OUR OPINION: ‘Energy Corridor’ could be America’s new Sunbelt
July 22, 2012 at 7:50 pm in Grand Forks Herald
As the “center of gravity of the global energy picture” shifts to North America, will the Great Plains become a 21st-century Sunbelt, attracting newcomers (and the congressional clout that goes with them) as did the South and Southwest in the 1900s? Continue Reading
Oil shale operations will require the clearing of large surface areas of topsoil and vegetation which can affect wildlife habitat, and the withdrawal of large quantities of surface water which could also negatively impact aquatic life. Strip mining the West sounds great. Wherever mining takes place will mean the surface will be destroyed.
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The problem, Spearman, is that folks like Tom Dennis see only one value constituting quality of life…how much money one has. With such a view, you can live in a swampy cesspool like Florida with a ton of money and that’s the possible life one can have.
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You think this is a good thing, Mr. Dennis? You think most of America is going to care what happens to “Buffalo Commons” after the greed exploits the heck out of the land and its people?
Why don’t you sit and have a conversation with the elderly who were virtually ‘kicked’ out of their homes/towns because they couldn’t pay the inflated rent prices? Why don’t you have a conversation with the state health department about the thousands of gallons of raw sewage the oil affiliated companies recently dumped in western ND? Do you really think their fines will feel much more than a slap on the wrist when all is said and done?
You wanna jump in head first in all of this? Or do you think it’s up to someone else to do the thinking?
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This is an exciting time for energy. There’s another unexplored area of energy that could help make these trillions of barrels of oil last even longer. It’s compressed natural gas. We need the EPA out of the compressed natural gas business. You could convert a gasoline car for maybe $2,000 if the EPA would let the companies do their own equipment testing. Natural gas is selling in Grand Forks for about the equivalent of 65 cent diesel fuel and it burns cleaner.
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” will the Great Plains become a 21st-century Sunbelt?”
Hardly. This is still North Dakota folks. We have some of the best natural resources found anywhere in the contiguous 48. Why has it not been exploited? It is in ND with everything that image conjures up.
FACTS: There is a place with more timber than the Amazon rain forrest, more oil than the entire middle east put together, more diamonds than South Africa, and more gold than any known deposit on the planet. It has a seemingly endless supply of fresh water, and wildlife populations that would make Teddy Roosevelt apoplectic.
Where is this place? Siberia.
The former Soviet Union tried for decades to establish cities there to exploit its great wealth but not even Russians (no strangers to deprivation) would move there.
The Gulag Archipelago had no electric fences around its prisons. None were needed. Where were you going to run to?
Yes we have great wealth. But we are still ND
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Hey FN, more of your libertarian disinfo. Look at all the big Siberian cities listed below.
Siberian Federal District, population ca. 20.28 million
Altai Krai, administrative center — Barnaul, population 2.6 million (2002)
Altai Republic, capital — Gorno-Altaisk, population 202,947 (2002)
Buryat Republic, capital — Ulan Ude, population 981,238 (2002)
Zabaykalsky Krai, administrative center — Chita, population 1,155,346 (2002)
Irkutsk Oblast, administrative center — Irkutsk, population 2.77 million (2002)
Republic of Khakassia, capital — Abakan, population 575,400.
Kemerovo Oblast, administrative center — Kemerovo, population 2.90 million (2002)
Krasnoyarsk Krai, administrative center — Krasnoyarsk, population 2.97 million (2002).
Novosibirsk Oblast, administrative center — Novosibirsk, population 2.69 million (2002)
Omsk Oblast, administrative center — Omsk, population 2.08 million (2002)
Tomsk Oblast, administrative center — Tomsk, population 1.06 million (2002)
Tuva Republic, capital — Kyzyl, population 305,510 (2002)
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Spearman: you need to look a little closer before cutting and pasting. What is the economic output of those cities? Where is the majority of Russia’s oil produced and processed? Most importantly, with so many riches, why is Russia’s economy still backward (although improving).
To help you in your search, I will give give you a leg up. Go to the Russian embassy web site and look under economic development and foreign business opportunities.
They are asking for help to tap their unexploited resources. They do not have the technology to do it, and since their legal system is still shaky at best (contracts do not mean much over there) no western firms are willing to help.
Russia encompasses 13 time zones. 20 million people are alot, but most are dirt poor.
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I found some numbers, a little different than yours but they make the point. Siberia makes up about 77% of Russia’s territory (13.1 million square kilometres), but is home to only 28% (40 million people) of Russia’s population. That is roughly 3 people per square Kilometer. This compares with Washington DC that has a population density of 3,886 people per square kilometer (don’t laugh, the Pentagon has more people in it at any given moment than Grand Forks) or ND which has 3.8 people per square kilometer.
Siberia’s population density is better than Alaska’s, which only has .5 people per square kilometer.
It is also as I said massively rich in minerals and oil. That is where most of its wealth lies. But like Alaska, many parts of Siberia have no roads connecting them to anyplace else. Transportation is a huge problem. Everything has to be shipped in by air.
When Russia’s economy is more stable, and there is money to make the infrastructure feasible, Siberia might just be the next middle east in terms of wealth. That said, like ND, it will appeal to only a small minority, no matter how much money there is.
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I tell you, Tom, you could have announced the end of World War II and your readers, rather than celebrate, would have mentioned some of their concerns. These natural resources should add much to the stability of the country. Hopefully, as they continue to be tapped, we can learn from the mistakes that continue in impact life in the Williston area.
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