After visiting Williston, North Dakota in the heart of the prolific Bakken oil fields last month, and then writing a series of three CD posts about that experience (“Top 10 things I learned on my summer trip to the Bakken oil fields,” Part I and Part II and this follow-up post), I thought about this related question: How many times, if ever, during his time in office since 2009 has President Obama ever mentioned the words “Williston, North Dakota” or the word “Bakken”, especially in a favorable or positive way?
A search of the White House’s official archive of President Obama’s oral and written statements that includes his weekly addresses, speeches and remarks, press briefings, statements and press releases, and presidential actions (i.e. executive orders, presidential memos, presidential proclamations, etc.) reveals that he has apparently never once mentioned “Williston” and has only mentioned the “Bakken” on a very few occasions over the last six and one-half years, and none of his remarks about the Bakken were positive comments about an area that is at the epicenter of one of the most remarkable economic and energy success stories in American history! Here are the only three instances I could find (with the help of AEI research associate Justin Lang) where Obama has specifically mentioned the word “Bakken”:
1. In a Presidential Memo issued on March 22, 2012 “Expediting Review of Pipeline Projects from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Port Arthur, Texas, and Other Domestic Pipeline Infrastructure Projects,” there is a passing reference to the Bakken formation in reference to a need for improved pipeline infrastructure.
2. The 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference Progress Report devotes a small section to the Bakken region (p. 40), but it’s about an “increase in reported drug and sex trafficking crimes … in Western North Dakota and Eastern Montana, a region also known as the Bakken.”
3. The President’s 2014 National Drug Control Strategy also mentions the “Bakken region,” and “the Bakken oilfields,” but only in the context of drug-related criminal activity in locations with limited law enforcement resources.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that because Williston and the Bakken oil fields are at the center of a fossil-fuel based American energy revolution and economic boom, President Obama has never mentioned “Williston” and has barely ever mentioned “Bakken” in any of his speeches, press briefings, or remarks. And he has certainly never recognized or mentioned the many energy and economic milestones that have been reached in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota during his time in office.
In light of the President’s neglect of America’s “economic miracle state” over the last six years, here are my Top Ten Reasons that President Obama should say something positive about the oil boom in North Dakota, the prolific Bakken oilfields, and/or Williston, North Dakota (America’s biggest boomtowns) before the end of his term next year. And it would be even better if Obama would visit Williston and the Bakken oil fields during his remaining time in office to see firsthand the shale revolution that has energized and super-charged both the Peace Garden State’s economy and the national economy, and to recognize some important energy and economic milestones. Here are my top ten reasons that Obama should say something positive about the North Dakota oil boom while he is president:
1. America’s Amazing Shale Revolution Help Save the US Economy during the Great Recession. It was the shale oil and gas revolution that saved the US economy from a much longer and much deeper recession by delivering a perfectly-timed, energy-driven stimulus to the US economy starting in 2008 with thousands of “shovel-ready jobs” that Obama desperately wanted. North Dakota has been the “shining star” of that Great American Energy Boom, which may have even played a role in Obama’s re-election in 2012.
2. The Bakken Oil Fields Are One of America’s Most Prolific Natural Resources. Primarily centered in western North Dakota but reaching into parts of eastern Montana and Canada, the Bakken oil fields have now produced 1.365 billion barrels of crude oil from the early 1950s through April 2015. Amazingly, it took almost 60 years for the Bakken oil fields to produce the first half of that output – 682.5 million barrels – and then, thanks to the shale oil revolution in recent years, the Bakken oil fields produced the second 682.5 million barrels in less than two years – it only took 23 months of production from June 2013 to April 2015 to produce the same amount of Bakken oil as from January 1954 to June 2013!
3. North Dakota Made a Remarkable Rise to Become America’s No. 2 Oil State. A decade ago, North Dakota was minor oil-producing state and ranked No. 9 for oil production among US states in 2004. Thanks to the shale oil boom in the Bakken region starting about 2007, the state quickly rose to the No. 6 spot in 2008, the No. 4 spot in 2009, and the Peace Garden State then surpassed both California and Alaska in 2012 to become America’s No. 2 oil producing state, behind only No. 1 Texas.
The One Million Barrel Bakken Milestone. A year ago in June 2014, daily production in the Bakken oil fields surpassed the one million barrel milestone for the first time, placing it in a small group of only ten elite, super-giant oil fields in the world (and only four in the US) that have ever produced that amount of daily oil at their peak. At recent production levels of about 1.12 million barrels per day, the Bakken oil fields now produce more oil than entire countries like Colombia, Oman, Indonesia, India and the UK.
4. Record-Setting Low Jobless Rates. For 73 straight months from January 2009 to January 2015, North Dakota had the lowest state jobless rate in the country. For the four most recent months of this year from February to May, Nebraska had the lowest state jobless rate in the country (2.6% in May), and North Dakota has taken second place in each of those months (3.1% in May). But for North Dakota to have the lowest state jobless rate in the country for more than 6 years straight is a historic economic milestone, one that has probably only happened rarely, if at all, in US history.
Over the last four years, the jobless rate in Williams County, North Dakota, where Williston is located and in the heart of the Bakken oil fields, averaged 1.4% in 2011, 1.1% in 2012, 1.2% in 2013 and 1.2% in 2014, and was at or below 1.0% in nine different months. Williams County has recorded the lowest county jobless rate in the country ever since the Bakken shale boom started in 2008, and the county’s jobless rates of 1% and below have to be among the lowest local area unemployment rates ever recorded in US history. Jobless rates of 1% in the Williston area reflect an ongoing shortage or workers, and a labor market where qualified workers can find jobs almost instantly.
5. More Evidence That North Dakota Has Been the State with the Strongest Job Market in the US during Obama’s Time in Office. According to the Conference Board, there were 1.64 times as many advertised online job openings in North Dakota in April (21,300) than there were unemployed workers seeking employment (13,020), suggesting that despite the slowdown in oil production, there’s still a strong labor market and worker shortage in the Peace Garden State. At the national level, it’s exactly the opposite – there were about 1.60 times as many unemployed workers (8,549,000) as online advertised job vacancies (5,361,900) in April. Obama used to talk a lot about “shovel-ready jobs,” and there are more of those in North Dakota, in relation to the number of unemployed, than in any state in the US.
6. North Dakota Is the No. 1 State for Per-Capita Real GDP Growth since 2009. The BEA recently released state GDP data for 2014, and that report showed that per-capita real GDP grew in North Dakota by 35.6% in the 5-year period between 2009 and 2014 (the time period that best represents the North Dakota oil boom when oil production in Bakken increased 11.5 times), which was 6 times greater than the average 5.9% growth in real GDP per-capita for the entire country over that period, and was more than double the 15.5% increase in the growth rate in per-capita GDP for Texas, the state with the second highest growth rate over the last five years.
7. Two Bakken-Area Micro Areas Lead the Country in Population Growth. The Census Bureau reported recently that the two fastest growing micro areas (cities with populations of 10,000 to 50,000) in the country between July 2013 and July 2014 were in North Dakota’s Bakken area: Williston, ND was the No. 1 fastest growing micro area in the US at an 8.7% growth in population over the most recent 12-month period, followed by No. 2 Dickinson, ND at 7.0% growth, and both of those North Dakota cities are in the heart of the Bakken oil fields.
8. Shale Oil Turned North Dakota from a Poor State into a Rich State in a Decade. What might be the most impressive economic fact about North Dakota, and one that Obama could use as an example of a truly transformative, American-style free market triumph — the US shale oil boom has transformed North Dakota from one of the country’s poorest states into one of the most prosperous states in only a decade. In 2004 before the Bakken oil boom, North Dakota ranked No. 40 among US states for per-capita GDP and was America’s 11th least economically prosperous state by that measure. In just a decade, thanks to the Bakken oil boom, the Peace Garden State has risen to become the nation’s 2nd most prosperous state in 2014 with GDP of $65,225 per person, ranking behind only Alaska’s per-capita GDP of $66,160 last year (see chart above).
9. Williston is Ground Zero for the American Spirit. Perhaps more than any other place in America right now, Williston, North Dakota, at the epicenter of the prolific Bakken oil fields, represents the very soul of the American spirit and the best characteristics of what makes America great – risk-taking, entrepreneurship, hard work, Yankee ingenuity, private enterprise, free market capitalism, and the miracle and magic of the marketplace.
Dear President Obama: Please consider the historic economic and energy milestones above about the “economic miracle state” of North Dakota, and before you leave office consider mentioning one of the most remarkable economic and energy success stories in US history – America’s Amazing Shale Revolution that is taking place in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota near Williston. It’s a powerful story of American-style capitalism that reminds us of “the deep pools of ingenuity, risk taking, and entrepreneurship that remain alive in the country,” as Gregory Zuckerman writes in his important 2013 book “The Frackers.”
Despite your general hostility to the country’s oil and gas industry, there’s probably been no US president in history whose administration has benefited more from America’s oil and gas industry, in terms of the jobs, wealth, and prosperity that have been generated for the country by the shale revolution that happened during your term in office. Given those significant and undeniable economic benefits to the country, it seems especially appropriate for you to not only mention the Bakken oil fields and Williston before you leave office, but please also consider visiting the part of the country that best exemplifies the Great American Energy Boom, and best demonstrates the economic benefits of our newfound, abundant shale energy resources.
You did visit North Dakota for the first time last June, but instead of visiting the most prosperous part of the most prosperous state in the nation to recognize one of the most powerful engines of the US economy – the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota where the jobless rate was about 1.0% – you instead chose to visit the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation about 250 miles from the Bakken in the southern part of the state, where the jobless rate was 86%.
Before you leave office Mr. President, consider going to Williston, North Dakota in the heart of the Bakken oil fields in 2015 or 2016 and take the opportunity to tell the country about the Great American Energy Boom, whose effects have been so powerfully transformative on the US economy that it probably played an important role in getting you re-elected in 2012! Instead of frequently pointing what’s wrong about America, a visit to Williston and the Bakken oil fields would allow you to highlight and point to what is best about our country. As I commented in my recent post on my trip to the Bakken: If you’re looking for a place in America where the American dream is alive and well, where you’ll find evidence of the marvels of “Made in the USA” technologies, and where the spirit of American “petropreneurship” has transformed an industry and turned the USA into an energy superpower, you’ll find all of that in Williston, North Dakota – ground zero for the US energy revolution and for the American spirit.
And if you do visit the Bakken oil fields Mr. President, please make a trip to the Williston Walmart, where you’ll find that the giant retailer is at the mercy of the market there and is forced to pay starting wages of $17 per hour due to the intense competition for workers in the oil patch (see photo above). That’s more than double the $7.25 state’s minimum wage, more than the $15 per hour minimum wage laws recently passed in San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles, and almost $7 per hour more than your proposed national increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. It’s a demonstration that the best friend of the American worker is a robust and strong economy, which leads naturally to higher wages from market forces, rather than artificial wage increases brought about by government fiat.
And if you can’t schedule a visit to “ground zero for the US energy revolution and for the American spirit,” could you please considering at least mentioning the word “Williston” or “Bakken” in a favorable way before you leave office, Mr. President? Or will you spend 8 years in office without ever once mentioning, acknowledging, and recognizing one the “brightest shining stars” of America’s economic expansion and recovery, and one of the most remarkable energy and economic success in American history, a story that has done so much to benefit you, your administration, and the country?
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