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Open in TheBrain

North Dakota

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bit schizo, state bank and frack drive over protestors ok:

DAPL GREENPEACE SLAPP KASOWITZ GIBSON DUNN FAKE PAPERS

see GOP supermajority

LA RFP 12/17 wells fargo bad actor

eco update 30 min in? ND non-partisan league, grain mill

North dakota bank held up well in Gt Recession? written into stat const, full faith and credit of state

https://kpfa.org/episode/economic-update-december-22-2017/

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02/10/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

There’s little about the White House’s hiring practices that appear normal. For example, asking applicants, "Was Jan. 6 an inside job?” is ludicrous.

Musk and Trump say they promote free speech. They seem to only defend racist speech.

Collecting donors, voters, TikTok viewers and high-powered friends on his way into Trump’s inner circle.

Recently, Montana state Rep. Lukas Schubert took to X to warn that “South Africa stands as a reminder of what’s to come in America” if Democrats “implement their explicit anti-white discrimination policies.” But Schubert has spread other far-right, racist talking points on X, including the claim that diversity as a “code word” for “anti-white.”

Kanye West made a Super Bowl ad on his phone to promote a website he’s currently using to sell t-shirts with swastikas on them.

Usually, when Republicans want to push Christian Nationalist legislation, it’s through bills promoting the Ten Commandments in schools under the guise of “history and tradition” or attacking LGBTQ people using the rationale that they violate God’s preferences as expressed in the Bible. But sometimes they just take the hoods off and dispense with even trying to come up with a secular-sounding justification for their religious agenda. RWW

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exxonknews gmail 12 24

Who’s funding this ‘newspaper’ mailed to potential jurors in Greenpeace’s trial?
A dark money trail linked to pipeline company Energy Transfer could be behind a mysterious mailer targeting North Dakota residents in the lead-up to its major trial with Greenpeace.

The following piece was co-published by DeSmog and ExxonKnews.

In early September, fossil fuel executive and Donald Trump megadonor Kelcy Warren quietly made a large donation to a political action committee few people have ever heard of. Warren is CEO of Energy Transfer, the company behind the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline, which in 2016 faced thousands of protesters including members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other opponents.

The timing is potentially significant because Warren made his $5 million donation to the super PAC called Turnout for America while his company pushed forward with a lawsuit against the nonprofit Greenpeace related to the Standing Rock protests.

Two weeks after receiving Warren’s contribution, Turnout for America paid $250,000 to Northern CB Corp. — an Illinois publishing and printing company — for “media services.”

One of the listed directors for Northern CB Corp. is Brian Timpone, a conservative businessman who owns Chicago-based company Metric Media, a Koch-linked network that runs more than 1,100 partisan websites masquerading as local news.

In October, residents in Morton County, where the Greenpeace trial is scheduled to take place, received a mailed publication called “Central ND News,” which featured articles decrying the Dakota Access protests and praising Energy Transfer. Central ND News is produced by Metric Media.

While news of this “weird” paper was first reported by Floodlight and the North Dakota News Cooperative, additional details related to Warren’s Super PAC donation are now being debated in the lawsuit itself.

Greenpeace is urging a North Dakota court to allow further investigation into who paid to send the publication attacking Dakota Access protestors to Morton County residents — and whether there was an attempt to exert “improper influence” over potential jurors in Energy Transfer’s favor.

“Given the importance of securing a fair and impartial jury … knowing who was directing these actions, to whom they directed the information, and why they did so are important issues to the fair administration of justice,” a Greenpeace brief shared with ExxonKnews and DeSmog reads.

A closely watched lawsuit

Energy Transfer’s $300 million lawsuit accuses the environmental group Greenpeace of unlawfully orchestrating protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016 and 2017, during which time hundreds of protestors were arrested near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation — including climate activists and Indigenous water protectors.

Energy Transfer, which worked with law enforcement agencies to curtail the protests and used an international security firm to surveil and shift public opinion about the company’s opponents, claims that Greenpeace waged an “unlawful, malicious, and coordinated attack” to damage and defame the pipeline and the company itself.

**According to Greenpeace USA, Energy Transfer is suing the group because it “dared to uplift the Indigenous-led opposition movement at Standing Rock.”

The lawsuit could have implications for whether the fossil fuel industry is able to silence protesters as it embarks on major expansions, including the buildout of new gas and carbon dioxide pipelines, Gulf Coast LNG facilities, and petrochemical infrastructure. Experts and advocates say the case has all the hallmarks of a SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation — a larger legal tactic fossil fuel companies have been using to suppress dissent and drain their opposition of resources and time.

As the February 2025 trial draws near in the closely watched case, Greenpeace is now asking a state district court to grant an emergency motion to reopen discovery in the case, which would allow the environmental group to get more information about who funded the mailer to North Dakota residents.

In its new court filing, Greenpeace alleges that “there may have been improper influence over potential Morton County jurors through direct mailers containing negative reporting about Standing Rock protests that took place eight years ago, and benefits which Energy Transfer conferred on the local community six years ago.”

Greenpeace cites new details indicating that Kelcy Warren’s donation came around the same time as a surge of coverage from Central ND News targeting the Dakota Access protests. Central ND News began running a series on its website in August, called “On This Date in 2016.” The series contained six articles in August, three of which accused protestors of “unlawful” activities in their headlines. Subsequent articles in the series appeared a few times each month up until this week. There is no record of the paper covering those protests before this year.

The same day Turnout for America paid the Illinois publishing company, Central ND News published a story praising a donation that Energy Transfer made to a university in North Dakota six years ago. That story, written by C.D. Marsden (a name that Floodlight first found yields no results in a Google search), was featured in the October newspaper delivered to Morton County residents’ homes, juxtaposed with stories about Dakota Access pipeline protestors.

The 12-page paper included those stories in a section called “This Month in History: October 2016,” featuring one article titled “Area schools locked down as authorities respond to pipeline protests.” Another recounts the details of a felony arrest warrant accusing a pipeline protestor of charging a police officer on horseback.

“The purpose of that publication is quite clearly to remind people about what was happening eight years ago,” a lawyer for Greenpeace, Everett Jack, told the court at a December 9 hearing requesting the reopening of discovery. “We should be entitled to find out who made that decision.”

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One of Greenpeace’s lawyers — Derrick Braaten, who resides in Mandan, a city in Morton County — received the Central ND News at his home in October. The paper doesn’t appear to have any physical presence in North Dakota — it directed readers to the outlet’s website, and didn’t include any local advertisements, according to Greenpeace.*

Jack told Southwest Judicial District Court Judge James Gion that reopening discovery would allow Greenpeace’s attorneys to question the Texas-based printing company that sent the newspaper, FMC Printing. The group would seek to subpoena FMC Printing to determine whether the mailer was targeted only to Morton County residents, who directed that the mailer be sent there, and why. Depending on the results of that investigation, Greenpeace would consider requesting a change in venue for the trial.

“We’re filing this motion and seeking this discovery because I think this court would agree there’s nothing more sacred in the legal system than the right to a fair, impartial jury, and every lawyer knows that direct efforts to influenc[e] the jury pool are not okay,” Jack said.

‘Playing both sides’

Greenpeace has been fighting varying iterations of Energy Transfer’s case — which was originally filed under state and federal racketeering charges — for eight years, with individual Indigenous protestors and journalists also brought into the mix. This week, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard an appeal from Energy Transfer in its attempts to subpoena journalists who reported on the protests at Standing Rock, seeking to force them to produce confidential, unpublished material.

The Dakota Access pipeline began operating through North Dakota in 2017 after an executive action from then-President Trump. The pipeline, which protestors warned would threaten water supplies, sacred sites, and the climate, leaked 5 times in its first year of operation alone.

This fall, the day before the October mailing was sent, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed a new lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arguing that the pipeline is operating illegally and should be shut down. Energy Transfer CEO Warren gave $5 million in campaign donations to Trump, who recently promised “fully expedited approvals and permits” to companies who invest $1 billion in the U.S.

:{Energy Transfer’s case, originally filed by the firm Kasowitz Benson Torres (long-time lawyers for Donald Trump), was taken over in 2023 by Gibson Dunn, a law firm with a record of “playing both sides” of the First Amendment on behalf of its corporate clients. }:{:Gibson Dunn}: lawyer Trey Cox represented Energy Transfer in its opposition to Greenpeace’s motion this week, arguing that juror questionnaires are the appropriate method to ensure a fair trial — and that whether or not Morton County residents received or read the newspaper was irrelevant.

ND Central News, he said, was a local newspaper that existed before the mailer was sent, and was simply covering matters involving a high-profile trial. Cox accused Greenpeace of trying to delay the trial date (which Greenpeace denied), and said its motion did not have “any basis in law or in fact.”

Energy Transfer, Metric Media, and Trey Cox did not respond to requests for comment.

“We don’t have any evidence that this newspaper in any way prejudiced potential jurors,” Cox told the court.

January 22, 2024 rww

Former President Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday.

It turns out the Florida governor can’t even drop out of the race for United States president right.

At age 22, North Dakota State Reps. Matthew Heilman and Brandon Prichard are two of the youngest state legislators in the country. Elected in 2022, Heilman and Prichard are close friends who espouse far-right views on immigration, LGBTQ rights, and abortion. They also use their official accounts to share, like, and interact with content by white nationalists and other extremists on X.

The backlash against “wokeism” has led a growing number of states to ban D.E.I. programs at public universities. Thousands of emails and other documents reveal the playbook — and grievances — behind one strand of the anti-D.E.I. campaign.

Activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty — a group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights, pushing for the removal of library books, and fighting racially inclusive curriculum — are starting their own public charter school.

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Rep. Brandon Prichard

last month, Christian nationalist North Dakota State Rep. Brandon Prichard appeared on a local television program called “Ladies of Another View” where he attempted to defend his Christian nationalism by spreading misinformation and falsehoods.

Prichard appeared on the program to discuss the criticism he had received in the wake of posts he made on social media declaring that every member of Congress must “submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ” and that “every conservative state should put into code that Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their state to Him.”

Prichard insisted that he had nothing for which to apologize because American history proves that his worldview is the same as the Founding Fathers.

“Here’s the deal,” Prichard boldly proclaimed, “history is on our side. History is on the side of the conservatives on this issue. The first thing that happened at the Constitutional Convention was what? It was Benjamin Franklin coming in front of everybody—he was actually one of the most agnostic of them all—and said that we need to plead to the heavens and pray for our country. And it was a Christian prayer; they had a Christian pastor come and say a prayer.”

“As early as the 1980s,” Prichard continued, “Ronald Reagan dedicated the country to Jesus and had a National Day of Prayer enshrined into our law.”

“So, I think that it’s crazy to suggest that that our country is not, at bare minimum, a Christian nation,” Prichard concluded.

IFrame Content

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Nearly everything Prichard cited in support of his Christian nationalism is false.

As Right Wing Watch has explained before, while Benjamin Franklin did urge the delegates at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to pray for help in drafting the Constitution, it was certainly not the “first thing that happened” at the convention and, more importantly, Franklin’s suggestion was ignored by the rest of the delegates. So no, the Constitutional Convention did not have “a Christian pastor come and say a prayer.”

If the Constitution’s authors had wanted to require members of Congress to “submit to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” as Prichard believes they should, they had a chance to do so; instead, they banned any religious test for public office.

Furthermore, President Ronald Reagan never “dedicated the country to Jesus,” whatever that even means, and the National Day of Prayer was enshrined into law in 1952 by President Harry Truman.

If, as Prichard claimed, “history is on our side,” then why do he and so many other Christian nationalists keep spreading falsehoods in their effort to “prove” it?

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ND Republican unleashes Christian nationalist rant calling for 'Christ is King' laws - Alternet.org

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an 4 23

Republican supermajority in the North Dakota State Senate recently approved a measure boosting their meal stipends just days after they rejected funding for providing free school meals to poor students, Heartland Signal reported on Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers "passed Senate Bill 2124, which raises the amount of money state senators and their staff can receive from meal reimbursements. Just days prior, the same body voted down House Bill 1491 23-24, a bill that would cover lunch for school children whose parents’ income falls 200% below the poverty line," according to the outlet.

Social media exploded with outrage and disgust.

READ MORE: Watch: North Dakota Republican blames 'parents being negligent with their kids' for students going hungry

Sonny J Lewis: "Zilch for the kids but up to $55/day if I'm reading the law right. They should be more than ashamed of themselves."

Linda Hillemann: "Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Oh, and anyone who knows these people should remind them of Jesus’ story about the rich man and poor Lazarus. (Luke 16: 19-31) It doesn't end well for the rich guy. Or in this case, legislators who steal from children."

badger person: "Pick 50 of those students at random and they'd do a better job running the state."

Elon Sucks: "The cruelty is the point."

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a far-right Republican state lawmaker from North Dakota is lashing out at the University of Minnesota law school after the school reiterated that he was not a student there.

Rep. Brandon Prichard, who was elected in 2022, has made numerous comments and anecdotes about attending the University of Minnesota Law School. According to Fargo, North Dakota newspaper The Forum, Prichard recently commented about being a law student at the University of Minnesota at the end of the most recent legislative session while speaking against a wind energy bill. But when the law school posted to X (formerly Twitter) that Rep. Prichard was not enrolled there, he took to the airwaves to attack the school for having an alleged bias against Christians, and suggested he may sue the law school for unspecified reasons.

"If you look at the person who is behind the social media account, they have clearly anti-Christian things on their page," Rep. Prichard said on a conservative televised public access program. "I believe that this was politically motivated in a lot of ways."

"There very likely could be a lawsuit that comes from this. I mean, there really could be," he added.

When the program's hosts pressed him on his attendance status, Prichard eventually admitted he was enrolled in undergrad classes at the University of Minnesota, though he insisted that he was taking classes at the law school "that will overlap and allow me to continue being in law school after undergraduate."

A representative of the law school confirmed to The Forum that Prichard was not enrolled there, and that if he did take a class, it was a "one-off class" offered "for the public" by the law school.

Prichard has made a name for himself as one of the North Dakota legislature's most ardent opponents of LGBTQ+ rights. The freshman lawmaker sponsored a bill to ban drag shows, and earlier this month suggested "every conservative state should put into code that Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their state to Him." He's also called for banning public universities from having same-sex homecoming royalty (after North Dakota State University crowned two homecoming kings), wants to ban pornography, and has even gone so far as to say that followers of non-Christian religions should have their right to worship curtailed.

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321 gop kia covid

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/republican-governors/

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sioux ppl ordered to take down covid barricades or fed $ pulled

kpfa 1120

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1120 an

north Dakota is facing the world’s worst outbreak as Native communities condemn the COVID response

Democracy Now

November 18, 2020

As COVID-19 rampages through the U.S., we look at how the rapid spread of the disease is affecting Native American communities, which have already faced disproportionate infection and death rates throughout the pandemic. "We're having a lot of people perish.

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https://freedomroad.us/who-we-are/ruth-anna-buffalo/

North Dakota Republican Who Sponsored Law Disenfranchising Native Americans Loses Election — to a Native American

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https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/supreme-court-heidi-heitkamp-voter-id-tribal-reservations

on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request to reverse an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that reinstated a set of draconian North Dakota voter ID restrictions — restrictions which disproportionately impact Native Americans living on tribal lands, and which could threaten the re-election of Democratic incument Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.

The denial, issued by Neil Gorsuch, was 6-2, with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan dissenting, and Brett Kavanaugh — who was only just sworn into office after a bitter confirmation fight — not taking part.

North Dakota is unique among states in not having voter registration at all, meaning that voters are confirmed solely by presenting identification that proves their residency. But the new law, enacted by the Republican-controlled state legislature in 2017, places new restrictions on the type of state-issued ID that is acceptable: specifically, North Dakota voters must now present a photo ID card that bears a residential street address.

That could be a serious problem for thousands of Native American voters who live on tribal lands, because many of them do not actually have residential street addresses. The Postal Service does not deliver directly to many tribal reservations, so many state-issued tribal ID cards simply bear a P.O. box, which will not be sufficient under the new law.

A federal district court previously blocked the law from taking effect after Native American groups sued, and North Dakota conducted its primaries without it. But the Eighth Circuit reversed the lower court in September — and with the Supreme Court refusing to intervene, the law will now take effect for the general election.

Native American voters whose tribal ID cards do not show a residential street address will not be completely without options. They may be able to call their local 911 coordinator, register the location of their address, and have a document mailed to them bearing that address, which can then be used to supplement their ID. But early and absentee voting has already started, and the new rules are bound to create mass confusion, potentially causing thousands of people to stay home or bring the wrong identification.

This, indeed, was Ginsburg's main complaint in her dissent. "The risk of voter confusion appears severe here because the injunction against requiring residential-address identification was in force during the primary election and because the Secretary of State’s website announced for months the ID requirements as they existed under that injunction," she wrote. "Reasonable voters may well assume that the IDs allowing them to vote in the primary election would remain valid in the general election. If the Eighth Circuit’s stay is not vacated, the risk of disfranchisement is large."

Heitkamp is already facing a tough election fight against GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, who currently leads her in all polls. She won in 2012 by a margin of fewer than 3,000 votes, and Native Americans make up a huge portion of her voter base. Absent a broad awareness and organizing campaign to help people obtain the required documents, the court decision could be a disaster for voter turnout.

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2x

During recent legislative processes, oil companies have frequently opposed changes, and continue to do so stating the “crackdown” is too expensive and that the timing is bad – oil price decline has caused steep inactivity in drilling in North Dakota.No oil companies stepped forward to oppose the “interested party” amendment, according to Commission records.

North Dakota, the second-biggest oil producing state in the U.S., and among the ten largest oil patches in the world, has historically been lackadaisical about instituting stricter regulations. A spirit of leniency toward oil companies has been fostered in North Dakota, analysts said. Criticism over lowering fines for oil and saltwater spills has mounted. In January 2016 the Commission agreed to scrutinize the issues, but behind closed doors.

Some of the state’s top politicians are chairmen or members of regulating agencies governing big oil and Native American interests. Additionally, big oil supports the political campaigns of Governor Dalrymple, Senator John Hoeven, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and Rep. Kevin Cramer, making their voices, according to some, tainted.

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http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/gray-eminence-the-power-behind-dakota-access/

By C.S. Hagen

cshagen@gmail.com

The true power behind the Dakota Access Pipeline extends beyond the private sector and into state leadership. This gray eminence – or power behind the proverbial throne – rivals the story books, both ancient and modern, truth and fiction.

In North Dakota, politicians have been bought by big oil and gas lobbyists, according to statesmen and analysts. Some have invested heavily in Bakken oil interests, declaring profits for the good of North Dakota’s infrastructure.

“We are where we are…and having difficulties today because only one side has been able to really participate in the decision making in North Dakota, that’s totally dominated by the oil industry,” Don Morrison, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, said. “So what’s happened is our elected officials – every single one of them – is supported by the oil industry.”

Ten years ago, most people in North Dakota supported responsible growth in the Bakken Formation. Today, however, an unhealthy environment has emerged, of you are either for or against oil, with no room in between, Morrison said.

“The power of the oil industry in so many ways sets the agenda of North Dakota. It’s what they do,” Morrison said. “They dominate. They’ don’t listen to anyone else’s opinion. Why? Because North Dakota elected officials have decided that’s the future of North Dakota, and that they don’t want to fight the oil industry.

“Every time questions are raised about this, people are accused of wanting the oil industry to go away. And it’s been designed by the politicians to do the bidding of the oil industry.”

Recently, the “Commission,” or North Dakota Industrial Commission, Oil and Gas Division, a government agency established in 1919 to manage certain utilities, currently comprised of Governor Jack Dalrymple, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, pushed Big Oil’s agendaby attempting to ban the public sector from testifying, or having any input at Commission meetings. Only “interested parties,” which would have included project owners and landowners, would have been allowed to testify, if the suggestion had been ratified.

Open processes are difficult, Senator Erin Oban said at the April 11, 2016 hearing about new rules for state oil regulation, but they are necessary.

“It would have been easier, I suppose, to limit that process and to only allow a select few to testify,” Oban said. “But my job as a public servant is not to make things easier for me, it’s to make it open and accessible to the public.”

President of the labor advocacy group North Dakota AFL-CIO, Waylon Hedegaard, attended the same meeting, and said big oil has cozied up to North Dakota politicians, affecting legislation and twisting policy to their collective wills.

“I believe everything we do has to be done to the best of our abilities,” Hedegaard said. “Our government has to regulate to the highest degree, achieve the highest quality, we have to hire the most skilled craftsmen, the most skilled people, and our government has not regulated the oil field nearly to the extent it should have.”

The lack of regulation concerning oil drilling, fracking, waste disposal, and crude transportation has caused the perception that all construction in the Bakken region is about bad players putting poor pipes into the ground, Hedegaard said. Hedegaard also asked the Commission to strike the amendment from the proposed rules.

“The essence of democracy is that everyone who thinks they are a stakeholder in something comes together vocally, or gets their opinion out there, and then argues over it and we come to a compromise,” Hedegaard said. “It is not democracy when there’s another group of people limiting who has interest in a certain thing. Democracy is a messy thing.”

Rocks, according to retired correctional officer Eric Thompson, are the only disinterested party to big oil interests.

“If a party drinks water, oil and gas developers could take a minute to make them an interested party,” Thompson said at the hearing. “If a party breathes air, oil and gas developers could take a minute because air is a requirement for life.”

During recent legislative processes, oil companies have frequently opposed changes, and continue to do so stating the “crackdown” is too expensive and that the timing is bad – oil price decline has caused steep inactivity in drilling in North Dakota. No oil companies stepped forward to oppose the “interested party” amendment, according to Commission records.

North Dakota, the second-biggest oil producing state in the U.S., and among the ten largest oil patches in the world, has historically been lackadaisical about instituting stricter regulations. A spirit of leniency toward oil companies has been fostered in North Dakota, analysts said. Criticism over lowering fines for oil and saltwater spills has mounted. In January 2016 the Commission agreed to scrutinize the issues, but behind closed doors.

Some of the state’s top politicians are chairmen or members of regulating agencies governing big oil and Native American interests. Additionally, big oil supports the political campaigns of Governor Dalrymple, Senator John Hoeven, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and Rep. Kevin Cramer, making their voices, according to some, tainted.

These financial statements were made available by Vote Smart and OpenSecrets Center for Responsive Politics – the statistics do not reflect Dark Money groups, or educational or membership building donations.

Every day, 1,027,131 barrels of oil are produced in North Dakota, and a total of 1,662,917 thousand cubic feet of natural gases are produced from 13,248 wells, according to the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Mineral Resources.

Since January 2016, more than 100,900 gallons of crude oil, waste oil, bio solids, natural gas, and brine were spilled in North Dakota and surrounding areas, according to the North Dakota Department of Health records. Approximately 50,000 gallons of slaked lime solids slid into the Missouri River in June, causing unknown impacts, according to the North Dakota Department of Health.

Few companies involved in the spills have been fined. In January, the Commission reviewed six outstanding spill cases with fines totaling USD 600,000, according to the Bismarck Tribune. Additionally, past spills are still being cleaned up around the state, such as the Tesoro Corp. spill of 2013, the XTO Energy, and the Oasis Petroleum Inc. spills of 2014 and 2015, according to Bill Suess, Spill Investigation Program manager of North Dakota Department of Health.

Spills occur on a daily basis, Suess said, the cleanup is costly, and companies are rarely fined.

“Not everyone gets fined,” Suess said. “Usually we hold off as long as we can on the fines because it is a motivator to get them cleaning it up.”

The North Dakota Industrial Commission’s policy on levying fines for damaging spills is unclear, and is usually negotiated, then settled for a fraction of the initial fine. The Commission did not release information on fines against oil companies for 2015 and 2016 by press time.

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http://www.globalpossibilities.org/100772-2/

The amount of crude oil that spewed near Belfield, North Dakota from the ruptured Belle Fourche pipeline in December was vastly underestimated.

The original estimate was around 176,000 gallons of oil. After further review, pipeline operator True Companies now reports about 12,615 barrels (529,830 gallons) of oil spilled, spokeswoman Wendy Owen told Inforum. The cause of the leak has not been determined.

The spill contaminated a hillside and Ash Coulee Creek which empties into the Little Missouri River. The break was also significant because it happened less than 200 miles away from the Oceti Sakowin Camp, where Water Protectors were protesting the heavily contested Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

The new number makes the Belle Fourche spill one of the largest in state history and perhaps the largest oil pipeline spill that contaminated a North Dakota water body, Bill Suess, spill investigation program manager for the state’s Department of Health, told Inforum.

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http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/65-2017/documents/17-0351-01000.pdf

HB 1203

Introduced by Representatives Kempenich, Brandenburg, Laning, Oliver, RohrSenators Cook, Schaible

A BILL for an Act to create and enact section 32-03.2-02.2 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to the liability exemption of a motor vehicle driver; and to amend and reenact section 39-10-33 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to pedestrians on roadways.

Liability exemption for motor vehicle driver. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a driver of a motor vehicle who negligently causes injury or death to an individual obstructing vehicular traffic on a public road, street, or highway may not be held liable for any damages.

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For a list of politicians with known ALEC ties, please see ALEC Politicians.

This is a partial list of North Dakota politicians that are known to be involved in, or previously involved in, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It is a partial list. (If you have additional names, please add them with a citation. The names in this original list were verified as of posting.)

Legislators who have cut ties with ALEC publicly are also listed here.

North Dakota Legislators with ALEC Ties

House of Representatives
Senate
Former Legislators
Former Senators

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http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/north-dakota-gop-lawmaker-proposes-bill-would-let-motorists-run-over-pipeline-protesters

As Donald Trump takes office, pushing a wave of explicitly authoritarian federal policies and practices, Republican leaders at every level are following suit. The latest example is North Dakota lawmaker Keith Kempenich, who has introduced a bill that would let drivers who run down protesters blocking roads and other thoroughfares, go scott free. The $3.8 billion project, which would span 1,100 miles and include Sioux land at the Standing Rock reservation, was halted in December after months of high-profile protests. Kempenich, who spoke to the Bismark Tribune, was completely candid in expressing that he created the legislation in response to protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

“It’s shifting the burden of proof from the motor vehicle driver to the pedestrian,” Kempenich told the newspaper. The state Rep. went on to justify his bill, which would allow motorists to potentially maim or kill protesters using a vehicle—thousands of pounds of fast-moving metal—but complaining that protesters are “intentionally putting themselves in danger."

Kempenich’s says his opposition to the United States Constitution, and its First Amendment-granted rights of free speech, is the result of his mother-in-law being inconvenienced while driving through protests. The lawmaker cited an instance when he says, as she drove past a long line of cars parked along shoulder of the road, a protester jumped in front of her car waving a sign. It seems just as likely that the protester emerged from a blind spot created by the stationary cars, as can happen in any situation where parked vehicles create a visual barrier. It’s impossible to say definitively, since neither Kempenich nor any of the other six Republican sponsors of the bill were there at the time.

"It's shocking to see legislation that allows for people to literally be killed for exercising their right to protest in a public space," Tara Houska, a Native activist who works with environmental organization Honor the Earth, told NBC News. "These [bills] are meant to criminalize the protests with no real concern for constitutional law.”

Along with Kempenich, other Republican backers of the bill include Michael Brandenburg, Vernon Laning, Bill Oliver, Karen Rohr, Dwight Cook and Donald Schaible. If you’d like to reach Kempenich to express your thoughts and feelings on the proposed legislation, his contact information is available at his website, here.

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44.9% emissions rate reduction

1,063 lbs CO2 / MWh reduction

Draft rule reduction: 10.6% (211 lbs CO2 / MWh)

"As it looks today, I think we're going to step back" on potential efforts to comply with the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan, Dave Glatt, chief of the environmental health section at the North Dakota Department of Health, said soon after the Supreme Court stay.

"There's a lot of good information that we've collected to date, and we're going to keep the dialogue going with the utilities, the environmental groups and other parties about what makes sense in terms of crafting a state energy plan going forward," Glatt said.

North Dakota remains open to developing "a common-sense carbon reduction strategy," just not under the Clean Power Plan, he said.

The state saw its emission reduction goals leap fourfold in the final rule. The state filed a lawsuit challenging the rule when it was published in the Federal Register, independent of a separate, 24-state lawsuit filed on the same day.

Many of the state's elected leaders and power companies agreed that implementing EPA's emission reduction targets will be a challenge.

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) said, "We know already, no matter how hard we try, there is no way that we can achieve the 45 percent reduction in the time frame that they're talking about" and acknowledged that participating in some form of carbon trading is "where we could eventually wind up" if the state were to meet its emission reduction targets.

Julie Fedorchak, chairwoman of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, was disappointed that EPA extended the start of the compliance period by two years, from 2020 to 2022. She wanted a five-year delay to build up wind power in the state.

"I think that given time, we can do this in a natural way and ease our electric grid into a more clean, less carbon-intensive power supply," she said.

North Dakota was developing a state implementation plan as it pursued a legal challenge to the rule, concluding a public comment period on the state's compliance strategy in December 2015. The state was poised to request an extension from EPA and submit is final state compliance plan in 2018.

Bismark-based Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. expressed "significant concern" about the state's ability to meet EPA's targets.

"Montana-Dakota anticipates that additional electric and natural gas transmission infrastructure are needed in order to implement the new resources required for compliance," explaining it would take five to seven years to install the needed infrastructure.

"If the infrastructure is not in place by the time a new resource is needed, either reliability of the electric system will be at risk or compliance with the CPP Rule may be at risk," Montana-Dakota wrote.

Nonetheless, Montana-Dakota and other power companies urged the state to craft its own compliance plan to avoid EPA imposing a federal plan on the state. It and several others urged the Department of Health to consider allowing power plants to participate in some form of an interstate carbon trading system as part of its state compliance plan.

Last updated on February 23, 2016 at 3:03 PM

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http://billmoyers.com/content/epa-ghg-emissions/

But if you look at greenhouse gas emissions per capita, Wyoming and a handful of other relatively unpopulated states far surpass Texas. Wyoming, like runners-up North Dakota and West Virginia, generates a huge amount of energy, mostly from fossil fuels. But these states send much of the energy they produce to other states. Wyoming sends 326 trillion BTUs elsewhere, North Dakota exports 231 trillion BTUs, and West Virginia sends 412 trillion BTUs to other states.

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escape GS school scam:

According to Demos, per-student funding has been slashed since 2008 in every state but one – the indomitable North Dakota. What is so different about that state? Some commentators credit the oil boom, but other states with oil have not fared so well. And the boom did not actually hit in North Dakota until 2010. The budget of every state but North Dakota had already slipped into the red by the spring of 2009.

One thing that does single the state out is that North Dakota alone has its own depository bank. The state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND) was making 1% loans to school districts even in December 2014, when global oil prices had dropped by half. That month, the BND granted a $10 million construction loan to McKenzie County Public School No. 1, at an interest rate of 1% payable over 20 years. Over the life of the loan, that works out to $.20 in simple interest or $.22 in compound interest for every $1 borrowed. Compare that to the $15 owed for every dollar borrowed by Anaheim’s Savanna School District or the $10 owed for every dollar borrowed by Santa Ana Unified.

How can the BND afford to make these very low interest loans and still turn a profit? The answer is that its costs are very low. It has no exorbitantly-paid executives; pays no bonuses, fees, or commissions; pays no dividends to private shareholders; and has low borrowing costs. It does not need to advertise for depositors (it has a captive deposit base in the state itself) or for borrowers (it is a wholesale bank that partners with local banks, which find the borrowers). The BND also has no losses from derivative trades gone wrong. It engages in old-fashioned conservative banking and does not speculate in derivatives. Unlike the vampire squids of Wall Street, it is not motivated to maximize its bottom line in a predatory way. Its mandate is simply to serve the public interest.

North Dakota currently has a population of about 740,000, or the size of Santa Ana and Anaheim combined. If a coalition of several such cities were to form a municipally-owned bank, they too could have their own low-cost capital funding mechanism, allowing them to escape the budget-sucking tentacles of Wall Street’s vampire squids.

Ellen Brown is an attorney, chairman of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the bestselling Web of Debt. In her latest book, The Public Bank Solution, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. She is currently running for California State Treasurer on a state bank platform.

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fracking Indigenous in North Dakota fights fracking 11/14.

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BISMARCK, N.D.— North Dakota's Heritage Center makes for a jarring sight in this Midwestern prairie capital. The newly-expanded museum consists of four interlocking cubes of stone, steel and glass, a gleaming architectural statement poking out of the otherwise drab Capitol grounds. Each cube features a gallery devoted to an era of North Dakota’s history, but the state’s present is everywhere.

The legislature approved the dramatic $52 million expansion in 2009, but required the museum to come up with $12 million of that to supplement state money, and more than half has come from energy companies—including a $1.8 million gift from Continental Resources Inc. that put its name on one of the galleries. The gifts have "given us a chance to do some things that we've never really had a chance to do," said Merl Paaverud, director of the State Historical Society.

Oil development has transformed this state to the point where it's hard to find a place or person that hasn't been touched by the boom. Energy companies have drilled more than 8,000 wells into western North Dakota's rugged prairie since the beginning of 2010, quadrupling the state's oil production. From July 2011 through June 2013, the state collected $4 billion in oil taxes, and is expecting a $1 billion surplus for the current biennium, not including an oil-funded sovereign wealth fund that will approach a balance of $3 billion. North Dakota is in the uncommon position of facing a labor shortage, spurring a state-run campaign to attract workers, paid for in part by Hess Corp.

In addition to the tax revenue they've brought, the oil companies have showered the state with additional money—new millions for universities, museums, hospitals and other charitable causes. They've also given hundreds of thousands to politicians, making the sector the largest single source of those contributions. The oil industry is the top contributor to Gov. Jack Dalrymple, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, and gave money in all but 10 of the 75 legislative races held in 2012.

"I don't think most people know how pervasive the influence of the oil industry is in the Capitol," said Jim Fuglie, a former state tourism director and former head of the state Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party. "Nothing this big has happened since homestead days. This is a game changer for North Dakota."

Put another way, the state's modern history has been rewritten by the energy industry in just four short years. And while few want to argue with the prosperity—the cascading cash, the budget surplus, the new hospital wing, the abundant jobs—the clout and swagger of the oil companies, arguably the most powerful force in modern politics, has unsettled the traditionally amicable and moderate politics of this state of just 725,000 people. Whether through campaign cash, charitable donations or larger contributions to the economy, the industry has gained a level of influence that's hard to overstate. Each significant attempt to tighten regulatory oversight or restrict some of the industry's more wasteful practices in the last legislative session either failed or passed only after being stripped of its core. Any talk about clamping down on the pace of drilling has been quickly snuffed out.

The results have been making headlines for a couple of years now: oil field spills by the thousands, billowing clouds of dust kicked up by an endless stream of trucks pounding on deteriorating roads, radioactive waste left to degrade in vacant buildings, skyrocketing crime rates and housing costs and methamphetamine abuse and prostitutes in a land where few outsiders wished to venture just a few years back. Many landowners and local officials in the state's western oil fields—political conservatives for the most part—see an industry allowed to operate where and when it pleases, at any given speed, and to pollute with virtual impunity. Drillers wastefully burn off nearly a third of the natural gas that’s produced with the oil without paying royalties or taxes because they haven’t installed the pipelines and processing plants to capture it. As recently as 2009, there were just 451 oil field spills statewide, but last year there were at least 1,782. Just a fraction result in punishment: authorities issued 15 fines for spills in 2013, mostly for incidents from previous years.

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has state bank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_Dakota

The Bank of North Dakota was established by legislative action in 1919 to promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota.[3] Though initially conceived by populists in the Non-Partisan League, or NPL, as a credit union-style institution to free the farmers of the state from predatory lenders, the bank's functions were largely blocked by out-of-state financial actors refusing to buy the bonds the bank issued to finance its lending, lending that would have provided competition to the commercial banks.[4] The business-backed Independent Voters Association then pursued shutting down the bank politically.[4] The recall of NPL Governor Lynn Frazier effectively ended the initial plan, with BND taking a more conservative central banking role in state finance. The current president and CEO is Eric Hardmeyer; however, the bank itself is managed by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which is composed of the Governor, Attorney General, and the Agriculture Commissioner (formerly the Agriculture and Labor Commissioner) of North Dakota.[5]

The Bank of North Dakota is the only state-owned facility of its type in the United States other than the Puerto Rico Government Development Bank.[3]

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North Dakota

John Hoeven, candidate for Senate, concedes that "the science shows there's warming but there's differing opinions regarding what's causing it" (at 105:45).  The views of candidate Rick Berg (ND-AL) are so well hidden that even ClimacsBlog, a North Dakota-centric climate blog, isn't sure, but he's signed the AFP/Koch pledge.

Semi-final score: one confirmed and one presumed climate zombie.

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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/fracking-boom-leading-to-fracking-bust-scientists-16680

More than 1,500 barrels of crude oil per day gushed from the “Jake” oil well whenEOG Resources drilled and fracked the well into the Niobrara shale in northern Colorado in the fall of 2009. That gusher marked the beginning of one of the biggest oil booms in the state’s history, part of a larger shale oil rush playing out in Colorado, Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere today making the U.S. the world’s leader in oil production this year.

Those booming shale oil and gas plays are all successful because of advances in fracking and horizontal drilling technology and the speed with which companies are drilling new wells. In some regions, the booms are playing out near homes and schools in suburban areas, particularly in Colorado, where they contribute to widespread concernabout climate change-driving methane leaks, air pollution, groundwater contamination and the industrialization of residential areas.

Scientists studying oil and gas well production data are beginning to question how long the boom will last, however, suggesting that a shale oil and gas bust may come sooner than expected, even as the industry insists that the boom has been and will continue to be a success.

British Columbia-based geoscientist David Hughes, whoseresearch was presented at the Geological Society of America meeting this week in Denver, says the story hidden in oil well production numbers is that oil and gas production from fracking could peak in some places as soon as 2016.

Soon after the Jake well was drilled, the amount of oil it produced declined sharply. In just a few months in 2009, the well produced 48,373 barrels of oil, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission data show. By 2012, the Jake well’s annual production totaled 22,300 barrels. So far in 2013, the gusher has eeked out only about 6,000 barrels.

It’s the same picture in oil wells throughout the Niobrara shale, where oil production declines more than 65 percent in a new well’s first year of production, Hughes said.

In the Bakken shale of North Dakota, an oil play slated to tie into the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, production declines 44 percent in the first year across the entire oil field. Production in the Eagle Ford shale south of San Antonio, Texas, declines 34 percent in the first year, according to Hughes’ data.

Production in the Haynesville oil and gas field in Texas and Louisiana peaked after just 5 years, he said.

And as Hughes noted, the more production drops off in individual oil wells, the more wells companies have to drill and frack to make up the difference.

One of the reasons for that is the geology of “tight” oil, which is found in low-permeability rock deep underground that has to be pulverized with hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” to release the oil and natural gas it harbors. The amount of oil each fracked well can can access is fairly small because the rock is so impermeable, Hughes said.

“We get a big flush of initial production, and that’s over once you drain the small area adjacent to those fractures,” he said. “In order to maintain production, you have to keep drilling to offset that wicked decline.”

In his analysis, Hughes used oil well production data from Austin, Texas-based firm Drillinginfo, which provides detailed production information to the oil and gas industry.

Hughes’ research contradicts Citigroup’s and University of Texas-San Antonio’s long-term shale oil production projections that suggest tight oil production will continue to rise both in Texas and throughout the country in the coming decades.

“It’s not the case if you look at the physics of the situation,” he said.

Hughes presented his findings alongside Charles A.S. Hall, professor emeritus at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at the State University of New York, Syracuse, who studies the energy return on investment of oil fields.

“Because these wells fall off so quickly, you’re on a drilling treadmill,” Hall said Thursday. “This surge in production from Bakken and Eagle Ford is real, but the concept that this is going to continue to increase and that the U.S. will become a net oil exporter doesn’t seem in any way possible to me or to David (Hughes).”...

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1905 to 1919

Despite the progress made by the Republican Party by 1905, political upheaval began to grow once again as Republican progressives united with Democrats to elect John Burke as the state's first Democratic Party Governor. While the Democratic Party did not gain control of any other state wide offices, Burke's election began a reform era. During the next decade, a series of other movements began to take place. In 1907, a new co-operative movement, the American Society of Equity, came to the state and by 1913 become well established in the state. A second movement, the North Dakota Socialist Party, gained momentum as many of the state's immigrants by 1905 were radicals. Both the cooperative and radical movements criticized the Republican Party and demanded change.These movements created the Nonpartisan League in 1915; a political organization that would become one of the biggest insurgencies in the United States. The NPL, led by A. C. Townley, united progressives, reformers, and radicals behind a common platform that called for a massive reformation of the state's government including the creation of more government, and the state ownership of banks, mills, and elevators. The NPL used the 1916 primary election to take control of the Republican Party, and the Republican/NPL Party dominated all state government by 1918, and enacted its reformation program in 1919. Its administration, headed by Governor Lynn J. Frazier, instituted many reforms in state government; among them were re-organization of state services, expansion of educational services, development of health care agencies, and improved regulation of public services and corporations.[2]

1920 to 1930

While the NPL was enacting its many Government reforms, the anti-NPL movement gained strength after the end of World War I. The movement charged that the NPL's leaders, many of whom were former Socialists, were opponents of American participation in World War I. The anti-NPL forces coalesced in late 1918 into the Independent Voters Association. The IVA attacked the NPL on many fronts, which rapidly brought disunity within the NPL, splitting apart many of the cooperative and radical groups that had supported the league. Economic distress also became rampant by 1919, caused by the decline in grain prices in the recession that followed WWI. This, in addition to a drought the western part of the state diminished the NPL support. In 1920, the IVA took control of the North Dakota House of Representatives, and in 1921 it forced a recall election that deposed Governor Frazier, Attorney General William Lemke, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Labor John N. Hagan. The recall effectively ended the NPL's reign, one that significantly altered North Dakota government for years to come. The state-owned Bank of North Dakota is a product of the NPL that still remains today. During the mid and late 1920s, a struggle between the NPL and the IVA ensued, with the state's constitutional offices, including that of the Governor, constantly changing parties. The decade ended with fire destroying the State Capitol building, and the IVA once again gaining control of state politics.

^wiki

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fracking flares at night http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark

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Why Is Socialism Doing So Darn Well in Deep-Red North Dakota?

North Dakota's thriving state bank makes a mockery of Wall Street's casino banking system -- and that's why financial elites want to crush it.

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The Mercatus Institute, a libertarian-oriented — and Koch brothers-affiliated — think tank based out of George Mason University (a public university, for whatever that’s worth), regularly releases its ranking of American states in terms of “Freedom.” Their definition of “freedom” largely adheres to the standard American libertarian conception of “liberty,” which is to say it is oriented almost entirely around private property ownership and low taxation. As a result,  America’s freest state this year turns out to be North Dakota.

North Dakota has also been in the news for another reason recently. What was it, again? Oh, right,  it passed the most restrictive antiabortion laws in the country. Including a law specifically aimed at shutting down the state’s lone abortion provider. It passed this law knowing it was unconstitutional.

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http://www.propublica.org/article/the-other-fracking-north-dakotas-oil-boom-brings-damage-along-with-prosperi

Oil drilling has sparked a frenzied prosperity in Jeff Keller's formerly quiet corner of western North Dakota in recent years, bringing an infusion of jobs and reviving moribund local businesses.

But Keller, a natural resource manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, has seen a more ominous effect of the boom, too: Oil companies are spilling and dumping drilling waste onto the region's land and into its waterways with increasing regularity.

Graphic

North Dakota Spills

by Jeff Larson and Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica, June 7

Impact

Drilling Regulatory Staffing in Your State

Graphics

Video

Hydraulic fracturing— the controversial process behind the spread of natural gas drilling — is enabling oil companies to reach previously inaccessible reserves in North Dakota, triggering a turnaround not only in the state's fortunes, but also in domestic energy production. North Dakota now ranks second behind only Texas in oil output nationwide.

The downside is waste — lots of it. Companies produce millions of gallons of salty, chemical-infused wastewater, known as brine, as part of drilling and fracking each well. Drillers are supposed to inject this material thousands of feet underground into disposal wells, but some of it isn't making it that far.

According to data obtained by ProPublica, oil companies in North Dakota reported more than 1,000 accidental releases of oil, drilling wastewater or other fluids in 2011, about as many as in the previous two years combined. Many more illicit releases went unreported, state regulators acknowledge, when companies dumped truckloads of toxic fluid along the road or drained waste pits illegally.

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