Teachers from a four-state region will attend the Lignite Energy Council’s Education Seminar on June 13-16, 2016, in Bismarck. The seminar, titled “Lignite Education Seminar: Energy, Economics and Environment,” provides teachers with information on a variety of energy-related subjects that they can integrate into their curriculum, especially science, economics and North Dakota studies classes.

The Lignite Energy Council began conducting annual seminars for K-12 teachers in North Dakota and surrounding states in 1986. It’s estimated that more than 3,500 teachers have attended the seminar over the past 30 years.

“Much has changed in the lignite industry over the past 30 years,” said Kay LaCoe, LEC’s director of membership marketing and education program administrator. “Every year, we make changes to the seminar to reflect the changes in the industry. This year we have several different speakers and a couple of different topics that will be of interest to teachers and eventually their students.”

Teachers come from North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota – all states where electricity produced from the state’s vast lignite reserves is sold to homes, farms and businesses. Teachers earn two graduate level professional development credits for attending the seminar.

The presenters and their topics this year include:

• History of Lignite Energy, Steve Van Dyke, Lignite Energy Council
• North Dakota Geology: Kendra Kungu, The Coteau Properties Company
• Mining and Reclamation, Jessica Unruh, The Coteau Properties Company
• Electric Generation Choices, John Weeda, Great River Energy
• Synfuels Production from Lignite, Joan Dietz, Dakota Gasification Company
• Introduction to North Dakota Energy Curriculum, Emily McKay, Great Plains Energy Corridor
• Transporting Electricity by Wire, Matthew Stoltz, Basin Electric Power Cooperative
• Energy Sense, Tom Butz, Power System Engineering, Inc.
• Lignite Research and Development, Mike Jones, Lignite Research Council
• Energy and CO2 Management, Dan Daly, Energy & Environmental Research Center
• Plant Level Environmental Compliance, Craig Bleth, Minnkota Power Cooperative
• Lignite Industry Career Choices, Kent Ellis, Bismarck Public Schools
• Electricity and Regulation, Brian Kalk, ND Public Service Commission
• From the Mine to the Electric Line, Wade Boeshans, BNI Coal, Ltd.

The Lignite Energy Council is a trade association representing the state’s lignite mines, which produce about 30 million tons of lignite annually, along with the lignite-based power plants, the Dakota Gasification Company and more than 300 companies that supply goods and services to the lignite industry.

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For more information, contact Steve Van Dyke at (701) 426-8662. The seminar is held on the fourth floor of the National Energy Center of Excellence Building on the campus of BSC. On Wednesday, June 15, the teachers will be touring area mines, power plants and Great Plains Synfuels Plant.