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My nephew is a Chemical Engineer employed at the Dakota Coal Gasification plant in Beulah North Dakota. They produce nautral gas from lighnite (soft) coal and are also selling CO2 to Canada for tertiary oil recovery and Ammonia to fertilizer manufacturers.

In the early 80s the development of alternative energy sources was stymied by OPEC. Once they realized that their artificially high oil prices would stimulate alternative energy sources they lowered their price. Wind mills, coal gasification and other technologies were put on the shelf. Let's hope that VP Cheney can develope a comprehensive energy policy. Then we can tell OPEC what to do with their oil.

You know, the Athabaska Tars in Canada are a tremendous source of crude as are the Orinoco Tars of Venezuela. With a concerted industrial program for this hemisphere we could reshape the world, industrialize our neighbors to the south and solve a multitude of problems that confront us.

There are decades of energy locked up in the coals of North Dakota alone. Have you ever seen the operation at Buelah? I understand it is a cracker-jack job. One of the few long lasting contributions of North Dakota's last Republican in Washington (RINO Mark Andrews) was passing the enabling legislation for that plant during the last energy crisis.

The eco-freaks fought it tooth and nail, one of whom (thankfully) was soundly defeated in her run for governor.

Some of the most rock-ribbed patriots you'll find are in those central North Dakota counties. I think even Pat Buchanan came close to double digit support in some of those areas.

The people there want to make a living off their land. The eco-freaks want to move them off and turn it into a giant buffalo and duck preserve. Some of the nastiest confrontations in the country have taken place in this area.

A good share of the settlers of these counties were Germans evicted by Russians from the Ukraine after they were invited to settle it in the 1820's, made it productive by the 1880's and then were driven off their land.