Locals shouldn't have to foot the bill for drilling

Editor:

The murder of a young teacher in Sidney is an unspeakable tragedy. No Montana community should ever have to live through another loss like that. But, unless we take action swiftly, the problems that we've seen around the Bakken oil fields will likely grow. Crime is up, the infrastructure is inadequate, and public services are strained at every turn. What's a community to do? One possibility is for these communities to immediately impose industrial impact fees on the companies profiting from the exploration that could then be used for additional law enforcement, infrastructure, emerg...