6/25/24

Earth hater Burgum embraces CO2 pipeline that splits GOP

In 2016 Donald Trump won North Dakota by a 36 percent margin but in 2017 the Trump Organization blew off Governor Doug Burgum's request for a major disaster declaration that would have helped cover some of the estimated $38 million gift to the law enforcement industry who busted heads and chilled the civil rights of water protectors trying to stop the Dakota Excess pipeline. 

Now, Summit Carbon Solutions wants to dig a $5.5 billion pipeline that would rip up some 2000 miles of colonized tribal lands where thousands of Indigenous Americans are buried. But, industrial agriculture is ecocide and for those of us who love the Earth shucks like Summit’s are subsidized corporate greenwashing and ironically many Republicans actually benefitting from caching greenhouse emissions decry them as caving to the Green New Deal. So Summit turned to using eminent domain to condemn land for private enterprise provoking resistance from many Republican landowners and their surrogates. 

But, Burgum is championing the CO2 pipeline project that aligns with President Joe Biden’s push for the Green New Deal.
While Burgum has outlined plans to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030, he’s steered clear of describing the pipeline or other carbon capture initiatives as environmentally friendly. Instead, he touts them as a lucrative business opportunity for North Dakota that might ultimately assist the fossil fuel industry. [A potential Trump VP pick backs a controversial CO2 pipeline favored by the Biden White House]
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed SB 201 which some call the "Landowner Bill of Rights" further splitting the South Dakota Republican Party.
The two Republican parties consist of one group of traditional conservatives and another group that’s even more conservative and not at all traditional. One group is interested in steering the ship of state while the other would rather run it aground. [Dana Hess, Primary upsets could cause a hard right turn in the Legislature]
Recall that in response to that citizen resistance in a neighboring state Mrs. Noem signed a bill that revived that state’s criminal and civil penalties for rioting and incitement so had Donald Trump led his insurrection in South Dakota he would have run afoul of her riot boosting law. But in the eyes of some that as Commander in Chief Trump clearly failed the State of North Dakota for not removing the protesting citizens from land managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

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