Lori Hinz, news reporter for BEK News, gives an update from the research on her carbon pipeline feature named Capturing America’s Heartland: CO2 Pipeline, which airs on BEK TV.
The interview was aired on Townsquare Media’s SuperTalk 1270’s Talk of the Town with guest host Jason Spiess, who was filling in for Steve Bakken. Hinz and Spiess discussed many topics in regards to the carbon pipelines, transparency issues, eminent domain, conflicts of interests, professional panhandling and whether publicly paid regulators should be allowed to politicize expert testimony and pass it along as fact on record.
In the example above, the North Dakota Legislative Council Energy Development and Transmission Committee where state regulators lobbied on behalf of out-of-state corporations giving misinformation regarding carbon pipelines to committee and local control. Helms cited Burleigh County's objection as simply "NIMBY" which is grossly inaccurate and misleading from the state's oil and gas regulator.
Hinz recites eye witness testimony from the event as well as some “rhetorical questions” said in their head.
“(One of the session’s eye witnesses) Curtis Junt is a pipeline expert and he did an analysis of the meeting, the Legislative Council on Energy Development and Transmission Committee meeting that was held on Wednesday the 10th,” Hinz said. “He (Curtis) said (North Dakota governor) Doug Burgum spoke, then Dave Glott from DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality), and then Lynn Helms (North Dakota Director of Mineral Resources) also spoke on this one. They said that four EOR, Enhanced Oil Recovery Test Projects, are going to be starting in May of this year, 2024.”
Hinz continued the complex carbon conversation by reporting the state is introducing new carbon investments funded in part by the taxpayers and more government resources dedicated to major carbon projects the people are protesting.
“Now, one of those is using slugs of wellhead gas with water, EER lead. One of them is using North Dakota source surfactants,” Hinz said. “And the other two will be using CO2 foam blend, which is not something that we've heard spoken about before.”
According to Hinz, the four companies involved in these test wells will be Hess Chevron, partnership with ExxonMobil, XTO, Continental Resources, and Liberty Energy.
She then reported that Lynn Helms, the North Dakota Director of Mineral Resources director gave testimony and cited NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) as the reason Bismarck and Burleigh County was protesting against the carbon pipeline and Summit Carbon Solutions’ ruthless business tactics.
“Lynn Helms criticized Burleigh County and the setback ordinance of Burleigh County as being what's called NIMBY N-I-M-B-Y, those people who've ever heard that before know that that means not in my backyard. And 100% of (North Dakota Governor Doug) Burgum's and Helms' presentation were all about money, nothing addressing citizens' concerns.”
Next the lack of research, expertise and science came into question.
“It was boasted that the success of the DGC pipeline to the Canadian wavered oil field enhanced oil recovery operating for 24 years, delivers 40 million tons in 12 and 14 inch diameter pipe without incidents,” Hinz reported. “And Curtis’ question to them in his mind was, how do we know how many leaks they have repaired in the smaller, less pressure pipeline, routed 100% through rural, sparsely populated areas?”
Hinz illustrated the point perfectly with her next statement regarding how the state’s expert testimony was either misinformation or a mistake in context.
“This is comparing apples to oranges again, people, because this will not be a rural necessarily pipeline,” Hinz said. “It's going to go around a city of 80,000 to 100,000 people, and it would be a 24-inch pipeline rather than a 12- or 14-inch pipeline.”
Transparency was also discussed in detail.
In fact host Spiess posed the question if the lack of transparency by the state of North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota aren’t the top story in this entire project.
“Look, I’m not against carbon management, in fact I’ve been doing it for years through our brand The Crude Life, water management too,” Spiess said. “It’s the lack of transparency and ruthless unethical business tactics by the public private partnerships that I see as the main headline news story Lori.”
Hinz responded with a personal story of her own.
“I got into this story because I was at a political meeting that was nowhere near the route of the pipeline. And a citizen woman went up to a microphone and started questioning her legislators from her district who represent her. on why they were not doing more to protect landowners. And it got my attention,” Hinz said. “When she was going after people in that part of the country, it was Watford City at the time, and she was talking to them about why they were not passing this legislation to protect landowners from eminent domain. That got my attention. I followed up and got some more. And the more I learned about the case, the more I realized how important it was that people learned about what is going on in their own state.”
The transparency and conflict of interests became even more complex due to an “educational” fireside chat with the billionaire investors Bruce Rastetter and Harold Hamm.
According to Wikipedia, Bruce L. Rastetter is an American agribusinessman, agricultural entrepreneur, and former president (2013-2017) of the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state's three public universities. He founded Heartland Pork Enterprises, started and sold 80% of Hawkeye Energy Holdings, one of the largest US ethanol producers and Summit Agriculture Group, which is in the business of carbon capture and storage for Iowa ethanol plants.
Rastetter is a well known megadonor to the Republican party. Rastetter donated more than $1.5 million to state and federal political campaigns from 2003- 2015 alone and has been called an "Iowa kingmaker".
In 2015 Rastetter announced the inaugural Iowa Agriculture Summit to address the political initiatives and interests of farmers and agriculture in the state, such as GMO's, nutrition labeling, food waste, and biotechnology. Mike Huckabee, Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Scott Walker, and Jeb Bush attended the event, located within the Iowa State Fairgrounds.
In January 2017, shortly before the White House transition, Rastetter voiced his opposition to pending mega-mergers in the agriculture industry, such as those concerning Bayer, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, ChemChina, and Syngenta. He stated, "Mergers like this have the potential to put into motion irreversible damage to agriculture."
The other billionaire involved in the “educational event” is Harold Glenn Hamm. Wikipedia states that Hamm is an American business magnate in the oil and gas business.
Hamm is known for extracting shale oil resources. As of February 4, 2022, Hamm's net worth is estimated to be US$49.3 billion, making him the 63rd wealthiest person in the world.
Hamm is the founder and chairman of Continental Resources. In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Hamm as his energy advisor, and Hamm donated to and advised Romney's election effort. Hamm also contributed $320,000 to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign.
This issue of the Fireside Chat was broke as news by The North Dakota Watchdog Network.
Yesterday, I received an anonymous text from who I believe to be a legislator, showing an invitation sent to “Legislators Only” with a two-meeting schedule for a “fireside chat” with Harold Hamm, and Bruce Rastetter at the NDSU Memorial Hall in Fargo and at U-Mary in Bismarck.
After doing some digging, and contacting other legislators, I got ahold of the original invite email. It appears to originate from State Senator Kristin Roers. I’ve blackout her email address because it appears to be her personal/campaign Gmail account, not her official state legislative account.
The North Dakota Watchdog Network also reported that the email only went to the republican legislators, not the democrats. which dominates the Legislature.
Because this event is being put on by the “Friends of Ag and Energy", led by Scott Hennen, one immediately has to wonder if this is being funded by the $300,000 grant awarded to AE2S by the North Dakota Industrial Commission.
Hinz and guest co-host Spiess discussed this Fireside Chat and the North Dakota Watchdog Network’s reporting and coverage on this complex carbon conversation.
BEK TV host Lori Hinz brings weekly updates in Capturing America’s Heartland: CO2 Pipeline, which invites experts on all sides of the issue to weigh in on a variety of concerns and benefits regarding building an unusually large pipeline so close to residents and property owners. From reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing domestic oil production, to significant technical, regulatory, and health and safety challenges, the series explores how the proposed route could affect the Heartland of America.
Capturing America’s Heartland: CO2 Pipeline airs weekdays at 9 AM on BEK TV.
Hinz is also the RNC National Committeewoman for North Dakota.
Talk of the Town with Steve Bakken airs 9-11AM Monday - Friday on Townsquare Media’s SuperTalk 1270AM. Click here for Steve’s showpage.
Carbon Controversy, Corruption and Conflict of Interests are this week's Complex Carbon Conversation