How North Dakota Became Saudi Arabia

WSJ ^ | 10-1-11 | stephen moore

[WOBBLY BOB]

Mr. Hamm was one of the pioneers of this method in the 1990s, and it has done for the oil industry what hydraulic fracturing has done for natural gas drilling in places like the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast. Both innovations have unlocked decades worth of new sources of domestic fossil fuels that previously couldn't be extracted at affordable cost.

Mr. Hamm's rags to riches success is the quintessential "only in America" story. He was the last of 13 kids, growing up in rural Oklahoma "the son of sharecroppers who never owned land." He didn't have money to go to college, so as a teenager he went to work in the oil fields and developed a passion. "I always wanted to find oil. It was always an irresistible calling."

[WOBBLY BOB]

When it was Mr. Hamm's turn to talk briefly with President Obama, "I told him of the revolution in the oil and gas industry and how we have the capacity to produce enough oil to enable America to replace OPEC. I wanted to make sure he knew about this."

The president's reaction? "He turned to me and said, 'Oil and gas will be important for the next few years. But we need to go on to green and alternative energy. [Energy] Secretary [Steven] Chu has assured me that within five years, we can have a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.'" Mr. Hamm holds his head in his hands and says, "Even if you believed that, why would you want to stop oil and gas development? It was pretty disappointing."

[null and void]

...and what Obama is doing to stop them...

[jdsteel]

This guy makes too much sense for the libtards to understand. We need a conservative trifecta (house, senate, presidency) ASAP.

[wita]

Trifecta would be nice but I would be satisfied with an American in the White House.

What is now inflicted on us by our own is a travesty of
monumental proportions and we are going to sink a lot
lower before the trash that elected Mr Obama come to
their senses.

[Last Dakotan]

I’ve never seen a burka in North Dakota.

[DUMBGRUNT]

a battery developed that will make a car with the equivalent of 130 miles per gallon.

Will the windmills charge the batteries?

Kill some coal plants that should help.

[Smokin' Joe]

I’d wager not only are our winters a mite cooler, but we get lots more snow, too. We could send them the mosquitoes, though, they’re dressed for them.

[Last Dakotan]

We could send them the mosquitoes, though, they’re dressed for them.

I've seen some here in the Red River Valley that are large enough to be fluent in foreign languages.

[lowbridge]

bump

[jdsteel]

The only way I disagree is that the trash that elected Mr. Obama will never come to their senses. They will always find some non-sensical way to blame Republicans, the rich, Wall Street, the Tea Party or someone else for their problems.

[Balding_Eagle]

Mr. Hamm explains over lunch in Washington, D.C., that the more his company drills, the more oil it finds................................. "We expect our reserves and production to triple over the next five years."

The world is awash with oil.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This is an outstanding common-sense article and everybody should read the whole thing. One favorite section near the middle:

A few months ago the Obama Justice Department brought charges against Continental and six other oil companies in North Dakota for causing the death of 28 migratory birds, in violation of the Migratory Bird Act. Continental's crime was killing one bird "the size of a sparrow" in its oil pits. The charges carry criminal penalties of up to six months in jail. "It's not even a rare bird. There're jillions of them," he explains. He says that "people in North Dakota are really outraged by these legal actions," which he views as "completely discriminatory" because the feds have rarely if ever prosecuted the Obama administration's beloved wind industry, which kills hundreds of thousands of birds each year.

Continental pleaded not guilty to the charges last week in federal court. For Mr. Hamm the whole incident is tantamount to harassment. "This shouldn't happen in America," he says. To him the case is further proof that Washington "is out to get us."

[wita]

The only way I disagree is that the trash that elected Mr. Obama will never come to their senses.

Short of a miracle, which could be the financial devastation caused by the Obama policies, I think we are in complete agreement on the trash.

[Smokin' Joe]

They aren't large out here near the confluence of the Missouri and the Yellowstone, but their reputation for being plumb vicious won them a mention in the Journals of Lewis and Clark.

Other places I've been they land and poke around for a soft place to bite. Not out here, they come in in a power dive, nose out, and if you move your arm, they'll auger in on your watch crystal. Messy little buggers.

[WOBBLY BOB]

But the birds killed by rotors died with smiles knowing they took one for Algore and Team Gaia.