Energy and Environment

News is beginning to percolate up about the Bakken oil field in North Dakota, which also extends into Montana. The actual size is uncertain, but the estimates keep getting bigger.

If the discovery turns out to be significant, expect the interior department to name the entire area the "Chief Sitting Bull National Wilderness Preserve" and ban all human activity anywhere near it. This will be closely coincident to a generous campaign contribution to the administration from the Saudi royal family, reminiscent of a similar practice in the 90's in which a contribution from the coal magnate Riady family of Indonesia got the worlds largest deposit of clean coal declared a national monument in Utah.