Empower North Dakota
Empower ND (2.6Mb PowerPoint)
North Dakota's multi-resource energy policy, Empower ND, is aggressively moving both renewable and traditional energy development forward. As the sixth largest energy producing and exporting state in the country, North Dakota is committed to doing even more to build on the significant growth of the state's energy industry.
Empower ND, created in 2002 and expanded and enhanced since, includes aggressive policy goals and incentives in each energy sector, and emphasizes partnerships between traditional and renewable industries. The plan has resulted in significant partnerships and progress across the state's renewable and traditional energy sectors.
In 2007, the Empower ND Commission was established, with members appointed by Gov. John Hoeven and authorized by the legislature to make recommendations to further enhance the state's comprehensive energy plan. The Commission is comprised of experts representing every sector of the state's energy industry.
Innovative energy projects, resulting in significant investments in all sectors of the energy industry, are underway across the state.
- Four years ago, North Dakota had only two small ethanol facilities and no biodiesel facilities. Today, existing and planned facilities will produced ½ billion gallons of ethanol and 85 million gallons of biodiesel annually.
- Four years ago North Dakota produced less than 1 MW of wind power. Today, current and projected projects will produce up to 900 MW of wind power.
- New major CO2 capture and sequestration projects are in development.
- The oil industry is producing 123,000 barrels a day, near record production.
- Four major projects are underway as a result of the state's Lignite Vision 21 program, including potential power plants in South Heart and Gascoyne, a coal liquefaction facility in McLean County and a combined-use energy plant in Spiritwood.
[Documents in Microsoft PowerPoint format may be viewed with the free PowerPoint Viewer. It can be be downloaded directly from the Microsoft web site.]
