Obama’s Interior Secretary Announces Approval For North Dakota Oil Refinery

Tweet

Written By:
Rob Port

Oct 10, 2012
2:06pm

The fight to build an oil refinery on the Forth Berthold reservation has been on-going for more than a decade. Now, just less than a month before a national election and just days after the Democrat candidate in North Dakota’s Senate race (which is crucial if Democrats hope to hold the Senate) said in an ad that she wants to build another oil refinery in the state, the Obama administration has waved their regulatory wand and made it so.

Here’s the tweet from Bismarck Tribune reporter Nick Smith:

Keep in mind construction has already begun on this refinery, and the final permits were actually approved way back in June, meaning Secretary Salazar’s visit was little more than a ribbon cutting ceremony. One timed rather conveniently both for President Obama and, more so, Heidi Heitkamp.

Do I question the timing? Absolutely.

Building this refinery will be great for North Dakota. We need more refining capacity both in the state and nationally, and the way the federal government has stood astride our ability to build more refineries is borderline criminal.

But these things shouldn’t be approved just because Democrats want to give themselves a quick boost in the polls.