be in ANWR as well, which makes this observer wonder how Dorgan can oppose drilling in Alaska but support drilling in North Dakota.  Are there any really significant differences between the two situations, or is Dorgan just putting party politics ahead of what’s best for the country?