ND oil refineries in the works - MT shoots itself in the foot
Under the headline "Problems with Permitting," the Sidney Herald reported this week the North Dakota Pipeline Authority has announced that two oil refineries are in the works in western North Dakota. The story goes on to lament the fact that Montana's onerous regulator climate is preventing similar projects from getting off the ground on "the Montana side of the Bakken".
The story is an echo of what The Hardliner has been saying for months-Montana is missing opportunities to take advantage of energy development. The Herald wrote:
"The question of why North Dakota has moved along at a quicker pace of developing their oil has been raised, however, the question must extend to all energy development. In addition to the possible refineries in North Dakota, currently American Lignite Energy is exploring building a coal-to-liquids plant. Great Northern Power Development, L.P. [GNPD] and Allied Syngas are working toward building a coal gasification plant in South Heart, N.D., with an expected starting construction date of late 2009/early 2010."
When asked why North Dakota was chosen over Montana for the refinery sites, GNPD consultant Bill Pascoe said, “If all the factors were the same, though, we would have still chosen North Dakota. The reason for this is that business and regulations are more hospitable in North Dakota and this has primarily to do with the permitting process.”
The Montana legislature attempted to improve the regulatory climate in Montana in 2007 with HB 610, but that effort was defeated by Senate Democrats with the backing of Governor Schweitzer. Since then, the Schwetizer administration has also blocked the Bull Mountain Coal project at Roundup and his Board of Environmental Review is well on their way to derailing the Highwood Generating Station in Great Falls.
The Sidney Herald gets the joke--what's wrong with the Lee Bureau?
And I'll just do a preemptive here-please don't post a comment about how oil production has picked up under the Schweitzer administration and how we're producing more electricity now. Oil production has increased as a direct result of cuts Republicans made to energy taxes in the 1990s and because the world oil prices have risen to a point that makes the more-expensive Bakken drilling make economic sense. It's true that we are producing more electricity, which is a result of the wind energy projects that were started during the Martz administration.
Carter
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Carter-You provided emphasis on the wrong part of the story: "The company decided to first focus on the site in North Dakota for various reasons - better pipeline infrastructure, better power line, gas pipeline on site, to name a few."
Then it went into the straw man BS about the Montana permitting process. You and allies in the GOP have spent your whole lives voraciously arguing for the dismantling of Montana's environmental protection laws.
We both know that you think Montana's constitution was and is a mistake. Maybe just once you could spend one day not living your life as a corporate shill. Your smart and I am sure there are many more fulfilling pursuits out there for you. You will be happier, Chuck.
Jackson,
Correction - bills like HB 610 from last session would have done nothing to dismantle Montana's environmental protection laws. It had to do with MEPA, which is a well-intentioned but abused procedural law-it doesn't have anything to do with one single substantive environmental protection regulation. The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc. all remain intact and any regulations that industry must meet.
It's undeniable that MEPA and other regulatory laws are are hampering energy and other natural resource development.
The only reason people like you want to keep it intact is because it's such a boon for the multi-million dollar environmental-lawsuit industry, which is a parasite on honest business pursuits.
Corporate shill? If by corporate shill you mean a Montanan who wants to see positive growth to our economy, more tax revenue, and a return of good-paying jobs to rural areas, then I guess I'm guilty.
Carter-
Why didnt the GOP fix this when they were in power--for like twenty years. This is politics. And I live in Western Montana and we have enough greed and speculation and jobs and traffic and Californias. If you want that for Lewistown make sure you talk to the locals first. I am local and hate the growth.
Wildbill,
This is an escalating problem that first started in the late 1990s. Republicans responded by enacting a positive makeover of MEPA in the 2001 legislative session, but it wasn't enough, thus the attempt to pass HB 610 in 2007. As far as the oil production goes, Republicans are the ones who cut the production taxes that have directly resulted in the Eastern Montana oil boom today.
As for the second part of your post, I'm just appalled. Montana ranks 46th in per capita income, and behind every state in our region. We rank 44th in median household income, again behind every state in our region and 22% less than Wyoming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_the_United_States_by_income
Montana has the 14th highest poverty rate in the country, and again the worst in our region.
http://www.nemw.org/poverty.htm
And you're content with this! That's attitude is appalling, and it's also telling of the motivation behind the environmental movement.
You put a new meaning to the LAST Best Place.
It's actually getting to be pathetic. The enviros do everything possible to delay and stiffle all energy development in this state. They then spend the rest of their time explaining why it isn't their fault that no energy development is taking place. After twenty years of this crap, it's obvious what the problem is. No one except an intractable masochist would spend millions of dollars and a dozen years trying to get permitted in Montana when they can go elsewhere and do the same thing in a year or less. Why can't the enviro crowd simply be honest and upfront about it. They want no industrial development in Montana and they intend to everything they can to stop everything. About ten seconds of genuine honesty from these elitists would be really refreshing.
Thanks MzLiz, you make good sense and yes Jackson, the way the Montana Constitution addresses the environmental issues was a mistake, just like Term Limits was a mistake and Same Day Voter Registration was a mistake, but do we have to stay stupid? I don't think so and maybe it's time for the people of Montana to stand up and speak out on these ridiculious proposals and do something about them to get them reversed and get people back to work and get our natural resource industry back on track in this state before the enviro-greenies put a big fence around Montana and turn us into a giant flower pot. We better wake up folks, pay attention to who we elect to public office and find out what they really believe before we go voting for them.We needs JOBS in this state and we could learn a huge lesson from our neighbors in Wyoming and North Dakota.
The malaise that Montana has found itself in for the past thirty years has its roots in unfortunate legislation that was passed in the seventies and eighties; namely the Montana Environmental Policy Act and the Major Facilities Siting Act. The MFSA was in fact specifically passed to prevent anything like the Colstrip plants from ever being built in Montana again. And it has worked very well in that regard.
MEPA is the procedural hammer that is used by the greenie-weenies to delay into oblivion anything they don't like. It, as well, has worked superbly for doing that.
In the 1900's up until and through the sixties, Montana was very competitive nationally with any state in the union in average wages and income. The decline in that competitiveness started in the seventies and continued unabated until the Martz administration when the numerous changes that were made throughout the ninties to those egregous laws, (passed by a Republican legislature and signed by Republican governors) along with changes to the punitive structure of Montana's tax laws, started to have a positive effect on the economy. The fact that Highwood, for instance, even has a chance (slim though it may be) is due to those changes.
Unfortunately, our current governor is spending the fruits of those positive changes on bigger government.
I was born here. Where were you born Carter? Stop removing comments.
Wildbill et al,
Please follow the rules on this site-if your comment doesn't further the discussion of the post at hand, it gets removed. This is my site-use your own web space for your triviality. If you can't live with that, I'll have to ban you from The Hardliner.