Regional Haze roadmap | Government Affairs committee plans | EmPower Q1 Meeting | MISO Advisory Committee | Holmes promoted
In the coming weeks, the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality will be releasing their State Implementation Plan (SIP) for a 30-day public comment period in which the Lignite Energy Council will be submitting comments on behalf of the lignite industry. The Environmental Managers Committee has been working on providing a member-driven roadmap for how LEC can best play a leading role in this process as it unfolds in the coming weeks and we will be providing updates as key actions are taken.
The Lignite Council’s Government Affairs committee met for the third time this year to discuss ideas that could be turned into legislative proposals in the upcoming North Dakota legislative session. At the moment, there are close to 20 proposals that are being studied that either build off of 2021 legislative successes or are new ideas or concepts that could help the lignite industry deal with issues related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), provide economic incentives for lignite usage, build off of the findings of legislative studies and reports and find paths for additional research and development funding.
Lignite Energy Council President & CEO Jason Bohrer participated as a member of the Q1 EmPower North Dakota Commission meeting on Wednesday afternoon. At the meeting, the commission received a briefing from Bohrer on the recent industry polling that shows high public support for coal and carbon capture technology. They also received an ESG Roadmap briefing from IHS and discussed the Clean Sustainable Energy Authority’s path forward.
Learn more about EmPower North Dakota here: https://www.business.nd.gov/energy/EmPowerNorthDakota/
The current issue for this month was the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: RTO Impacts.” The Lignite Energy Council is represented on the MISO Advisory Committee by our Vice President of Government Relations and External Affairs Jonathan Fortner, who also serves as the chairman of the Affiliate Sector. The sector is currently focused on providing a voice for coal in the MISO stakeholder process and for reliable baseload power in the marketplace. Coal is the second largest source of electric generating capacity in MISO’s footprint, totaling some 47,000 megawatts (MW) which represented 37 percent of MISO’s total generating capacity last year. Our goal is to ensure the attributes of the coal fleet and coal supply chain are valued appropriately.
Mike Holmes was named executive vice president of research & development for the Lignite Energy Council and retains his role as technical advisor of the Lignite Research Program under the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC).
The Lignite Energy Council also added to its staff Rachelle Anderson, who will replace Marie Hoerner who has announced her retirement. Hoerner most recently held the position of financial and benefit resources director and worked for the Lignite Council for more than 15 years.
Learn more about the Lignite Energy Council team here: https://lignite.com/about-us/our-team/
The Lignite Energy Council is a proud Supporting Sponsor of this inaugural North Dakota High School State Cybersecurity Tournament – North Dakota Cyber Madness. Ten high school teams from nine North Dakota high schools will compete for scholarships and engage in hands-on learning about the cybersecurity field.
📷: North Dakota Information Technology
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