Industrial Revolution in North Dakota

What a great way to start off the day.

I'm about three days behind in getting to my comments and e-mail regarding the Bakken. Sorry. Hopefully I can catch up today.

First, "anon 1" never fails to provide excellent links. I saw this note last night but was not able to reply on the iPad. Bummer.

But it was worth the wait: it's not just an oil boom, it's an industrial revolution.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Bakken oil fields north and west of Belfield with Ron Ness of the North Dakota Petroleum Council and Blaine Hoffman of the Whiting Oil and Gass Corporation. In the course of a long day we visited two oil rigs, a fracking operation at another site, a plant that collects the gasses that would otherwise have been flared at the well sites, and several Whiting properties in the Badlands that have been reclaimed after all oil extraction at the site has been concluded. It was an amazing, and amazingly generous, tour. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to see the industrial profile of the oil boom through the eyes of such remarkable and dedicated professionals.

This is the first of several columns Clay Jenkinson will write for The Bismarck Tribune about his recent tour of the Bakken Oil Fields.

Hopefully, his series will be picked up by the national news media. Perhaps more on this later, but so much more to link. Enjoy this story.