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Friday, December 23, 2011

What California Could Learn From North Dakota

Link here.

The entire article is worth reading in full. Unfortunately, it won't be read in California. Or maybe fortunately. I'm looking forward to North Dakota moving to the #2 spot in the nation's oil production. We're already #1 in honey production.

Here's a bit from the linked article:
California's economic slide is one of choice and consequence, not of necessity. The state still possesses the resources for prosperity, even today, but policies advanced by ideologues and political zealots in the state capital have tarnished the Golden State.

North Dakota, by contrast, illustrates, as it rapidly becomes the economic envy of the nation, how a different approach to public policy bolsters economic activity and job creation.

North Dakota reaps the vast economic benefits of traditional energy procurement and production as well as agricultural spoils, while the Golden State reels from ideological obstinacy where its legislators kowtow to special interests and frolic in dream world where green jobs save the day. North Dakota's approach to energy policy has created a boon allowing the state to achieve notable economic accomplishments, especially as the rest of the nation, and world, lags.

4 comments:

  1. embraceyourinnerhillbillyDecember 24, 2011 at 2:54 PM

    Yeah, but is ND spending 45 billion for high speed rail? I bet not. That project will make us the envy of the world.
    Or not.
    I asked my daughter if she would consider taking a train to L.A. and she said no way...she likes the drive and a plane flight is 70 minutes, why take a train?

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  2. The reason the bullet train concept works in France, etc, is that there is already a huge network of trains that feed into the system, and there is a population that has grown up with and actually uses the train. It would take one or two generations to get car-loving Angelinos out of their cars and into bullet trains (and then at the other end, they would still have no car).

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  3. Lets face it, Amtrak cant even exist here without gov't assistance. Trains work in Europe because land area is much smaller, they have been in place at least since WWII and from my experience in Germany, the run on time.
    We are a private vehicle driven society and have a land mass that makes for great travel.
    Trains in the USA will never get past regional and urban settings.
    And in my humble opine, thats just fine.

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  4. Agree 100%.

    I love Amtrak, but cannot recommend it to anyone who has not ridden it before without telling them to expect major delays. I joke that when I take the train from Boston to Williston, or from Portland (Oregon) to North Dakota, that if we get to Williston within 12 hours of scheduled arrival, I consider it on time.

    I was going to take Amtrak from San Antonio back to Boston a couple of weeks ago, but the cost was significantly more than even a relatively last-minute flight from SA to Logan Airport. I was astonished. And if one buys food along the way for the 2-day trip, the cost is much more.

    The price of a sleeper for a 2-day trip is out of the question.

    So, I love Amtrak, but somehow long-haul trains in the US just aren't going to work.

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