Dakota Beacon

THE DREADED NEWS ARRIVED  Great River Energy, a Minnesota wholesale electric cooperative, made two decisions affecting ND.  The most serious is the closing in 2022 of Coal Creek Station, a coal-fired electric plant which employs 260 in Underwood — the adjoining Falkirk Mine employing 400 is also likely to close.  A smaller coal-fired plant near Jamestown will be converted to natural gas.

A STAGGERING LOSS took place this year in ND as oil operators idled about 30% of the state’s production (450,000 barrels a day) due to low oil prices.  The ripples are now spreading out to the suppliers and service companies supporting the industry.  Because the cost of restarting individual wells (ranging from $25,000 to $50,000) is so great, many of the lower producing wells will never be reopened.

REGIONAL COVID ROUNDUP  Some good news is emerging.  You can forget about the problem in Montana, where there are almost no new cases.  The virus was raging in Sioux Falls, SD, but is now tailing off and bringing down the state’s new cases.  In ND the number of new cases is going sideways supported largely by nursing home cases in Fargo and increased testing.  

MINNESOTA continues to have a large and increasing number (approaching 800 a day) of new cases.  The drivers are food plants and Twin City area nursing homes.  Because of the nursing home cases, Minnesota has by far the greatest number of Covid deaths per capita in the Upper Midwest.  Food plants have made the St. Cloud area a national hotspot for new cases.

AN ARGUMENT FOR REDUCING RESTRICTIONS  “Think of the very real stress and misery this enormous economic damage inflicts on countless lives. Some of the suffering will be ongoing. We can expect a rise in deaths of despair — suicide, drug overdoses, health problems caused or exacerbated by drug or alcohol abuse.”  — A Forum editorial supporting Gov. Burgum’s “Smart Restart.”

WE CANNOT ELIMINATE ALL RISK  “If you are run over by a train and are virus-positive, your death will be chalked up to COVID-19.”  Forum columnist Ross Nelson said health experts “in general acted with foolish haste needlessly” overstating Covid deaths and death rates.  He says the death rates are high because the majority of those with the virus are untested.

STRIKING A BALANCE  Plunging wages, a shrinking workforce, spiking unemployment, and a contracting economy — these are predictions for ND from NDSU’s Center for the Study of Public Choice and Private Enterprise.  The entire nation is economically impacted by the pandemic, but ND also has preexisting problems in its two main industries (agriculture and energy).  This is what Gov. Burgum has referred to as a “flock of black swans” (unforeseen events with extreme consequences).  Columnist Rob Port said we are not at risk of businesses being destroyed and people’s lives becoming negative, because that has already happened as a result of necessary steps to shutdown the state’s economy.  He said, “That cost had to be balanced with the public health cost of reopening.”  He believes Gov. Burgum is striking the right balance for ND with a staged reopening.    

DO MORE WITH LESS  Gov. Burgum told state agencies to expect 5% to 15% cuts in their budgets for the 2021-2023 biennium.  He urged managers to view the cuts as an opportunity to innovate lower cost ways of doing better.  The cuts are driven by the double barrels of low oil prices and the pandemic.

IS THE GOVERNOR INTRUDING?  “If a governor can influence, or even control, legislative elections, what becomes of separation of powers?” — Columnist Mike Jacobs.  He believes Gov. Burgum has stuck his finger into the fall legislative elections by backing a PAC which opposes Jeff Delzer, a powerful incumbent House candidate in a district just north of Bismarck.  Though the candidate is in Burgum’s party, the two have found themselves on the opposite side of several issues.  As you can tell from the quote, Jacobs thinks Burgum’s involvement may be unwise.

ND’S TRIBES consider themselves uniquely vulnerable to coronavirus because of their health conditions.  The Spirit Lake, Turtle Mt. and Standing Rock reservations all took aggressive action using road blocks and curfews — the actions paid off with few cases and no deaths.  Ft. Berthold, which is ln the middle of the Oil Patch, stayed relatively open and paid the price — they have 33 cases and are one of hardest hit tribes on the Great Plains.

NURSING HOME CRISIS  What happens when a nursing home has both residents and staff who have coronavirus, but are asymptomatic?  St. Therese of New Hope (a Minneapolis northwest suburb) provides an extreme example of what can happen.  St. Therese is a 258-bed facility, as of May 1, 47 residents had died and 130 others had tested positive.  Additionally, 65 workers had symptoms or were exposed.  About a third of those with the disease were asymptomatic when tested, meaning they had no symptoms.

NEIGHBORS WITH DIFFERENT POLICIES  Hamar, Norway, is Fargo’s sister city; Vimmerby, Sweden, was previously Fargo’s sister city.  Norway has corona restrictions similar to those in ND.  Hamar’s mayor expressed sympathy for Fargo and said, “The coronavirus changes our lives fundamentally and will do so for a long period of time, longer than the pandemic itself.”  Sweden went a different direction and imposed very few restrictions.  Vimmerby’s mayor said their objective was to help older people and at the same time, support local entrepreneurs.  Time will tell which country made the best choice.

THE MID-AMERICAN BUSINESS CONDITIONS INDEX which surveys supply managers in nine states plummeted to 35.1 in April from 46.7 in March.  A rating of 50 is neutral.  An accompanying business confidence index rose from 14.5 in March to 45.5 in April reflecting increasing optimism by business leaders.

ACT EXAM  Nine out of 7,000 students taking the ACT test in ND had perfect scores of 36.  Would it surprise you to learn eight of the nine were from the state’s three largest cities: Fargo (4), Bismarck (3) and Grand Forks (1)?  The lone exception was Devils Lake.  The average score in ND is 19.3.  All nine students are considering colleges outside ND.

DAKTOIDS:  The notorious Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls has returned to production.  Over 1,100 coronavirus cases are attributed to the plant . . . Nearly half of ND’s infections come from Cass County which has three-fourths of the state’s long-term care cases . . . UND plans to open this fall — a campus working group is developing a combination of online and in-person classes.