Given the State of Montana’s oil-driven budget surpluses, is it no wonder California is in such a budgetary mess?
Check out this little golden nugget from The Business Insider: (h/t SayAnythingBlog.com)
According to the EIA, the Monterrey Formation, which covers an enormous chunk of Southern California and terminates near Santa Barbara, has 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude — four times as much as the Bakken formation in North Dakota.
The problem is, California has committed to getting a third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, the paper (The San Diego Union Tribune) writes.
Rob Port with the Minot, North Dakota-based Say Anything Blog had this to say about the new report:
Setting aside the debate over California’s spending (too much) and taxes (too high), they are sitting on what could be a gold mine for the state in terms of growing the economy and producing more tax revenues without having to raise taxes.
Despite apparently having less oil than California, North Dakota continues to rake it in with record breaking production, as The Bismarck Tribune reports: (h/t The Williston Wire)
North Dakota already has set an oil production record for the fifth consecutive year and the state is on pace to best the previous mark by more than 50 million barrels.
The state Department of Mineral Resources said Tuesday that crude production through September totaled more than 173.9 million barrels, up from the record 152.9 million barrels set last year.
KFYR-TV added this:
According to the Department of Mineral Resources, 50,000 more workers will be needed in the energy industry by 2015. Five colleges are teaming up to enhance their energy programs to meet the growing demand.
For today’s kicker, we take you back to Rob Port’s Say Anything Blog:
Is Fracking Bad For The Environment, Or Just Bad For “Big Green?”
I had to laugh out loud when the AP listed the concerns of the anti-fracking crowd and listed, without a hint of irony, the fact that many hate fracking because it’s devastating in the energy markets to “renewable energy”…It’s almost as if the environmentalists hate fracking, and the energy boom it has set off, not so much because there are real environmental risks but because a resurgent domestic oil/gas industry is devastating to the case for continuing to squander billions of US tax dollars on green energy pipe dreams like solar and wind.