a mysterious patch of light shows up in the north dakota dark

[bcbm]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark

[Le Socialiste]

I have an uncle who's currently working for one of those oil companies in North Dakota. Everyone there supposedly makes good wages, regardless of whether they actually work on the Bakken formation or not - sometimes it's simply a matter of working in the area. It's because of this that so many people are going to North Dakota in the hopes of getting a job there. My uncle says the company pays for his housing too, among other things. That said, fuck. There is some messed up shit going on there, and we're looking at an environmental catastrophe if things continue along as they have since '08 (when the boom began). And if that article is anything to go by, it's creating tensions between farmers and oil workers. This comment from the link caught my attention:


I lived in western North Dakota for the second half of 2012 for work. The light pollution is so bad that people get confused and think they are driving towards the sunrise in the early hours of the day. Texas banned flaring back in the 1930's. There is barely any regulation because ND isn't used to this amount of activity and wasn't prepared. The elementary schools have tripled in enrollment in the past two years.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I was thinking it might be forest fires or some prankster setting up lights in the countryside to get attention.

The truth is worse than either possibility :(