Bonus gem

Here's an idea for how we can put more Americans to work: hire them to burn off wasted natural gas in states like North Dakota, where oil companies claim they "cannot afford" to pay for the infrastructure they need to capture and sell it (via NY Times).

Ingenius.

Thankfully because it's the New York Times there are two NGO responses integrated into the article, which give us:

• The generic there-should-be-functioning-regulation-around-this-issue approach: “ 'It’s time for the regulators to take a hard look at the impacts of flaring and make sure that available solutions to the flaring problem are required before there is any further widespread expansion of the practice,' said Amy Mall, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• The 1970s-inspired industry vs. environment trade-off: "Wayde Schafer, the Sierra Club’s North Dakota conservation organizer, said that the industry needed to slow down development if it could not protect the air. 'You can do it fast or you can do it right,' he said."