Author: Jim Fuglie

Last week William Prentice, the slickster CEO of Meridian Energy, which wants to build an oil refinery 2 ½ miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, blew a bunch of smoke up the ass of a young reporter for The Dickinson Press, and the kid, who’s actually a pretty good writer, wrote a real puff piece … Continue reading Refinery Company: Still Blowing Smoke, Still Sleazy

Sometime after I went to bed last night I completed my 70th trip around the sun. Today I begin my 71st.  They’ve been interesting trips. I’ve enjoyed most of all of them. They’ve all been different. If I could do them over, there are probably a few different roads I’d choose, a few different off-ramps I’d … Continue reading Another Trip Around the Sun

So it begins. North Dakota has its first official candidate in the 2018 election. Given all the weird shit (read: Trump) that’s been going on over the last 8 months or so, I’m eager for a fresh start, and my young friend Ben Hanson has provided that. Thank you, Ben. Ben sent me an e-mail … Continue reading Ben Hanson for Congress: A Good Idea

A short report on last night’s first meeting of the Little Missouri Scenic River Commission in ten years. If I don’t report, you’ll probably never hear or read about it. Nothing happened. The meeting was chaired by State Engineer Garland Erbele, and was engineered by two state employees, Jon Patch, an engineer from the State … Continue reading Somebody’s Finally Looking Out for the Little Missouri State Scenic River

  If you’ve been following the saga of Jason Halek on my blog for the last four years, you know that on July 31 he was supposed to be sent off to jail for dumping 800,000 gallons of poisonous oilfield brine down an abandoned well south of Dickinson. I last wrote about him on April … Continue reading Halek Sentencing Delayed Again

A couple of months ago I wrote about an oil well pad at the top of the Van Hook boat ramp on Lake Sakakawea. I’ve learned a few things about it since then. First, the basics. There’s a little blue-collar resort community at the top of the Van Hook Arm of Lake Sakakawea, a couple … Continue reading Van Hook Oil Pad Upate

When the Little Missouri Scenic River Commission meets next Wednesday in Dickinson, they could have a cake with ten candles on it to celebrate. It will have been just 20 days shy of ten years since the Commission last met—August 29, 2007. The newly-formed Commission, put together hastily this summer to comply with strict orders … Continue reading The Little Missouri State Scenic River Commission Is Back in Business

For the last 50 years or so, there have been just five places where you can drive your car across a bridge over the Little Missouri State Scenic River: In Marmarth on U.S. Highway 12, on Pacific Avenue in the city of Medora, on I-94 just north of Medora (two bridges, one going each way), … Continue reading The Newest Bridge Across the Little Missouri State Scenic River. What the . . . ?

Of all the sleazy companies to show up in North Dakota’s oil patch in the nearly ten years since the Bakken Boom began, the sleaziest of them all has to be Meridian Energy, the company proposing to build an oil refinery called the Davis Refinery just three miles from Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Here’s why … Continue reading Refinery Company to PSC: “Screw You”

In a major victory for conservationists, and for the North Dakota Bad Lands they work hard to protect, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland of Bismarck ruled this week that the state of North Dakota and four western North Dakota counties have no right to go in and build roads in areas of the Little Missouri … Continue reading A Victory for the Good Guys. And the Bad Lands.