Lignite Energy Council

We have another panel to finish up here with our morning sessions.

I'd like to reintroduce Jonathan Fortner, the Lignite Energy Council CEO and President.

If you weren't here yesterday, you didn't get a chance to hear me introduce Jonathan, so a little bit more about him here.

Jonathan has been with the Lignite Energy Council since 2018 and has offered leadership to advance supportive legislation and influenced major federal energy policies and has been instrumental in securing North Dakota's energy industry.

Jonathan will be moderating this panel and he is joined by panelists Mike Jones and Mike Holmes who have both formerly held the role of Lignite Energy Council's Vice President of Research and Development, and Jason Lum, Lignite Energy Council's current Vice President of Research and Development.

They are here to share a uniquely reflective discussion on the past and present day of Lignite.

They'll be with you in just a moment as they get set up.

We, as we were trying to figure out some of the panels and discussions that we were going to have this year, you know, one yesterday where it was pretty unique.

And that's a good thing.

Yeah, we did a study with the Lignite Energy Council that we commissioned a little bit over a year ago, about a year and a half ago, saying what would be the benefit to a community if you build a brand new, say you're building a new coal-fired power plant and you're doing that to serve, the scenario was a critical minerals processing facility at 100 megawatts, and a data center at 400 megawatts, which those numbers are almost laughably small now, perhaps.

But it was pretty impactful what the property tax forecast could do.

It was about $4 to $4.5 million just off of something that size.

Good afternoon.

I'm Greg Vetter, and I'm a resident of Bismarck, and I'm a candidate for District 7 House this fall.

Being here the last couple of days, first of all, all of you at the Lignite Energy Council, fantastic conference.

You're singing to the choir, right? I don't have maybe as much of a question as a concern.

Mike comes to this race, as you all know, with a career deeply rooted in energy research, technology, and public policy.

His experience includes the EERC, Babcock and Wilcox, and he spent nearly a decade leading research and development work for the Lignite Energy Council.

Mike has spent years working around public policy and policy makers, and while he often jokes he doesn't get the politics behind things, and I tease him that he gets them better than most people, this year he decided to become a candidate himself.

So Mike, can you tell us a little bit about yourself District 43, your connection to the industry, and what made you decide to run this year?

Up next, we've got Mike Hager, a candidate for North Dakota House and District 33.

Mike's connection to the lignite industry is about as direct as it gets.

He is president of BNI Energy and BNI Coal and serves on both the Lignite Energy Council Board and the Lignite Research Council Board.

He also brings significant experience in local public service, having spent 13 years on the Underwood School Board.

I'd like to welcome back Jason Lomb, Lignite Energy Council's current Vice President of Research and Development, to moderate our next panel.

He is joined by Greg Henthorne, Chief Business Officer, AmeriCarbon, Levi Moxness, Senior Surface Geologist with North Dakota Geological Survey, and Carol Dewing, Senior Vice President and COO with North American Coal.

Please help me welcome them to the stage here in just a moment.