Big Oil in the United States by Jerry McBeath
Author:Jerry McBeath
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Institutional Form and North Dakota’s Exceptional Places
During a four-month period in 2013 to 2014, the North Dakota oil and gas regulatory community came alive over a proposal to give special consideration in the permitting process to “places of extraordinary significance.” The case shows both the opportunities that direct election provides for commissioners, as well as the limitations.
In late 2013 at an NDIC meeting, Attorney General (AG) Wayne Stenehjem introduced an issue concerning oil and gas development adjacent to “exceptional places.” He had heard from acquaintances who spent time in the Badlands and were worried what impacts it would suffer from under intense development activity, like that already occurring in the Bakken.36 Although the idea did not receive much support from the two other commissioners, the AG had his staff craft “administrative rules for extraordinary places,” intended to increase notification to the public and participation by those interested, with the overall intent of mitigating adverse impacts. The proposal identified 18 places including the Elkhorn Ranch, Lake Sakakawea, the Little Missouri national grasslands and state park, and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Places, both private and public, within these 1.2 million acres effectively would be scrutinized whenever oil and gas development was proposed. Each special place would be buffered by a two-mile zone surrounding it.37
While the AG was adjusting his proposal from rule making to the creation of an NDIC policy now called “area of interest review policy,” the industry pushed back. An affiliate of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO, introduced in Chapter 4), called the Royalty Owners & Producers Educational Coalition (ROPE), launched a counterattack. Its press release to royalty owners both in North Dakota and outside it emphasized:
Extraordinary places rule endangers North Dakotans’ royalty checks … your property rights and royalty checks are at serious risk!.… Nearly a million acres of private land across the Peace Garden State may soon be restricted or even condemned.… Out-of-state interests are pushing their anti-development agendas in Bismarck all in the name of protecting so-called “Extraordinary Places,” places that are ALREADY protected by existing regulations.38
The organizer, Jerry Simmons (NARO national president and vice president of the coalition), urged recipients to call the governor (chair of the NDIC) in opposition to “big government style” regulatory overreach and an unwarranted change to NDIC’s mandate to promote oil/gas development.39
The government affairs manager of the North Dakota Petroleum Council (NDPC, also introduced in Chapter 4) sent an urgent memo to the 500 plus association members on February 19, 2014. She noted that the proposal had been modified, but that:
The policy would still allow anyone—including out-of-state activists—to play a role in determining well placement in … buffer zones.… 20% of all drilling permits in 2014 would have been inside the areas designated in this proposal.… We are asking the NDIC to exclude private property from this proposal and to further define and limit the public comment process on public land.40
The trade association officer requested that members ask NDIC commissioners to reconsider the proposal and provided a link that members could use to send a direct message.
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