Democrat Doesn’t Want North Dakota To Defend Itself From Federal Power Grab

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Written By:
Rob Port

Aug 13, 2012
7:24am

Later today liberal Public Service Commission candidate Brad Crabtree will be holding press conferences around the state to accuse current Public Service Commissioners Kevin Cramer and Brian Kalk of using taxpayer dollars to defend themselves from legal accusations.

“On Monday, August 13th, North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Candidate Brad Crabtree will hold a press conference to address misleading claims made by PSC Commissioner Kevin Cramer as to why the PSC is requesting to participate in a federal lawsuit using an out-of-state lawyer at taxpayer expense,” reads the press release sent out by the state Democrat party. “Crabtree will also explain how Cramer and Kalk’s acceptance of campaign contributions from regulated interests has unnecessarily put the PSC’s regulatory program for coal mining and reclamation at risk and threatens our state’s coal industry.”

I wrote about Crabtree’s hypocritical ethical accusations last week, noting that he’s taken contributions of the same sort that he’s calling unethical and possibly illegal when made to Republicans. I also wrote last week about why the State of North Dakota, through the Public Service Commission, is joining the lawsuit filed against Commissioners Cramer and Kalk as well as Obama’s Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazaar.

That lawsuit, filed by Crabtree’s supporters at the Sierra Club and the Dakota Resource Council, asks the federal government to remove North Dakota’s local control of surface mining regulation. Given that North Dakota’s sovereign right to regulate its own industry and environment is being made an issue in these legal proceedings, the state has a duty to get involved to protect its rights.

I’d argue that the intent of this lawsuit was always to attack North Dakota’s state-level regulation of surface mining, and merely used ethics as a convenient political ploy to cover it.

Someone should ask Crabtree at one of these press conferences why it is he thinks the state shouldn’t defend its rights in this lawsuit.