February 23, 2017
Fort Berthold Protectors of Water and Earth Rights (POWER) members collaborated with science students from Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College to present a symposium on air quality on February 4 in New Town. NHSC students are conducting much needed environmental research on Fort Berthold Reservation. After years of excessive flaring of uncaptured natural gas and haphazard oil and gas development, the impacts are still unknown. Students presented their research findings on impacts to the environment to those in attendance which included Tribal Chairman Mark Fox. The event was hosted to generate support for the Bureau of Land Management’s methane reduction rules. Flaring is a wasteful practice that costs tribal mineral owners millions in lost royalties. We need effective rules that protect our air quality and stop the wasting of natural gas. Congress has implemented a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to block the Bureau of Land Management’s recently finalized Methane and Waste Prevention Rule. This would be a reckless and blunt use of the CRA, that would ultimately hurt taxpayers, damage public health, and compromise our national security. The venting, flaring, and leaking of natural gas on our public lands wastes $330 millions of taxpayer owned resources each year. It’s up to us to defend a strong natural gaswaste rule, because the health, safety, and well-being of our country depends on it.
Sign onto a petition to tell Senator Heitkamp you support clean air in North Dakota here.
