magazine

Opening Remarks
From the Desk of the North Dakota Association of
Oil & Gas Producing Counties’ Executive Director
Vicky Steiner
Executive Director
North Dakota Association of
Oil & Gas Producing Counties
North Dakota House Representative
for District 37, Dickinson, ND
“Pipelines will fail at times; but as
a state, we can work to
ensure more success with pipeline
regulation and reclamation.
If you are new to this area, you will
likely notice that North Dakotans often
start conversation with a weather
topic. This past winter, the topic had
predictably been focused on “what
a long, cold winter” it was. By March, you
could just look at someone and say, “Cold,
can’t wait for summer,” and their heads would
shake in immediate agreement.
The winter of 2013-2014 was a tough
winter—and it impacted my car, a used,
grey, non-descript Buick Park Avenue with
160,000 miles on it.
Right after Christmas, on a fiercely
cold day, the gas gauge needle in my Buick
dropped to empty and never moved again.
Even with a full tank, the needle sags down.
For those of you who know my husband,
well, you know he might remind me that a
broken gas gauge is not a big deal because you
will always know how much gas you have if
you calculate miles driven and tank capacity.
That would be true, if I were him. Or, you
can push the “Miles to Empty” button on
the left-hand side of the dashboard. The biggest
problem is that you have to remember to
check; it limits how many times you jump in
and start driving with wild abandon. That’s
a challenge.
And, challenges are what you face in
North Dakota, especially in this part of the
Bakken. Extremely cold weather this past
year was only one of them. Car gauges, frozen
waterlines, icy highways, flooding rivers,
trains colliding and people who take shortcuts
with radioactive waste material are only
part of that list.
As we move into spring and summer, you
will notice that the state will be growing its
lists of regulations and rules on various parts
of the oil and gas industry. Why? In part, it
is because some people took illegal shortcuts
this past winter. It is a challenge getting
everyone to play by the same rules. The
companies that play by the rules end up with
higher costs because, obviously, the shortcuts
saved somebody some money.
I won’t defend every rule but, generally,
rules are in place to protect the public from
harm. Our state agencies are entrusted to
Continued on page 23
BASIN BITS | Spring 2014 21