November 13, 2020 -- Ditch Diggers

Workers and their families wondering about the future of Coal Creek Station may not have to wait much longer to learn about the future of the 1,100-megawatt coal plant. Lt. Governor Brent Sanford said this week news about a possible buyer could come by the end of the year.

Minnesota-based Great River Energy (GRE), the current owner of the lignite-fired generating plant, announced earlier this year it intends to shut down the facility by the end of 2022 and replace the power with wind generation. During an interview this week on the radio program Energy Matters, Sanford said he could disclose that there are two serious buyers looking at a possible purchase.

Click here to listen to Sanford's comments.

The coal plant is situated in an energy park (see article in May 8 newsletter) located between Washburn and Underwood where employees have developed many innovative coal improvements. The park includes Blue Flint Ethanol, which is drilling a stratigraphic test well on the site to study the feasibility of underground storage of carbon dioxide (see article in October 16 newsletter).

Power from Coal Creek Station is transmitted from the site to the Twin Cities on a 436-mile direct current transmission line. Sanford said the DC line is a key component in the negotiations.

Click here to listen to Sanford's comments.

Power from Coal Creek Station feeds into the MISO (Mid-Continent Independent System Operator) electric transmission network, and is a vital component to ensure grid reliability. Because it is so important, Sanford said GRE will need to notify MISO of the intended shutdown no later than June 2021. But he said talks are moving quickly, and he expects an announcement will occur long before then.

Click here to listen to Sanford's comments.

Sanford believes Coal Creek Station is just one part of a much bigger opportunity for the state of North Dakota. He said efforts are underway to generate power from the abundance of ethane produced in the Bakken, and the combination of coal, natural gas and wind provide abundant opportunities to export power to the rest of the country.

Click here to listen to Sanford's comments.

Click here and advance to the 45:00 mark to listen to the full Energy Matters interview with Sanford.

Congressman Kelly Armstrong believes North Dakotans should be concerned if Joe Biden becomes president because of his stated intention to ban hydraulic fracturing.

Armstrong noted that to avoid losing support in energy-producing states like Pennsylvania, Biden said he would ban fracking "only on federal land." But Armstrong, who was interviewed this week on the radio program Energy Matters, said that could have a major impact on future drilling on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Click here to listen to Armstrong's comments.

Armstrong said he expects private companies and state elected officials and regulators would push back hard on any attempt to inhibit oil production in North Dakota with a ban on fracking.

However, Armstrong said a Biden administration's anti-fossil fuel agenda could hit the state oil, gas and coal producers in the pocketbook as well. He expects extremists advising Biden would attempt to apply pressure to financial institutions to discourage investment in fossil fuels.

Click here to listen to Armstrong's comments.

During the campaign Biden called for prohibiting new oil and gas leases on federal land, but he could not unilaterally ban fracking on private lands. Under a 2005 law, the Environmental Protection Agency has almost no regulatory power over fracking. But Biden could ban new leases, block new permits, or through federal regulatory agencies seek to ban fracking.

Click here and advance to the 1:01 mark to listen to the full Energy Matters interview with Armstrong.

Worried About Influence of Radical Environmentalists

The president of the Lignite Energy Council remembers Democrat Joe Biden as a US Senator with a good understanding of the energy industry, but is concerned that radical environmental activists will have a strong influence on a future Biden administration.

Jason Bohrer, who previously worked on Capitol Hill for members of Congress from Idaho, said he remembers Senator Biden had a pragmatic approach to energy policy. Bohrer, who was interviewed this week on the radio program Energy Matters, noted that there are a number of pro-coal Democrats in Congress, but there are also members who are rabidly anti-coal. He said the interesting dynamic in the next Congress will be which wing of the party has the strongest influence if Biden is the next president.

Click here to listen to Bohrer's comments.

Bohrer said he believes the importance of baseload generation is still not well understood by many in Congress, which he said will put pressure on North Dakota's delegation to educate those who advocate renewable generation sources despite their intermittent nature. Bohrer points out that environmentalism has become an industry in America, and it wields a lot of influence in Washington.

Click here to listen to Bohrer's comments.

Bohrer said it's surprising that the rolling blackouts in California this summer, directly attributable to its over-dependence on renewable energy, did not have more of an impact on the general public. He said there is still a widespread disconnect in society, leading many to support the Green New Deal and similar fanciful schemes to eliminate the use of fossil fuels.

Click here and advance to the 18:10 mark to listen to the full Energy Matters interview with Bohrer.

Governor Doug Burgum filed a petition with the ND Supreme Court yesterday, aimed at affirming his legal authority to fill a vacant District 8 legislative seat. But in a bipartisan vote this morning, legislators are asking the attorney general to resist the appointment, arguing the authority to fill the seat rests with lawmakers.

The governor's petition was accompanied by a motion filed that seeks "preliminary injunctive relief enjoining the Secretary of State, Legislative Assembly, and District 8 Republican Committee from taking action to fill the vacancy consistent with NDCC § 16.1-13-10, until the Petition can be decided on its merits."

On November 4, the day after the election, Gov. Burgum appointed a replacement for David Andahl, a 55-year-old rancher from Baldwin, who won election as a Republican to the District 8 legislative seat, despite the fact he died of COVID-19 complications on October 5. The governor, noting that the state constitution (Article V, Section 8) provides authority for the governor to fill a vacancy "if no other method is provided by this constitution or by law,” appointed Wade Boeshans, the president and general manager of BNI Energy to the vacant seat.

This morning, Legislative Management unanimously approved a motion by Majority Leader Chet Pollert to seek legal assistance from Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who previously issued an opinion that that said if Andahl was elected, it would create a vacancy and state law (Section 16.1-13-10) provides that it be filled by the Republican committee in District 8.

Burgum's 36-page petition seeks to declare that:

The petition also seeks to prevent Secretary of State Al Jaeger from issuing a certificate of appointment and oath of office to an appointee of the District 8 Republican Committee, and a writ of mandamus compelling the Secretary of State to issue a certificate of appointment and oath of office to the Governor’s appointee after the election results have been certified.

The ND Democrat-NPL Party issued a statement last week after learning of the governor's appointment, arguing that third-place finisher Kathrin Volochenko, one of the Dem-NPL nominees for the district, was actually the second top vote getter among qualified candidates, and should win the House seat.

District 8 covers an area mainly north and northwest of Bismarck as far north as Garrison, Benedict and Ruso, which includes most of the coal-producing region on the east side of the Missouri River.

Click here to read Gov. Burgum's petition.

Results of the McKenzie County Commission election were so close, a mandatory recount was completed today, but in the end the results didn't change.

Three newcomers won seats on the county commission - Clint Wold, Joel Brown and Craig Hystad. Losing re-election by just a handful of votes was Tom McCabe, the current chairman of the commission. Initial results showed McCabe just four votes behind Hystad, 1,938 to 1,934, but today's recount expanded Hystad's margin to nine votes, 1,941 to 1,932.

"We had 20 ballots that were not eligible to be counted that were counted in the election night results," said McKenzie County Auditor Erica Johnsrud. In addition, she said the new totals include "18 ballots where voter intent was determined by the recount employees and recount board."

The top vote-getter was Clint Wold with 2,105 votes, followed by Joel Brown with 2,077 votes. Wold is a lifelong resident of McKenzie County, who had a 40-year career in the oil industry. Brown is a fifth generation McKenzie County resident, who holds a petroleum engineering degree and is the founder of Mineral Tracker. Hystad is also a lifelong McKenzie County resident, who farms and ranches north of Arnegard. He also had a career in the oil industry, retiring after 30-plus years, the last 14 of which were working as a drilling superintendent for Nabors Drilling.

Click here to see results of all county races in North Dakota.

Correction: The vote totals regarding Williams County Commissioner David Montgomery's re-election in last week's edition of the WDEA newsletter were incorrect. The figures in the article were from the June primary rather than the general election. Montgomery, WDEA's newest board member, won re-election to his commission seat by a margin of 1,311 to 546 over challenger Bob Eynon. We apologize for the error.

The North Dakota Legislature's largest committee, Legislative Management, heard more than two dozen reports the past couple days from interim study committees that examined issues of high importance that are likely to be considered by the 2021 Legislature.

John Bjornson, director of Legislative Council, said legislative committees conducted 140 meetings during the interim. Bjornson said study committee activity was temporarily interrupted with the outbreak of the coronavirus earlier this year, but committees caught up and finished their work by holding numerous meetings in August, September and October.

Bjornson said the 26 committees produced 30 draft bills and three concurrent resolutions to be considered during the 2021 session.

Click here for a story about the meeting from KFYR-TV. Click here to see the Legislative Management agenda, which contains links to all the reports that were presented during this week's two-day meeting.

The Wise Roads project, aimed at reducing disruptions to oilfield truck traffic, ventured in a new direction this week with the installation of soil moisture and temperature probes in the bed of a gravel road in Dunn County.

WDEA's partner in the project, the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI), plans to use data from the roadbed sensors to better determine when frost or load restrictions need to be placed on roads and when those restrictions can be lifted. The probes were installed at varying depths on the edge of the road adjacent to the Medicine Hole weather station located about 20 miles northwest of Killdeer.

The North Dakota Department of Transportation has five environmental sensor stations as a part of its Road Weather Information Network in western North Dakota, but all five are on state or federal highways, said Curt Glasoe, program director with UGPTI's Local Technical Assistance Program. He said the probes installed this week, and others planned in McKenzie and Williams County, will provide additional subsurface data for county gravel roads.

"The primary areas of interest for this data are moisture infiltration and frost depth," Glasoe said. "The moisture data will be used in conjunction with the precipitation measurements from the station to measure infiltration of water into the roadbed depending on road characteristic and rainfall rate and amount. The temperature data will be used to determine when weight restrictions need to be placed on roads and when frost law restrictions can be lifted."

Glasoe said the temperature profiles from the roadbed and soil in the gravel roads will be compared against each other to determine if other existing soil temperature sensors in the region and state can be used to estimate road subsurface temperature. The probes are placed at depths of 6 inches, 24 inches, 48 inches and 72 inches, and will record data every hour.

Click here to access the soil temperature and moisture data from the Medicine Hole station. Click here for information and data from all Wise Roads stations.

A one-day virtual conference has been scheduled next week featuring experts on the state of North Dakota's economy and the agricultural and energy industries.

Researchers from the NDSU Center for the Study of Public Choice and Private Enterprise and NDSU Extension will provide a science-based outlook and answer audience questions. Legislators, elected officials, government employees, industry representatives, and members of the public are invited to join the conference for any or all of the conference sessions.

This event is free and open to the public. It is scheduled Wednesday, November 18, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Conference topics includes:

All conference sessions will be broadcast via Zoom. A link with access to all the conference sessions will be emailed to participants upon registration. Attendees do not need to sign up for individual sessions.

Click here for more information and to register.

Seat Belts Use Save Lives

Click It or Ticket Begins Monday

A statistic to ponder: Individuals not wearing seat belts comprised 64% of motor vehicle fatalities so far in 2020. There can be no doubt seat belts save lives and are the single most effective way to prevent injury and death in a motor vehicle crash. All vehicle occupants should take personal responsibility when traveling and always buckle up.

Law enforcement across the state will have extra patrols from Nov. 16-29 for the Click It or Ticket campaign enforcing the state seat belt law.

“No matter where you go, or how long it takes to get there, always wear your seat belt,” says Beulah Police Chief Frank Senn. “Your loved ones will thank you when you buckle up every trip, every time.”

This campaign is part of the Vison Zero strategy to eliminate motor vehicle crash fatalities and serious injuries on North Dakota roads. Visit the North Dakota Crash Memorial Wall to view memorials built on the hope of preventing another death on North Dakota roads.

Source: North Dakota Census Office

NDSU: State of the Economy 

January 5