Governor Jack Dalrymple says the future still looks good for oil development in western North Dakota – despite the low price for oil.
Dalrymple says 68 rigs are now drilling in the Bakken – and while that’s quite a bit lower than the record number of rigs, the companies are still there. And Daleymple says North Dakota is still producing roughly the same amount of oil per day as it has over the past several months.
"And that tells me that our play, our assets in the Bakken, are going to be very competitive as this cyclical low takes place in oil," Dalrymple told reporters at the Great Plains EmPower Conference in Bismarck. "I also am told by the companies in our state that they do intend to continue investing in the Bakken, even through this tough period."
While oil was one of the big points of discussion, another was electricity -- and specifically, the new Clean Power rules issued by the EPA. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) says Congress needs to take some action to give energy companies some regulatory certainty.
Heitkamp says the courts have intervened in EPA’s “Waters of the United States” rule, and the new Clean Power rule, issuing temporary injunctions. And she says some in Congress want to defund any efforts to enforce those rules. But Heitkamp says thoes are only temporary solutions, and they don’t give the energy industry any predictability.
"If you're sitting in that board room, and you're trying to figure out how to build baseload power, simply having 111-D (Clean Power rule) stayed doesn't give you any certainty into the future," Heitkamp told reporters. "Certainly having a Waters of the United States stay doesn't give you any certainty in terms of your land use."
Heitkamp says it will be up to Congress to finally make decisions on the rules themselves.
"Turning on the lights is pretty damned important," said Heitkamp. "And when we threaten that with uncertainty, we make it tougher and tougher and tougher."
