Give Lynn Helms Some Credit For Putting Fracking Concerns On The Table
It’s been a roller coast ride for North Dakotans this week on the issue of fracking. A ban or moratorium on the practice would be devastating for the state’s economy, so when state oil and gas regulator Lynn Helms told the Bismarck Tribune that a moratorium could be coming as soon as weeks, it sent shockwaves across the state. Not only would it make the state’s booming economy crash and burn, but the state’s bloated budget is in no shape to absorb the lost of oil boom-driven tax revenues.
Now, though, Senator John Hoeven has ridden in on his white horse and saved the day. He got the EPA on a conference call yesterday, and the federal regulators said that they have no plans for a moratorium on fracking in the state. The EPA has also told the Bismarck Tribune that the new fracking guidelines they’re giving the state aren’t a moratorium or a ban.
So all is well…for now. But Lynn Helms deserves a lot of credit for alerting us to the possibility of what could have been. Just because the EPA has no plans for a moratorium now doesn’t mean the EPA won’t have plans in the future. It’s just guidelines for now.
A lot of times we, especially conservatives, think of regulators as being little more than interference artists making our lives more difficult with rules and red tape. But Helms illustrated another role for state regulators, which is protecting state sovereignty against federal encroachment and protecting their industries from unnecessary regulation.
Hoeven may get most of the credit for calling the EPA to the carpet on this issue for now, but it was Helms who had the foresight to speak out first and make this an issue.
If anything, from a political standpoint, Hoeven acted too quickly. What has put the state at risk is an out-of-control regulatory regime under President Obama. Perhaps, before going to the EPA, we should have asked the state’s Democrats (particularly Heidi Heitkamp and Pam Gulleson who would like voters to send them to Washington DC next November) how they feel about the Obama administration putting North Dakota’s well being at risk.
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