Dakota Beacon

A SIGH OF RELIEF swept Underwood, ND, as the sale of the Coal Creek power plant was announced.  The plant employs 240  people, while an adjacent coal mine that supplies it has well over 400 workers.  Great River Energy, a Minnesota cooperative, sold the losing plant and related Twin Cities power line to Rainbow Energy Marketing in Bismarck.  Great River will buy power from Rainbow for 10 years.  Rainbow said carbon capture (see discussion below) will be vital to the future of Coal Creek.

PROJECT TUNDRA  “But if it is completed, the project will see an existing coal-burning plant in central North Dakota fitted to capture carbon and store it safely underground.” — A GF Herald editorial was solidly behind Project Tundra, a $250 million state commitment.  The Herald said the project was risky, but worthwhile.  The Herald also said the project could save ND’s coal industry and “it could be a model decarbonization plan for coal plants elsewhere.”

THE SEATTLE KRAKEN is the name of a new National Hockey League expansion team to begin playing in mid-October, so you may be excused if you never heard of them.  Their new coach was a surprise choice — it was Dave Hakstol, now an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs.  His name may be familiar because for 11 years he coached the UND team.  He then became the head coach for the Philadelphia Flyers, but was fired after three years.  The Kraken will play in the Pacific Division of the NHL.

UNIV. PRESIDENTS ON HOT SEAT  Dean Bresciani is the often controversial president of NDSU.  The State Board of Higher Education has informed him his contract will not be renewed.  He will become a faculty member at the end of 2022.  No explanation was given.  Brian Van Horn is the president of Mayville State University.  He has been given a caution about his behavior by the State Board, but the Board was unable to go beyond that step because related complaints were anonymous.  The GF Herald revealed it is conducting a review of Van Horn which has thus far produced evidence of employee dissatisfaction and a hostile workplace at MSU.

TEDDY MAY COME TO MEDORA   A statue of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse flanked by an American Indian and African American on foot will be removed from in front of New York’s American Museum of Natural History.  The statue was created in 1939 by sculptor James Earl Fraser and depicts Roosevelt both as a hunter and an explorer.  The American Indian and African American were intended to portray guides.  As part of the wave of political correctness, New York City officials decided the statue was a symbol of colonialism and ordered it removed.  Officials are considering moving the statue to a cultural institution dedicated to the life and legacy of the former president.  Could that be the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, now in its planning stage?  The cost of the move would be a big tab.

UAS IMPACT IN GF  Grand Forks leaders tout the area’s leadership in the unmanned aircraft industry.  Yet you see little evidence of that leadership in national media.  So, a recent column by Mike Jacobs was somewhat reassuring.  He attended a meeting of the GF Economic Development Corporation where its director Keith Lund said 1,200 jobs associated with unmanned aircraft have been added in the GF area, many associated with the Grand Sky Initiative at GFAFB.  Jacobs wrote, “Twenty-three companies have started, expanded or relocated to Grand Forks, from established multinationals to startups.”  The theme of Jacobs’ column was that ND was becoming economically more diversified and less sensitive to the ups and downs of commodity cycles.

IS SOMEONE TRYING TO RIG THE GAME?  Fargo broadcaster Scott Hennen made an interesting allegation in a Forum column.  He believes much of the criticism directed at the conservatism of the State Investment Board is coming from supporters of the proposed Bison World project in Jamestown.  The supporters hope much of the Bison World investment will come from the state Legacy Fund.  Hennen says “This is a classic strategy of complaining about the referees (SIB, investment advisors) before the game has begun.”  Hennen believes Bison World is a bold, worthy idea, but if it shows striking investment opportunities then it should be attractive to private capital and bank financing.  The Legacy Fund should be used for building and keeping businesses in ND that provide career opportunities, not speculative amusement parks.

ND LAGS IN EVs  “We’re never going to look like California in terms of numbers, but we can still look better than Montana or Wyoming if we try.” — Robert Moffitt of ND Clean Cities opposing additional fees on electric cars.  ND is among the very lowest states in acceptance of electric vehicles.  The state’s cold weather reduces the range of electric vehicles and its long distances make it difficult to provide adequate charging stations.  Moffitt gave electrification of part of the state vehicle fleet as an example of policies which would encourage a market for electric vehicles. 

DUMB CRIMINAL OF THE WEEK  Tjaden Smith (22) of Bismarck is easily the winner.  In the middle of the night, he backed his truck through the front of Double H Guns and stole four rifles.  Not content, he drove off from a Holiday store the next day without paying for gas.  That made it easy for the Bismarck police who spotted his vehicle and arrested him inside a Cenex store.  The stolen guns were still in the truck.  Smith is on probation for assaulting two women in 2019.

DAKTOIDS:  In his weekly column, Mike Jacobs endorsed a new book by Clay Jenkinson, “The Language of Cottonwoods.”  Jenkinson said the essential question of his book is who are we (Nodaks) now that “the agrarian lifeway that nourished our values has largely disappeared?”