Thanks to Senator Conrad for his strong leadership and resolve to develop more of our areas renewable and non renewable resources in a more clean, sustainable manner to become more energy independent, also for ND Marketplace for Entrepreneurs coming up Jan 15th – 16th.
Conrad: Energy bill boosting state’s economy
Janell Cole
The Forum – 01/05/2008
State Capitol Bureau
The new energy bill signed into law last month represents enormous progress in boosting North Dakota’s economy because of its strong support for renewable fuels produced in North Dakota and the Midwest, Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said.
BISMARCK
We are in the sweet spot, he told a group of representatives from conventional and renewable energy industries Friday, pointing to a map showing a deep color in this region.
Some provisions of Conrad’s BOLD (breaking our long-term dependence) energy plan are in the bill, which he called an exciting beginning.
He is disappointed that a tax incentive package for the bill was defeated in the Senate by one vote. It needed a 60-vote majority and received 59.
It would have extended wind energy tax credits that make building and operating wind farms financially viable, the industry representatives said.
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| N.D. senator Oil going over $100 a barrel is going to produce significant impetus for the BOLD Energy Act. |
Oil going over $100 a barrel is going to produce significant impetus for the BOLD Energy Act, Conrad said. Coal has got to be part of this mix. We’ve got to do all we can to clean it up, but it has to be part of the mix.
Several of the industry people talked to Conrad about carbon dioxide storage, also known as carbon capture, a strategy to inject CO2 a greenhouse gas blamed for global warming into underground rock formations.
You’re going to see the economy change so much if it becomes mandated, one said.
Fargo City Commissioner Mike Williams, who is also on the board of the North Dakota Alliance of Renewable Energy (formerly Renewable Energy Partnership), said more use should be made of shallow natural gas supplies, which include methane produced by landfills and sewage lagoons. Fargo recently entered a business deal to have its methane piped to an industrial user and is making money off it.
He said a big plus with those sources of natural gas is that they can serve their immediate surrounding area and don’t need access to major pipelines.
Many of the energy people said transportation is a big problem in the state, whether it is a lack of capacity in electrical power transmission lines and oil pipelines, getting ethanol to market or ways to capturing, transport and inject CO2.
Cole works for Forum Communications Co., which owns The Forum.
~end article~
The North Dakota Alliance for Renewable Energy is hosting an informational meeting about the Alliance on January 15, 2008 at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks during Marketplace. This meeting is scheduled to begin at 10 am in Robin Room #4.
You can find more membership information here.
Along with capturing methane at the landfill and selling some to a neighboring business, Fargo was the first and only city to apply for and be awarded in the first round of Clean Renewable Energy Bonds that our North Dakota congressional delegation put in the 2005 Federal Energy Bill to develop an on site electrical generator that runs on methane.
Fargo also has a CREBs allocation for a 1.5 mgw wind project also awarded in that first round and is currently under analysis, which looks good especially with rising energy costs, plus the joint CREBs application Fargo helped with for the Fargo Schools, West Fargo Schools and Fargo Park district was chosen in the most recent round for another 1.5 mgw wind turbine. It’ll be up to those bodies if they choose to develop that project.
Collecting methane at the landfill is a sample of just one available energy source that avoids heating costs and provides new revenue in Fargo where a $1 million project generates over $390,000 a year in electric sales and avoided heating costs capturing methane that use to be wasted into the atmosphere as a pollutant. http://www.areavoices.com/renewnd/?blog=9516
You can see the energy production online: http://apps.cityoffargo.com/solidwaste/energyproduction/
Let’s keep working to quit giving those middle east countries billions of dollars for their oil. How much of that money are some of those middle east oil exporting countries using for the war against our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan? The new Federal energy bill has increased fuel efficiency standards thanks to the good work of Senators Conrad and Dorgan and Congressman Pomeroy.
I agree with NDSU graduate General Chuck Wald and former CIA director Woolsey that investing more for development of clean, sustainable, home grown energy is vital to our national security and quality of life.
It’s also the case the use of foodstocks for current biofuel energy will not be enough to replace oil. During the transition to more home grown energy, including the improvements in hybrid technology and electric cars, we’ll need to merge renewables with oil, but that extends those non-renewable sources and often helps them burn cleaner.
Toyota Volta
The recent developing technologies of cellulosic ethanol and biofuels from biomass like wheat straw, switchgrass, even garbage will eventually reduce the current competition for corn, soybeans and canola. Already Broin Brothers of SD are converting a corn ethanol plant in NE Iowa to a cellulosic process. This will use biomass and take the starch out of it for ethanol production.
NDSU and North Dakota have incredible potential for this research in biomass production and Fargo can help with some of our raw materials here. Supporting conservation and development of more home grown, renewable energy is not only good for national security, it’s better for the environment, good for our economy.
