by Catherine Haug, May 16, 2012
Right now, many members of our community are working in the Bakken oil fields, the latest fracking mecca, because of the shortage of good paying jobs here in the Flathead. And many public officials are touting the job-creation benefits of fracking large oil-shale deposits like the Bakken. But are these lasting jobs? Or will the Bakken eventually be another series of ghost towns?
The same public officials also project that tapping huge oil and gas deposits in the Bakken will make us independent of foreign oil, and bring the price of fuel down. Is this true? Will the US be the prime beneficiary of Bakken oil? Will we get lower prices at the pump?
How is the tremendous influx of workers impacting the local communities? Was the murder of the Sydney teacher Sherry Arnold an isolated incident? Or is there huge potential for more?
Take the quiz: You don’t know frack and see how well you do. Only 10 multiple choice questions. (Note: not all the questions I ask above are included in the quiz, but they are discussed later in this article). Read on, for more. (more…)
