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Bill on flaring changed by Senate

A bill about the flaring of natural gas has been changed – and its sponsor is not happy about it.

Sen. Connie Triplett’s (D-Grand Forks) bill would have required that the operator of an oil well that flares natural gas has to start paying royalties on that gas after the well has been in production 14 days.  But the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee changed the bill, adopting what in Legislative parlance is called a “hog-house amendment.”

"And the hog-house amendment says we're not going to impose more stringent requirements on the industry," said Sen. David Hogue (R-Minot). "What we're going to do is find out how much the existing regulations and rules imposed by the Industrial Commission are costing us. And when we find out, we ant the Industrial Commission to report that."

Hogue says industry officials told the Committee existing rules adopted by the Industrial Commission to curb flaring could be costing the state tax money – because, in some cases, production from certain wells is being limited.

Democrats challenged the amendment as not being germane to the original bill. But that challenge was rejected. And Triplett called the amendment “backward looking” – because it looks back on Industrial Commission orders made after July, 2013 on flaring.

"This is no longer about a little tax bill," said Triplett. "It's attacking the work of the Industrikal Commission generally. And it is backward-looking, to try to undo work that was done."

The amendment was approved. It will now be looked at by the Senate Appropriations Committee, because of costs associated with it.