Flaring in North Dakota: The Perfect Story of Profit Motive Purloining Envirnoment

North Dakota's oil boom isn't just about oil; a lot of natural gas comes out of the ground at the same time. But there's a problem with that: The state doesn't have the pipelines needed to transport all of that gas to market. There's also no place to store it.

In many cases, drillers are simply burning it.

"People are estimating it's about $1 million a day just being thrown into the air," says Marcus Stewart, an energy analyst with Bentek Energy. Stewart tracks the amount of gas burned off — or flared — in the state, and his latest figures show that drillers are burning about 27 percent of the gas they produce.

--Morning Edition, NPR, January 30, 2014

The story of the burning of natural gas as "flaring" in North Dakota is an elegant story illustrating how the profit motive may undermine the planet.  For Republicans of all stripes, one bedrock proposition is that a free market, driven by the desire for profit is ultimately the most efficient and beneficent way. Get government involved with a bunch of do good regulations and you kill efficiency.

Now consider the oil boom in North Dakota: When unearthing oil,  the petrol companies drilling with abandon up there are releasing gargantuan quantities of natural gas, which they burn as a "flare."  Why would they waste all this potentially valuable fuel, you ask. I know I asked. The reason is profit. Natural gas sells for about $4 a cubic foot, whereas oil sells for $40-$90 a barrel, depending on the month. So the oil is more profitable. 

But why waste the gas? Why not cash in on that? Why burn more gas and send more CO2 into the atmosphere?  Because, to capture that gas, you'd need to build infrastructure: Storage tanks, pipelines to transport it. Doing all that would delay getting the oil to market, and it's the oil where the big profits are.

So, it makes sense to just burn the gas, financially, if you are an oil company executive who cares more about profit than about the environment. You might say, well, you can get your profit later, but why despoil the air burning, wasting, natural gas. Just wait a few months, build your infrastructure and reap your profit later. 

But no, companies are not in business to wait for profit.

So what force could possibly force these paragons of private enterprise to do the right thing by the environment and by the nation (if we are worried about energy independence)? Why, the government, of course. The government cares about the common good, not just one company's bottom line or stock price. 

Oh, that nasty beast, the government. Always getting in the way, always thwarting the efficient operation of American industry. Democrats doing that bad thing. Republicans say, drill baby, drill. Burn, baby burn.