Zuckerberg Visits North Dakota Oil Rig For New Year’s Resolution Tour

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg paid a visit to a rig in North Dakota on Tuesday, asking engineers and oilfield workers questions about their line of work during a facility tour, according to a report by Reuters.

The northern state alone pumps 1.1 million barrels per day of oil, second in output only to Texas, which hosts the massive Permian and Eagle Ford basins.

The visit comes as part of the social media mogul’s goal to tour all 50 states in 2017.

“My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year. I've spent significant time in many states already, so I'll need to travel to about 30 states this year to complete this challenge,” he said in a Facebook post at the beginning of the year.

Facebook, as well as other social media and tech giants, has shown a preference for green energy as the international community shifts towards an energy order rid of fossil fuel-based power. Its data center in Fort Worth, Texas is powered completely by 200 megawatts of wind power.

Facebook, Amazon, Google and dozens of the U.S.’ largest companies support the Paris climate agreement and condemned President Donald Trump when he announced the country’s withdrawal early last month.

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The decision “is bad for the environment, bad for the economy and it puts our children’s future at risk,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Stopping climate change is something we can only do as a global community, and we have to act together before its too late,” he said.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had been attending economic advisory meetings with Trump and other Silicon Valley executives in the weeks leading up to the White House’s announcement on the Paris accord. Musk decided to leave the panel after hearing about Trump’s decision.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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