In corporate-capture news, the Harrisburg Community Foundation is naming the main ball field at Harrisburg’s Central Park for a piece of illegally built infrastructure that will be obsolete within our lifetimes:
The Harrisburg Community Foundation has announced a $175,000 lead gift from Dakota Access Pipeline, a division of Energy Transfer.
The championship field at Harrisburg’s Central Park has been named Dakota Access Field- a way to say thank you to the Dakota Access Pipeline for their donation that allowed for significant improvements to the park.
The gift from Dakota Access Pipeline will also be celebrated during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday, July 17, at 5 p.m. The ribbon cutting will be held in conjunction with Family Fun Day at Dakota Access Field, which will feature the Harrisburg Legion Baseball team taking on Sturgis in a doubleheader at 5:30 p.m. Dakota Access Field at Central Park is located at 150 Columbia Street North in Harrisburg [Kesia Cameron, “Harrisburg Community Foundation Announces $175,000 Naming Gift,” KSFY, 2022.07.18].
Energy Transfer apparently upped its gift by $25K since foundation VP John Sutton wrote the Harrisburg City Council on April 19 and said Big Oil was giving $150K. That letter offered one upside: the naming rights evidently last just ten years, at which point the city can name the field for Summit Carbon Solutions or Covid-19 or Godzilla or some other destructive force.
The Dakota Access Pipeline curves south and east to miss Sioux Falls and runs along the southern edge of growth area Energy Transfer Partners drew around Harrisburg. In 2019 , Lincoln County approved a pumping station a mile southeast of Harrisburg to double the pipeline’s daily volume of Bakken-frackin’ oil.
Harrisburg doesn’t need Texas oil money to build its ball diamonds. The fastest-growing town in South Dakota must have revenue pouring in from new residents and businesses and sales taxes. But hey—Harrisburg Community Foundation president Tami Harms is also manager at Olson Oil, which runs Get-n-Go, which sells fuels from BP, which funded Dakota Access owns some of the tank farm that receives Bakken oil from Dakota Access pipeline at Patoka, Illinois, so why not further invade the mindspace of fans of the jockocracy with the destructive message that fossil fuels are the lifeblood of America?
Oil IS a renewable resource, and one of the top 2 most plentiful liquids on the planet, so why not?
Not really South and not really Dakota: diluted bitumen is life like baseball is water.
This statement requires some thinking Mr. Kurtz. I’m not really sure Mr. Matt has that mental capacity. On a side note, I only wish that Dick and Jane’s Naughty Spot would have been a better choice as both would be about getting screwed.
Just as an aside, I always wince when I read the phrase “Family Fun Day.” Probably caused by a spot of buried childhood trauma. Something, something, stitches, tetanus shot.
Well Matt, since the southern part of Florida will disappear at least I’ll have beach front property in Nokomis fairly soon. The heat in So. Dak will make up for those cold, cold winters. Just make sure you’re insurance is prepared for the golf ball sized hail. A new roof every couple of years could be good unless the insurers leave.
Well…it’s just another chapter in the book “Charitable Giving to Those Who Don’t Need It.” Harrisburg can afford its own recreational facilities. Dakota Access, if they were concerned that their money went to actually improve communities and people struggling to live in those communities, could fund day care facilities and Head Start Programs from Alcester to Kyle. That charitable giving would have true impact. The ball field in Harrisburg is just a corporate money drop for its own self aggrandizement.
Jerry insults Matt and then brings nothing further to counter his claim. Just insults like usual.
Allen Jeris – Matt’s claim s so ludicrous, it requires no “counter”, which would somehow give it an aroma of dignity which it does not deserve.
you know, they teach some fine geology classes at the School of Mines and you can learn enough about the geologic forces that create petroleum and where to find it to go into the oil business. the key question isn’t renewability but cost of extracting it. and water and molten iron or magma are the most common liquids.
Oil is not renewable on any timespan I am aware of. Since oil is just captured and fossilized sunlight energy, makes more sense to skip the whole extracting of the oil and refining and combusting and just go straight for the dang sunlight that hasn’t been captured in foliage and buried for eons. Magma is the most plentiful plasma and saline and fresh water are our most plentiful liquids we have. Taking Geology at SDSM&T is one of the finest courses in the land (and sky), jakc(:
I wish I would have relished it more at the time.
indeed all mammal, and yet we took those courses for granite!
to continue the renewable discussion, using sunlight/wind/hydro today doesn’t diminish the amount available tomorrow. Oil is like bank account or anquifer. You can draw it down faster than the recharge rate. We seem to be well past the conditions that made it possible for great resevoirs of oil to form and we are drawing old oil down faster than new oil forms. Just as importantly , we will exhaust sources of cheap oil. And of course, oil only captures a fraction of the sunlight. In the long run, solar is cheaper and the environmental impact (though not zero) is less. The saddest thing is that SD does not have the oil and coal reserves of our neighbors (ND, WY, MT and CO). The state should have pivoted long ago to solar and wind and ought to be a leader in those technologies, rather than hoping for scraps from pipelines and the willingness of people on RC or Spearfish to drive to Gillette or Williston for good jobs.
Ahh! I love it- took for granite. Gneiss one. You’re right jakc , there are numerous industries SD could run with. Literally- run with. I always wondered why health gyms and the prisons and stuff like that don’t generate some of their own power using man power. It is such a waste for people to lift weights just to set them back down…and sit in traffic on their way to go ride a stationary bike at the gym they pay money to to burn electricity to fan themselves, while spinning a giant fan with the stagnant bike.?
SD could also plant a bunch more trees since they are a great way to cool the planet and absorb some co2. Plenty of room for trees along i90 and 212…. i tried to design a telescopic hood mast to strap on cars for using a little wind power with a small sail to go cross state. I bet you could go all 350 or so miles and never touch the accelerator once. I had to scrap that one though for my lack of understanding fluidity and low clearance bridges. Maybe we could use some of the energy left after they accelerate and smash particles in Sanford Lab…use Rapid Creek to wind up giant rubber bands to store energy.. every truck going downhill could transfer it’s descend energy to lift another truck’s freight uphill.. sort of like that elevator power idea Mr. H mentioned in an article awhile back. Magnets are also an untapped source of energy, along with full moons… and like jakc said, SD won’t be running out of sunshine and wind anytime soon. At least try to capture some of the burnouts at the rally. Where does that all go
For what SD lacks in the energy game, we could sure use as an opportunity and start trying out what we do have on hand and give the world options. Much better options than blowing the ground we live on to smithereens, breeching the aquifers just for some old, played out petro. Reminds me of a Looney Tunes character sawing the tree branch he is perched on. … not wise.