The Bakken Bust -- April 29, 2015

Over the course of the next few days, I will post video taken in the Williston area, April 26, 2015 - April 29, 2015, to record for posterity evidence of the Bakken bust. Below is the first random photo taken while waiting to head south at the "new" four-mile corner west of Williston.



The most noticeable thing: no water trucks. Fracking has come to a standstill and more and more fracking water is being delivered by pipe. In addition, much of the truck traffic should no longer be heading through Williston. The truck bypasses have been operational for quite some time now.

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A Real Bust

Back on April 22, 2015, the Daily Caller noted the dismal demise of the EV. Today The Detroit News confirms: 

It's a buyer's market for drivers interested in new or used electrics and hybrids.

Sales of new electric cars and hybrids, according to automotive research and shopping site Edmunds.com, are at their lowest level since 2011 — the first full year of sales for the groundbreaking Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid and Nissan's all-electric Leaf. So carmakers are paring prices in an effort to get them moving.

Furthermore, motorists who leased those first-generation cars, and have decided not to buy them, are turning them in. They're on dealer lots with still relatively low mileage, and at prices considerably cheaper than the new ones.

Even with $7,500 federal tax credits and other incentives, automakers such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Nissan have dropped prices in an attempt to move their new hybrids and electrics. Cadillac became the most recent to reduce the sticker on an electric car, when it whacked $9,000 off its ELR plug-in hybrid last week.

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Rent Increases In Williston

The other day I was told a young Williston resident received a notice that her apartment rent was increasing. Yes, increasing.

What's going on? The Dickinson Press has been reporting the end of the opportunity in the Bakken. Everything's shutting down; oil service companies laying off folks. Doom and gloom.

My hunch: man-camps are closing. I'll talk about this later; some counter-intuitive story lines and some observations others aren't making.

But, for now, I have to move on.

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In Case You Missed It

From Zap2it:

Miss North Dakota will be taking home the Miss Congeniality award from the Miss America 2015 scholarship pageant. Jacky Arness was voted a winner by her fellow contestants and was given the award during the "Countdown to Miss America" presentation.  

Pretty cool. But it gets better:

Though Miss North Dakota did not make it into the initial 15 semi-finalists, Miss America 2015 host Chris Harrison announced that if the judges could vote unanimously they could add one more contestant to the semi-finals. The judges voted Miss North Dakota into the bonus spot so she is allowed to continue on in competition.