North Dakota

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation is building a library and museum in Medora, North Dakota to honor the man the foundation calls “the original conservationist.” From 2022-24, the Foundation shared the lobbying firm GA Group with Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Targa Badlands.

ETP operates the Dakota Access Pipeline, whose construction was opposed by indigenous groups and environmentalists. “They are illegally operating on my land. I want it to stop for the children,” said Morgan Brings Plenty, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, in Nov. 2023.

The North Dakota legislature does provide online records of people who testify at committee hearings and whether they are supporting or opposing a bill. These records are searchable by bill, not company or lobbyist, which makes it difficult to find particular bills on which ETP and Targa have been lobbying.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation’s association with fossil fuel lobbyists is also notable because of the direct threat posed to the air quality in Theodore Roosevelt National Park by the proposed 49,500 barrels-per-day Davis oil refinery. The National Park Conservation Association, the Environmental Law & Policy Center, and the Dakota Resource Council have argued that the air permit fails to provide adequate limits for the refinery’s pollution and doesn’t adequately monitor pollutants as necessary to protect local air quality.

Best feature: records of committee hearings list names of people testifying and whether they support or oppose a bill.

Worst feature: fines for lobbyists filing late reports are so low as to be meaningless: $25 for missing the annual August 1 deadline, and $60 for missing it by more than two months.

Additional Findings

Lobbyists file disclosures once and year and don’t have to report compensation, bill numbers, or even subject areas on which they lobby, giving North Dakota one of the lowest Strength of Disclosure scores, 22%.