Say Anything

More national media attention for North Dakota’s Bakken oil boom, this time from NBC’s Brian Williams by way of his new show Rock Center.

It’s interesting how focused the media is on finding the negative aspects of the boom. Which isn’t to say that infrastructure strain and housing prices shouldn’t go unreported, but we should ask ourselves which situation is preferable.

An economy growing so fast infrastructure can’t keep up? Or dying communities with shrinking tax bases, few jobs and no opportunities? Because the latter option was what western North Dakota was like just a decade ago.