Murphy’s Law Blog

Murphy’s Law Blog 2022 | #1 — Water Drainage Interim Committee Meets

Hey, Happy New Year! The committee came together to discuss blending a couple of Century Code (CC) chapters that contain discrepancies. That portion of the task before them seems to be moving along fine and will probably be a stand-alone bill next year. Then they launched into a wide ranging conversation which some thought went […]

Hey, Happy New Year! The committee came together to discuss blending a couple of Century Code (CC) chapters that contain discrepancies. That portion of the task before them seems to be moving along fine and will probably be a stand-alone bill next year.

Then they launched into a wide ranging conversation which some thought went way “into the weeds,” to quote one of the...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #58 — Irrigation Workshop

The program started out with an explanation of the water permitting process from Chris Bader from the Department of Water Resources. He apologized up front for saying “State Water Commission,”  the agency he has worked for his entire career because, as mentioned in a couple previous blogs, it is now called the Department of Water […]

The program started out with an explanation of the water permitting process from Chris Bader from the Department of Water Resources. He apologized up front for saying “State Water Commission,”  the agency he has worked for his entire career because, as mentioned in a couple previous blogs, it is now called the Department of Water Resources. Anyway, the...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #57 — Water Drainage Interim Committee Meets

This committee first met in the summer and this, their second meeting, took half a day. There were only three outside presenters, the first being Senator Cramer who joined via computer. He spoke of WOTUS issues and was happy that EPA folks had come out to visit North Dakota to learn firsthand what is happening. […]

This committee first met in the summer and this, their second meeting, took half a day. There were only three outside presenters, the first being Senator Cramer who joined via computer. He spoke of WOTUS issues and was happy that EPA folks had come out to visit North Dakota to learn firsthand what is happening. Then the new and first director of the Department of Water Resources (DWR),...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #56 — Water Topics Interim Committee Meets

Today was unique, the Chairman of the Water Topics committee, Rep. Jim Schmidt, had invited all nine of the State Water Commissioners to sit with the 20 legislative committee members for their daylong meeting. While I rarely attend this committee, it made sense to because of so many people present and the agenda’s wide-ranging presentations. […]

Today was unique, the Chairman of the Water Topics committee, Rep. Jim Schmidt, had invited all nine of the State Water Commissioners to sit with the 20 legislative committee members for their daylong meeting. While I rarely attend this committee, it made sense to because of so many people present and the agenda’s wide-ranging presentations. Especially, in the light of it being held the day...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #53 — Special Session

In my father’s opinion, it was nuts to take out a loan to go on vacation. I agree with that and it was the analogy used yesterday when discussing the water budget and funding with the Legislature’s water guru, Representative Jim Schmidt. He would like to build a reserve fund for water so that projects […]

In my father’s opinion, it was nuts to take out a loan to go on vacation. I agree with that and it was the analogy used yesterday when discussing the water budget and funding with the Legislature’s water guru, Representative Jim Schmidt. He would like to build a reserve fund for water so that projects can use cash. If I understood him correctly, he would use unanticipated oil...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #52 — Ag/Energy Summit, Special Session

The first Agriculture and Energy summit was held at the Fargo Radisson on Tuesday, November 9 in the afternoon. Hosted by the Commerce Department, it was taking a stab at getting players together looking for synergies seeing as, and I quote the ND Commerce Dept.’s Josh Teigen – “70% of North Dakota’s GDP is related […]

The first Agriculture and Energy summit was held at the Fargo Radisson on Tuesday, November 9 in the afternoon. Hosted by the Commerce Department, it was taking a stab at getting players together looking for synergies seeing as, and I quote the ND Commerce Dept.’s Josh Teigen – “70% of North Dakota’s GDP is related to oil and soil.” Gotta nice ring to it, does it not?
I have to tell...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #54 — Infrastructure for Value Added

One could say that any infrastructure improvement is a positive for Agricultural value added projects let alone farming itself. Be it a crush plant, the recently discussed wet corn plant, a livestock facility or whatever, they need some or all of the water, roads, pipelines, rail and power mix. During this special session we have […]

One could say that any infrastructure improvement is a positive for Agricultural value added projects let alone farming itself. Be it a crush plant, the recently discussed wet corn plant, a livestock facility or whatever, they need some or all of the water, roads, pipelines, rail and power mix.
During this special session we have been working to bring many of these factors to new levels....

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #55 — Money to Infrastructure

This special session is still going but I left Bismarck on Thursday because those issues central to agriculture were resolved and to what I see as a satisfactory end. From ARPA dollars that this session was to distribute, at least $200 million must be used for highway roads and bridges. $24.6 million is designated for […]

This special session is still going but I left Bismarck on Thursday because those issues central to agriculture were resolved and to what I see as a satisfactory end. From ARPA dollars that this session was to distribute, at least $200 million must be used for highway roads and bridges. $24.6 million is designated for grants to counties for their bridge projects based on an application...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #51 — SBARE Testimony

The State Board of Agricultural Research and Education (SBARE) has been around for almost 25 years and has several stated goals you can read on their website, but it is about Ag research and getting those results applied to help producers and their communities. They hold listening sessions for several days around the state to help […]

The State Board of Agricultural Research and Education (SBARE) has been around for almost 25 years and has several stated goals you can read on their website, but it is about Ag research and getting those results applied to help producers and their communities. They hold listening sessions for several days around the state to help them prioritize needs so that they can present them to the...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #50 — Spending Federal Money

The Senate and House Appropriations committees spent Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday this week in Bismarck to draft a bill which is intended to spend the approximately $1.1 billion dollars which came to North Dakota via the American Rescue Plan Act. $317 million of this money had been appropriated earlier this spring in the […]

The Senate and House Appropriations committees spent Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday this week in Bismarck to draft a bill which is intended to spend the approximately $1.1 billion dollars which came to North Dakota via the American Rescue Plan Act. $317 million of this money had been appropriated earlier this spring in the regular session with the rest waiting until now when further...