Oil Drilling Near Parks | Video

Jennifer Joas | 3/11/2013

Oil drilling is happening virtually everywhere in western North Dakota. But residents have brought up concerns over drilling right near state and national parks in the west. That`s why legislators looked at a resolution to study best practices on how to make the oil activity coexist with the tourism and outdoor places.

Some suggestions proponents had were putting oil wells farther out of sight from park entrances, or reducing the flaring of those wells.

Opponents brought up concerns with who would be making those recommendations.

"Whoever is going to make the decisions of best practices, I`d sure like to visit with them before they come to that conclusion because I can tell you, the best practices that I`ve seen in my 60 something years of living out there, aren`t very good practices," said Senator Bill Bowman (R) from Bowman.

Senators defeated the resolution 21 to 25

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