Empower North Dakota Commission to Meet in Grand Forks
by Commerce Department Posted on 5/12/2010
Members of the EmPower North Dakota Commission will meet in Grand Forks Friday, May 21 for the sixth in a series of information gathering meetings held throughout the state this year to develop recommendations for expanding the state's energy industry.
The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC), University of North Dakota, 15 N. 23rd St.
The information gathering meeting is open to the public and will focus on reviewing progress and evaluating the EmPower ND goals concerning wind, transmission and overall policy goals.
North Dakota's existing state energy policy has helped trigger more than $5.1 billion in new energy-related investments since 2005, which positions North Dakota as a national model for traditional and renewable energy development. Gov. John Hoeven has encouraged the EmPower North Dakota commission to develop policy recommendations that will expand the state's energy industry throughout the 21st century and help North Dakotans realize the full potential of our diverse energy resources.
The Commission will hold a continuation of its policy development meetings June 1 and 2 in Mandan.
The following is the agenda for the Grand Forks meeting:
The exact time each agenda item will be discussed cannot be assured.
9:00 a.m. Meet at LM Wind Power (USA), Inc., 1580 S. 48th St., Grand Forks, for tour
10:30 a.m. Travel to EERC
11:00 a.m. CALL TO ORDER - Shane Goettle, Chair Welcome and Opening Comments-Shane Goettle and Thomas Erickson, Associate Director for Research, EERC Approval of March 30, 2010 minutes
1:00 p.m. Wind and SWOT - Mark Nisbet, Xcel Energy
2:30 p.m. Energy Policy Development Discussion
3:30 p.m. Old Business Discussion of Federal Legislative and Policy Issues
3:45 p.m. Public Comment
4:15 p.m. Adjourn
Committee members are:
Ron Day of Tesoro representing the refining industry Terry Goerger, a farmer near Mantador, representing the agriculture industry Shane Goettle, Commissioner of Commerce Paul Goulding of Goulding's Oil representing petroleum marketers Eric Mack of Archer Daniels Midland representing the biodiesel industry Ron Ness of the North Dakota Petroleum Council representing the oil and gas industry Curtis Jabs of Basin Electric Power Cooperative representing generation and transmission electric cooperatives Mark Nisbet of Xcel Energy representing the wind industry Randy Schneider, chairman of the North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association representing the ethanol industry Andrea Stomberg of Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. representing investor-owned utilities David Straley of North American Coal Company representing the lignite coal industry Sandi Tabor of the ND Transmission Authority representing the transmission industry John Weeda of Great River Energy representing the biomass industry
