July 3, 2020 -- Cloud Machine
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Water vapor rising from the stack of Basin Electric Power Cooperative's Leland Olds Station near Stanton makes it appear as if the lignite-fired power plant is manufacturing clouds.
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Mercer Co. Ponders Wind Moratorium
Hearing Attracts Standing-Room-Only Crowd
More than 50 supporters and opponents of a resolution that placed a moratorium on wind farm applications packed the Mercer County Commission room in Stanton this week to air their opinions on the county's decision.
The hearing was prompted by the submission of letters from 59 landowners who had signed leases with Alberta-based Capitol Power to allow the installation of a wind turbine on their land. The commission was also presented with nearly 500 letters in support of the wind moratorium by a group called Faces of North Dakota Coal.
Despite the two-year moratorium, Capitol Power this week submitted an
application for a conditional use permit to construct the 165-megawatt Garrison Butte Wind Farm on a 15,000 acre site north of Hazen near the shore of Lake Sakakawea. On its
website, the company indicates it has 100% of long-term land leases executed for the project. In a letter submitted to the commission, Garrison Butte project developer Bob Evans said the company recently obtained access to electric transmission to move power from the wind farm, but said that opportunity could be lost if it's not able to get its county permit in the "near term."
About a half dozen landowners who had signed leases with the company testified during the hearing. One of them, Roy Rasch, questioned if the county's moratorium prioritized the interests of the coal industry over the rights of individual landowners.
Click
here to listen to Rasch's comments.
Several members of the
Laborers International Union of North America clad in orange shirts attended the hearing to oppose the moratorium. Suggesting that the coal industry is unlikely to grow, LIUNA member Steve Cortina said the county should consider the jobs and economic benefits wind farms would bring.
Click
here to listen to Cortina's comments.
Supporters of the moratorium were led by Mark Pierce, who founded the Faces of North Dakota Coal group. Pierce described the resolution as "prudent policy which considers the best interests of Mercer County on the whole." He said the full impact of existing wind development is unknown, and additional "intermittent energy" will increase uncertainty about the tax revenue generated by the coal industry, an amount with which he said the wind industry cannot compete.
Click
here to listen to Pierce's comments.
Pierce also presented the commission with letters from the school superintendents in Beulah and Hazen expressing support for the moratorium.
Hazen resident Anna Novak told the commission she and her 11-year-old son Adam went door-to-door to collect signatures on the letters that Pierce submitted. Novak said her husband and brother work in the coal industry, and are concerned about losing their jobs. She said community residents understand the potential consequences of losing the coal industry.
Click
here to listen to Novak's comments.
Novak described how her son cried when he learned about the planned closure of Coal Creek Station because one of his friend's father works there, and he believed his friend would have to move away.
McLean County State's Attorney Ladd Erickson, who's been criticized for drafting amendments to the county's transmission line zoning regulations that would make it more difficult to get power from a wind farm onto the grid, encouraged Mercer County to maintain the moratorium. Erickson said Great River Energy's announcement that it intends to shut down the 1,100-megawatt Coal Creek Station in 2022, has created uncertainty about the future of the region's energy supply so the moratorium is a wise decision. He said the landowners who've signed wind farm leases may actually benefit from the moratorium.
Click
here to listen to Erickson's comments.
Erickson pointed out that Capitol Power does not have a purchase power agreement to sell the proposed wind farm's output, and has not secured a connection to the grid. He suggested the commission consider requiring both before the county grants a conditional use permit.
Commissioners heard more than two hours of testimony during the hearing, but tabled action on the moratorium until their next meeting July 15. Click
here to read Amy Sisk's article about the hearing in the Bismarck Tribune. Click
here to watch video of the 2:15 meeting on Mercer County's YouTube page.
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Armstrong: Wind Energy Given Unfair Advantage
Bad federal energy policy is the biggest problem facing the coal industry, not competition from other sources of energy generation. That's the assessment of Congressman Kelly Armstrong, who was interviewed this week on the radio program
Energy Matters.
Wind farm owners have been able to collect a federal production tax credit on the electricity the farms produce for nearly three decades. The PTC was first enacted in 1992, and was scheduled to expire on July 1, 1999. But since 1999, the PTC has been extended 12 times.
Armstrong said that subsidy, which can allow wind farm operators to sell the power at a lower price than it costs to produce, allows wind to be first in line to be dispatched by the regional transmission organizations that operate the electric grid.
Click
here to listen to Armstrong's comments.
Armstrong said in reality, it doesn't cost any more now than it did 50 years ago to produce electricity from coal. But he said the federal government has imposed onerous regulations on the mining industry and coal-fired power plants, which he said has unnecessarily driven up the price of coal-based electricity. Armstrong said it's important that Americans be reminded that the country has enormous coal reserves that can supply cheap energy for hundreds of years, "but through policy we are putting them in a situation where they can't compete."
Click
here to read a Congressional Research Service paper on the history of the production tax credit.
Click
here and advance to the 28:04 mark to listen to full
Energy Matters with Congressman Armstrong.
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EmPower: ND Business Climate Getting Worse
In an impromptu poll at their meeting this week, members of the
EmPower North Dakota Commission unanimously agreed the state's business climate is getting worse, not better.
EmPower was formed in 2007 by the North Dakota Legislature. The 16-member group, made up of representatives of all the state's energy industries, is charged with developing comprehensive energy policy recommendations.
ND Petroleum Council President Ron Ness, who chairs an EmPower subgroup looking for ways to create a more friendly business environment in the state, asked fellow
commission members to express whether the state has become more or less inviting to business in the past decade.
Click
here to listen to Ness' comments.
Eleven EmPower members said they felt the business climate had gotten worse, three members felt it was about the same, but no one said it had improved. Ness said he believes state policy makers may be taking the success of the state's energy industry for granted, and have become indifferent to the effect their legal and regulatory decisions have on profitability. He urged EmPower members and their employers to communicate their concerns to the state's political leaders.
Click
here to listen to Ness' comments.
Ness suggested regulators take a closer look at a cost/benefit analysis of new rules, or that they take an approach like the Trump administration, eliminating unnecessary regulations for every new one enacted. He said it's especially important for the different players in the energy industry to work collectively to look for ways to improve business competitiveness in a down economy. Ness fears industry opponents are ramping up their game in response to the recession, and pointed out that state lawmakers in the coming legislative session will be looking to squeeze every dollar they can from the business sector.
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SIRN Making Progress Despite Pandemic
Williams County Will Be Among First to Adopt
Plans to develop a new statewide radio network for emergency responders is making headway despite supply chain disruptions and other delays associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
The project, known as SIRN 2020 - Statewide Interoperable Radio Network, is a collaborative effort of the state, county and city public safety entities to combine emergency radio communication systems into a single statewide network.
Duane Schell, Chief Technology Officer with the state Information Technology Department (ITD), provided legislators with a status report on the project this week. Schell said work has been broken down into groups and phases. He said ITD is actively working with Groups 1 and 2, which he described as the "early adopters.
The two groups include the cities of Dickinson, Minot and Williston, as well as Bottineau and Renville Counties. Other local entities fall into Groups 3 and 4,and will be brought into the network in later phases of development. Schell acknowledged there has been reluctance among some local governments to join the network, particularly in western North Dakota, because they had doubts about its functionality. But he said he expects all cities and counties will eventually become part of the statewide network.
Click
here to listen to Schell's comments.
Schell said due to unique circumstances, emergency responders in Williston and the Williams County area have been elevated in priority, and are expected to be the first to join the SIRN system.
Click
here to listen to Schell's comments.
Schell said the statewide network will eventually have between 130 and 136 communications towers, more than half of which he expects will be leased. The total estimated cost, which includes building or acquiring access to the towers and purchasing new radio equipment, is just over $200 million. SIRN received a boost from the 2019 Legislature's passage of
HB 1435, which provided a direct $40 million appropriation and an $80 million line of credit with the Bank of North Dakota to fund the state’s portion of the network and provide a $1,500/radio stipend to local governments to help pay for multi-band radios. When the five-year planned buildout is completed, the network is expected to provide 95% statewide coverage, with 95% reliability for vehicular units, and 85% for responders with portable radios. The state will pay back any money it borrows with the $5 million in annual revenue from a 50-cent phone fee approved by the 2017 Legislature in
HB 1178.
Click
here to see a KFYR-TV story about developing SIRN in Williston and Williams County. Click
here to read an article in the Williston Herald on the topic.
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Klemisch Named Finalist for State Board Seat
Garrison Public School Superintendent Nick Klemisch is among eight finalists for a position on the state Board of Public School Education.
The seven-member board acts on requests from school districts to dissolve, reorganize, or transfer property. Members also automatically become part of the Board of Career and Technical Education, which oversees North Dakota’s state CTE department and CTE programs.
The candidates were chosen by a selection committee made up of the presidents of ND United, the ND School Boards Association and the ND Council of Educational Leaders. The governor appoints board members to six-year terms. The individual selected will represent Burleigh, Eddy, Foster, Kidder, McLean, Sheridan, Stutsman and Wells counties.
Klemisch has been superintendent at Garrison Public Schools since 2015. His focus at Garrison has been on expanding career options for students by creating more emphasis on career and technical colleges. Other candidates nominated for the position include:
- Kenneth Aune, Jamestown, band director at Jamestown Middle School;
- Rick Diegel, Steele, the superintendent of Kidder County public schools;
- Donald Emch, Bismarck, a retired schoolteacher and administrator;
- Burdell Johnson, Tuttle, a farmer/rancher and business owner;
- Andrew Jordan, Bismarck, the superintendent of Wilton public schools;
- Marsha Lembke, Bismarck, a retired administrator for the ND Department of Transportation; and
- Jason Rohr, Jamestown, a senior crop insurance specialist for AgCountry Farm Credit Services
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Khan to Speak at Innovation Education Summit
Gov. Doug Burgum announced this week that Khan Academy founder Sal Khan will be a featured speaker at the 2020 Governor's Summit on Innovative Education, which is scheduled to take place July 21 in a virtual format.
The summit is open to the public and brings together local and national leaders in education to share best practices and engage with educators, administrators, parents and students. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from local and national leaders, participate in locally led sessions about best practices and innovation in the classroom, and engage in the conversation surrounding a safe restart to school this coming fall.
Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, a free online learning platform, will join the summit to share his message about empowering students through personalized experiences in which each individual masters knowledge and skills in preparation for a global world. Khan Academy's content and mastery learning platform has more than 106 million registered users from all over the world and has been localized into more than 40 languages.
In addition to encouraging registration for the summit, Burgum encouraged nominations for the #InnovativeND Awards, which will be presented during the summit in the following categories:
- Frontline Innovation – recognizes innovative approaches in the classroom.
- Collaborative Culture – recognizes efforts that reach across subjects and classrooms.
- System Transformation – recognizes innovations in the educational system that will have a fundamental impact on how students learn.
- Student Leadership – recognizes students who are advancing innovative education through leadership inside and outside the classroom.
Click
here to register for the summit or submit a nomination for the #InnovativeND Awards.
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US 52 closed from Velva to ND 14 next week
US Highway 52 is scheduled to be temporarily closed from Velva to the Junction of ND Highway 14 from July 6-11. The closure will allow Northern Plains Railroad to replace the crossing one-mile northwest of Voltaire.
Dynamic Message Sign boards and road signs will be in place to guide motorists along the detour.
During the project:
- Westbound traffic will be directed north on ND 14, west of Drake, to US 2. Then west on US 2 to meet US 52 at Minot or turn south on ND 41 to Velva.
- Eastbound traffic will be directed east on US 2 to ND 14 then south to US 52. Those in Velva will go north on ND 41 to US 2, then east on US 2 to ND 14 and south to US 52.
For more information about construction projects and road conditions throughout North Dakota, call 511 or visit the
ND Roads map.
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Safety Council Urges Firework Safety
Pyrotechnic Tips to Have a Safe 4th of July
The North Dakota Safety Council has issued a list of common-sense safety tips for this year’s celebration of America’s birthday.
Obviously, the safest way to enjoy fireworks is to leave it up to professionals and watch public displays. However, if individuals choose to light their own, the council offers these tips to ensure a safe and injury-free night.
- Read the labels: Understand all directions.
- Have water nearby: A hose is the best choice.
- Handle with care: Don’t carry fireworks in your pockets.
- Follow the law: Use only fireworks permitted in your area.
- Wear eye protection: Safety glasses will protect your eyes.
- Do not light inside: Only use fireworks outside and not close around buildings.
- One light one firework at a time: Avoid an uncontrollable situation.
- Keep your distance when lighting: Place yourself as far as you can while lighting.
- Never re-lit a dud: This can be dangerous. Wait 20 minutes and immerse it in water.
- Dispose of properly: Soak used fireworks in water before disposing.
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The Future of North Dakota Roads
LTAP to Offer Statewide Webinar July 21
The North Dakota Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) plans to conduct a
webinar this month to provide a comprehensive look at efforts to improve the state's road network.
LTAP, which is part of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, is offering the free webinar to any and all local government employees or elected officials involved in local transportation planning and construction. The webinar, which will be delivered via the Microsoft Teams platform, is scheduled July 21 from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m. CDT. Registration is
not required. Below is the preliminary agenda for the webinar:
UGPTI Local Roads Needs Study Update, 2021-2040
• History, Purpose, Overall Process – Dale Heglund
• Unpaved Roads/Traffic Forecasts - Alan Dybing
• Paved Roads/GRIT – Brad Wentz
• Bridges/Summary – Tim Horner
Information on roadway costs and projections for the next 20 years will be shared.
State Funding and Property Taxes for Infrastructure
• NDACo, Terry Traynor and Genny Dienstmann
How does our local transportation network get funded? NDACo will provide an update on its efforts to support local transportation leaders.
Bridge Inspection and NDDOT Information
• NDDOT, Bryon Fuchs
Bridges are a critical component in our roadway asset mix. The NDDOT Local Government Division will provide an update on the new local government bridge inspection program and related efforts.
Western Dakota Energy Association Updates
• Operation Prairie Dog and Oil Tax Review – Brent Bogar
• LoadPass Statewide Update - Janet Sanford
• Wise Roads – Geoff Simon
The discussion will begin with an overview of Operation Prairie Dog and oil tax revenue, followed by a review of LoadPass oversize truck permitting and the latest enhancements to that process, including plans to expand statewide. You’ll also receive an update on the Wise Roads weather station project .
NDDOT Transportation Connection − A Shared Vision for Transportation in 2045
• NDDOT, Stewart Milakovic and Rebecca Geyer
The session will end with an invitation to help set the course for our future through a unique NDDOT Planning Division public input process.
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Williston Basin Petroleum Conference
Registration for September Event is Open
Event organizers are offering both live and online options for what they call a “COVID-Conscious Conference” on September 1-3 in Bismarck, North Dakota. With the Bakken rebounding, organizers say “the time is right to bring our industry together to share ideas, make valuable business development contacts, and network with industry professionals.”
With every general registration, two free virtual passes will be issued. In addition, one free virtual pass will be issued with every virtual registration.
Over 250 booths have been sold and a great lineup of speakers have been confirmed. Some of the virtual options for the conference include:
- Livestreaming of speakers.
- Options to email and schedule meetings with exhibitors and attendees both online and in-person.
- Lead generation and attendee matchmaking.
Click
here for more information and to register for the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.
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WDEA Offering Energy Scholarships
The Western Dakota Energy Association will award five $1,000 scholarships this fall to students in an energy-related field at a North Dakota college, university or technical school.
WDEA President Shannon Holter said the association is offering the scholarships to help the industry and western communities meet the workforce challenges historically experienced with oil industry growth.
“We recognize that North Dakota will see benefits from the oil industry only if it is able to attract the workforce it needs,” said Holter. “We want to do everything we can to encourage young people to explore the many opportunities for a rewarding career in the energy sector.”
Funding for the scholarship program is generated by sponsorships of WDEA’s annual meeting, as well as royalties from advertising in Basin Bits magazine.
Click
here to learn more about the selection criteria and how to apply.
Click
here to view or download an application form.
The application deadline is September 18, 2020. Scholarship winners will be announced at WDEA's annual meeting October 7-8 in Williston.
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Quick Connect
- Energy Transfer digs in on North Dakota pipeline expansion -- Reuters
- Assn. of Coal Conversion Counties discusses role of Mercer County wind farm -- Hazen Star
- Department of Energy plans to establish coal products innovation centers -- Minot Daily News
- Plans moving ahead for the Bill Sanderson Gas Plant west of Williston -- Williston Herald
- Watford City's Mineral Tracker merging with First International Bank & Trust -- Williston Herald
- North Dakota legislative leaders brace for pandemic in 2021 session -- Bismarck Tribune
- Commerce officials seek legal fee reimbursement after controversial audit -- Bismarck Tribune
- Stark County Commissioners, election officials sued over mail-in voting -- Dickinson Press
- New Town cleans up after Monday’s storm damage, 80 mph straight line winds -- KXNET
- Baesler: Reopening schools should be up to ND communities and boards -- Fargo Forum
- Williston's District 1 school board appoints new member to fill vacancy -- Williston Herald
- Former West Fargo admin. to become new Richardton-Taylor supt.-- Dickinson Press
- North Dakota higher ed board temporarily suspends ACT/SAT requirement -- Fargo Forum
- Williston State College addressing issues raised in audit released Monday -- Williston Herald
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park reopens South Unit Visitor Center -- Bismarck Tribune
- Oilfield service company shows its appreciation for area's first responders -- Williston Herald
- ConocoPhillips plans to begin restoring company's curtailed oil production in July -- RigZone
- A Biden victory could put a damper on pipeline and other infrastructure projects -- IER
- Pandemic hastens threat of closure for struggling oil refineries; Europe impaced -- Reuters
- Shale gas revolution presents opportunity for boom in manufacturing -- RealClear Energy
- Oklahoma-based shale pioneer Chesapeake Energy files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- Reuters
- $40/barrel crude oil isn't enough to prevent a wave of shale bankruptcies -- OilPrice.com
- Marcellus gas moving by truck as environmentalists continue to oppose new pipelines -- IER
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Factoid of the Week
North Dakota is among the 10 top coal-producing states and accounts for nearly 4% of U.S. coal output. Western North Dakota contains the world's largest known deposit of lignite at an estimated 351 billion tons. Coal has been mined at literally hundreds of sites in North Dakota since the 1870s, but now is only produced at five surface mines in the west-central part of the state.
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July 7
Online
July 8
Online
July 14
Bismarck
July 15
Bismarck
July 16
Bismarck
July 21
Online via Microsoft Teams
July 22
Bismarck
July 30
Bismarck
August 20-21
Williston
September 1-3
Bismarck
September 30 - October 1
Bismarck
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Oil prices and rig count
July 3, 2020
WTI Crude: $40.32
Brent Crude: $42.80
Natural Gas: $1.75
North Dakota Active Oil Rigs:11 (up 2)
7/3/2019 -- 59 rigs
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Geoff Simon
Editor/Executive Director
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