Big Sky Business Journal: Talkin’ About the Bakken… “It’s Headed Our Way”
When it comes to The Bakken — someone has “to put a rope around the chaos…We need someone to put a saddle on this chaos and ride it for all it’s worth.”
Such were the words of one observer of the hectic activity in the area of Sidney, Montana and Williston ND, according to Kendall McCrae, an entrepreneur who is trying to help put a rope on it.
McCrae was one of a number of participants in a roundtable discussion focused on the phenomenon of the rapid development of oil and gas in eastern Montana. It was something of a listening session for US Senator Jon Tester, sponsored by the Billings Area Chamber of Commerce.
McCrae has launched a business called Synergy Station with the purpose of providing a means of communication through a website. Synergystation.com “is geared to be a bridge between needs and solutions…a platform to get information, which is otherwise, often, very hard to get amid “the chaos.”
The oil and gas development “…isn’t stopping at the border. It is coming this way,” McCrae told a room packed with many people wondering just exactly what the impact will be on Billings.
Sen. Tester opened the discussion saying that he was “looking for opportunities” to cut spending in Washington DC and to create jobs. But also, in regard to what’s happening in the development of oil and gas in the state, he wants to “provide proper protections and to make sure it’s done safely.”
Tester said that “the issue of fracing” and protecting water sources “is going to be critically important.”
