BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The fossil fuel and ethanol industries are seeking to advance cleaner energy technologies in North Dakota at a time when a new administration in Washington is tackling climate change.
A proposal introduced in a House committee would create a new arm of the North Dakota Industrial Commission. It would be tasked with overseeing the distribution of $25 million in state grants and loans for projects that “reduce environmental impacts and use energy sources derived from within the state.”
“We really, truly need to become the world leader in the production of fossil fuel energy but it does need to do what consumers are demanding,” North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness told the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday. “We’re in a battle between producing states and consuming states right now.”
President Joe Biden has signed executive orders to transform the nation’s heavily fossil-fuel powered economy into a clean-burning one, pausing oil and gas leasing on federal land and targeting subsidies for those industries.
His effort also carries a political risk for himself and Democrats as oil- and coal-producing states face job losses from the orders.
“We know the climate activists are coming after us,” Ness said. “So what can we do as a state to ensure we do not leave 800 years of coal in the ground or leave one of the top 10 oil fields in the world undercapitalized and underdeveloped?”
Dakota Resource Council Executive Director Scott Skokos said that while his group supports the sustainable use of North Dakota’s resources, the bill that creates a 15-person Clean Sustainable Energy Authority seems “skewed” and geared toward the oil, coal and ethanol industries, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
“To call it a ‘clean and sustainable’ energy authority, I think is disingenuous,” Skokos said.
Skokos said there should be greater representation on the group’s board from the renewable power sector.
“We have to recognize in this state that the solar and wind industries are also a viable energy industry,” he said.
North Dakota’s wind industry has boomed over the past decade with dozens of wind farms popping up across the state. The rise of the wind industry has occurred at the same time the state’s coal industry has faced financial challenges because of competition from renewables and natural gas.
The committee did not vote on the bill Thursday.
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