WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND
By Scott Hennen
Host of “What’s On Your Mind?” Radio Show
heard on the Flag Family Network including KTGO 1090AM in Watford City, Williston and Tioga, North Dakota
• A job-killing, regulation-happy Biden administration in the rearview mirror
• A new president, committed to a golden age of American energy
• A former governor elevated to the all-new National Energy Council and the Interior Department
• A new Secretary of Energy who understands American energy is the solution - not the problem.
In short: the adults have returned and are ready to unleash the nation’s unlimited energy potential.
But there’s a few storm clouds on the horizon. Just look to our neighbors to the south to see how anti-energy environmental extremists - bankrolled by coastal elites and operating in stealth networks - are derailing common sense energy policy. By introducing legislation that effectively blocks a $8.9 billion pipeline project, South Dakota has just made energy infrastructure public enemy number one.
We are not immune from these self-inflicted wounds. Here in North Dakota, misguided critics are determined to obstruct game-changing technologies that would revolutionize the future of our coal mines, oil fields, natural gas production, and ethanol plants.
Publicly, these forces wave the banner for ‘America First’ energy independence. But behind closed doors, they stand directly in the way of key infrastructure and technological breakthroughs that make Trump’s bold energy agenda possible in the first place.
Lawyers are lining their pockets by stoking unfounded fears among hard-working landowners. They claim that pipelines - proven by decades of data to be the safest method of energy transport on the planet-somehow represent a dire threat to our communities. Never mind the fact we already have 30,000 miles of pipeline operating safely beneath North Dakota soil, day after day, year after year.
But the biggest storm on the horizon isn’t coming from the lawyers or the environmentalists-it’s from the activists who reflexively shout, “term limits!” when their candidates fail to win elections. This misguided ‘reform’ will drain our legislature of the battle-tested experience we desperately need to guide North Dakota’s energy future. In a single election cycle, we could lose decades of institutional knowledge about the complex interplay between regulation, business development and politics.
North Dakota has built a proud heritage of being business-friendly - not by accident, but by design. Remember when Ed Schafer campaigned on the simple but powerful ‘Schafer means business’ slogan? Since he took the governor’s office in 1992 and Senator Kevin Cramer seized the reins as Chairman of the Republican Party, republicans have dominated state politics. Our congressional delegation has been solid-red since 2018, when voters showed Heidi Heitkamp the door.
All that progress and prosperity is now threatened by a short-sighted constitutional measure. The economic backbone of our communities is on the line here. Emerging technologies have the potential to re-energize our oil fields and resurrect our lignite industry. Carbon management presents unprecedented opportunity for our corn farmers to tap into new markets, especially the booming sustainable aviation fuel sector.
The moment has arrived for North Dakota’s leaders -our farmers, energy producers and business community, to recognize what’s at stake and stand shoulder-to-shoulder to defend our state’s future.
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