North Dakota does not have a good environmental record at the moment. Its fossil fuel industry has been established since the 1950s, but recent geological surveys have revealed the vast scale of its oil reserves - a conservative estimate puts the amount of recoverable oil at 7.4 billion barrels.The vast Bakken formation in the western part of the US state has seen a significant oil boom in recent years. The rush to tap into this gold mine has left inevitable corner cutting on the part of the oil companies and the environmental cost is quickly becoming apparent.
