As the North Dakota legislative assembly came back for the second half of the legislative session, the Lignite Energy Council was right back into the swing of advancing its R&D priorities. Currently moving through the process are three pieces of legislation impacting the Lignite Research Fund. The House Appropriations Committee is currently considering SB 2014. This legislation provides funding for the Industrial Commission, including the Lignite Research Fund. During Senate consideration, the LEC was successful in including additional funding dedicated to advanced energy technology research.
On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate Appropriations Committee is in the process of reviewing HB 1152, which was passed by the House on February 10th with a vote of 86-4. HB 1152 amends current century code to determine the state share of oil and gas tax allocations. With an amendment unanimously approved by the House Appropriations Committee, the bill also allocates up to $3 million to the Lignite Research Fund.
Finally, one of the LEC’s other priorities, SB 2031, was signed into law by Governor Burgum on March 14th. SB 2031 continues to provide important funding to the Lignite Research Fund. In 2007, the legislature authorized five percent of the general fund portion of the coal conversion tax to be allocated to the Lignite Research Fund to help address growing R&D needs. However, that allocation had a sunset of July 31, 2018. SB 2031 strikes the sunset to allow that funding to continue indefinitely.
LEC President Jason Bohrer has testified multiple times in support of these legislative priorities. “The twin challenges of building new power plants and extending the working life of our existing plants are recent additions to our R&D priorities,” said Bohrer. He continued, “When we increased our focus on R&D funding to tackle the issue of carbon dioxide, we have asked the state to do the same.”