Easy Come, Easy Go For Some Mineral Owners: XTO Will Withdraw Permit Request To Drill Near Elkhorn Ranch

This is great news. It will relieve the commission -- the NDIC -- from having to make a tough decision. No link; the story is easily found.

I thought I posted the "XTO Elkhorn" story a couple of days ago, but I can't find it now. Most likely I wrote it up and then realized it was a typical "Debbie Downer" story and deleted it.

In fact, as if anyone would care, during the five days when the NDIC website was down, I deleted over 150 posts that were in draft status. Most were very, very old, and had lost any relevancy. Others were "Debbie Downer" stories that needed to be deleted.

I assume those deleted drafts are on a google server somewhere in Silicon Valley. The Department of Homeland Security is probable scanning them now.

Elkhorn Ranch oil field has no less than 50 oil wells (some abandoned) and North Elkhorn Ranch oil field has another 30 or 40 oil wells (some abandoned), but I guess one more well -- especially a well that was going to be completed with the controversial process known as fracking where gazillions of gallons of water and billions of pounds of sand and an unknown quantity of unknown chemicals are forced into the earth's underground was just too much for faux environmentalists.

The well probably would not have been all that great anyway. The wells aren't all that good in the Elkhorn, producing about 150,000 bbls in less than two or three years.

This should be a wake-up call for faux environmentalist activists: now is the time to get the legislature to designate more land in western North Dakota off-limits to the oil industry. This time "we" dodged the proverbial silver bullet. Without more "red zones" "we" may not be so lucky next time.

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Note: The Bismarck Tribune's lead story today: the governor of North Dakota owns stock in the company that wanted to drill the well discussed above. Which, of course, is not true. One can't invest in XTO or own shares in XTO. XTO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon. Heaven forbid a governor invests in Exxon. The Bismarck Tribune makes that clear in the article; the headline is, I suppose, technically correct. No link; the story is easily found.

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In the same edition, the newspaper notes that the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is reminding folks not to disturb the nests of bald eagles. There was no mention that wind farms have been given legal immunity to slice and dice bald eagles. And whopping cranes. And ducks. No link; the story is easily found if one googles "slice and dice, bald eagles, milliondollarway." --- Okay, how incredibly funny. I did that, just for grins. I googled "slice and dice bald eagles milliondollarway" and this is what popped up: http://outrunchange.com/2013/03/13/more-on-selective-enforcement-of-laws-against-killing-raptors/

So, while individuals are being admonished not to disturb nests, huge, anonymous, cruel corporations are given free rein to slice and dice products of those nests.

I can't make this stuff up. A huge, huge "thank-you" to whomever writes "Outrun Change."