When we talk about carbon dioxide, it's usually in the context of having too much of it. Which is to say, that we're putting too much carbon into our atmosphere though human activity.

But according to Ron Ness, the president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, who joined me and co-host Ben Hanson on Plain Talk today, our state's oil industry is going to need more carbon to keep itself sustainable into the future. The industry needs the carbon to inject down into oil wells for enhanced oil recovery.

"It's absolutely critical," he told us.

Ness's comments come at a time when there is a brawling political debate over carbon pipelines. The Summit Carbon Pipeline, specifically, has drawn a lot of attention, facing as it does outspoken opposition from a coalition of strange bed fellows, including left-wing environmentalists and right-wing populists. That project doesn't have anything to do with what Ness is talking about -- it's backed by the ethanol industry, aiming to bring carbon produced at ethanol plants to North Dakota for storage -- but he says his industry is watching it carefully.

Because they're going to need carbon in the future, and pipelines are the best way to bring it here.

Also on this episode, Ben and I discuss and analyze the possibility that Gov. Doug Burgum could join a second Trump administration in some official way. Maybe as a cabinet official? Maybe as Trump's running mate?

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