By Jonathan Fortner
Director of Government Relations
The lignite industry had a very successful 2019 legislative session. Our government affairs members worked together on a weekly basis to develop a cohesive message and an effective strategy to gain legislative support for a variety of provisions that will help LEC members.
Our three top priorities included: an extension of an oil tax extraction for enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide from lignite-based power plants; adding to state fund for research and development activities for lignite projects; and providing greater protection for lignite-based infrastructure from fossil-fuel protestors. The following bills show our success in the legislature.
House Bill 1439: This legislation provides an exemption from oil extraction taxes for the use of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery and geologic storage. This incentive will help attract investors to provide millions of dollars of capital into the construction of pipelines and other equipment. The bill received a lot of legislative support with a 45-2 vote in the Senate and an 81-10 vote in the House and was signed into law on April 24, 2019.
House Bill 1066: “Project Prairie Dog” included a provision that increased the Lignite Research Fund appropriation to $10 million per biennium starting in FY19-21. The appropriation will help advance research and development projects that will focus on carbon capture use and sequestration and emerging markets for lignite. This bill passed the House 80-12, the Senate 46-0 and was signed into law on March 20, 2019.
Senate Bill 2044: The Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill increased criminal penalties for trespass and intentional damage to critical infrastructure. The definition of critical infrastructure included electrical power generating facility, substation, switching station, electrical control or electric power line and associated equipment infrastructure. This bill will help provide both reliable and safe power generation and transmission to both North Dakota and the region. This bill passed the House 76-14, the Senate 43-4 and was signed into law on April 10, 2019.
The government affairs team was also successful in passing other pro-energy legislation or mitigating harmful effects in certain bills. However, these were the three priorities set forth at the beginning of the legislative session and all have become laws.