Data
Keeping Up With The Boom: Feds Slack On Well Inspections
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Many new oil and gas wells designated as “highest priority” for inspection have not been checked by federal regulators, according to a new story by the Associated Press.
Inside Energy News
North Dakota’s Economic Growth Tops The Charts
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It’s not just the oil that’s booming in North Dakota. According to a new report by the U.S. Department of Commerce, in 2013 the state’s economy as a whole experienced the highest growth rate of any state last year.
Inside Energy News
North Dakota’s Oil Boom Creates Job Boom For Archaeologists
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On the list of movers and shakers in North Dakota’s booming oil industry is a group that might surprise you: archaeologists. A recent report by the Associated Press goes behind the curtain of the natural gas and petroleum surge to look at what they call the “rare jobs bonanza” for teams of archeologists and engineers who have to clear the land before the drilling rigs come in:
But across the hyperactive oil fields of North Dakota, these and other groups have to wait for another team of specialists known for slow, meticulous study: archaeologists. Much of the land being drilled in North Dakota is federal land where an archaeological survey is required. According to the AP, the number of official historic sites in the state has nearly tripled in the last five years — growing from 826 in 2009 to a whopping 2,260 in 2013. “Those sites include forgotten settler cemeteries with graves marked in foreign languages, abandoned homesteader farms and stone circles put in place by American Indians thousands of years ago,” as the AP tells it.
Crude Oil
State Department Admits Mistakes In Early Analysis of Keystone XL Pipeline
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The State Department largely underestimated the number of physical injuries and deaths possible if a Keystone XL pipeline proposal is rejected by the Obama administration. The Keystone XL is an extension of the Keystone Pipeline, an underground system that delivers crude oil from Canada to the United States. The extension would extend from Alberta, Alta., to Steele City, Neb. The original report (pdf), issued in January, examined the overall environmental impact of the Keystone XL proposal. The early report estimated that, if the pipeline proposal were to be rejected, an increase in the transportation of crude oil by rail would to lead to 49 bodily injuries per year.
Audio
White House to Crack Down On Power Plant Emissions
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Power plants are among the largest carbon dioxide emitters, and on June 2, the Obama administration is scheduled to release new rules regulating those emissions. The predicted effects of continuing to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at current rates range from dramatic sea level rise to extreme weather to famine and drought. Utilities and trade groups are already warning those rules will have some dire consequences of their own. A recent radio ad from the National Mining Association suggested that electricity rates would double if “extreme new Obama administration power plant regulations take effect.”
The Washington Post’s FactChecker blog gave the ad four Pinocchios for that, saying it’s “wholly unsupported.”
Industry concerns about the regulations are real, though. “This will probably be the largest rule in EPA history in terms of cost,” says Dan Byers, with the US Chamber of Commerce.
