ND PSC candidate backing carbon dioxide project

    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota lawmakers should earmark $100 million to support a power plant’s carbon dioxide retention project, the Democratic candidate for the state Public Service Commission said Thursday.
    Brad Crabtree, who is opposing Republican incumbent Kevin Cramer, said the success of the Basin Electric Power Cooperative experiment is crucial for the well-being of North Dakota’s coal mining and electric power production. He said the industries provide some of the state’s best-paying jobs.
    ‘‘North Dakota must begin making significant investments in low-carbon coal technologies today to preserve our lignite, industrial and jobs base, and avoid having one of North Dakota’s great industries go the way of Detroit,’’ Crabtree said.
    Cramer said the state has provided significant research aid to North Dakota’s lignite industry, but called Crabtree’s proposed $100 million amount a ‘‘fantasy.’’
    ‘‘It’s one thing to say, ’Gee, the state of North Dakota ought to put $100 million into this demonstration project.’ It’s quite another to identify how you come up with an extra $100 million, and what other priorities don’t get funded,’’ Cramer said.
    Cramer is seeking his second six-year PSC term this fall against Crabtree, who is running his first statewide race.
    Basin Electric is a Bismarck-based wholesale electric power producer that provides electricity to rural cooperatives in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and six other states.
    The company has been putting together financing for a project that would attempt to remove up to 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually from the waste gases of one of its power plants, the Antelope Valley station near Beulah in west-central North Dakota.
    The U.S. Agriculture Department has promised a $300 million loan for the project, and the federal Department of Energy has offered a $100 million grant. Crabtree said $100 million in state support would match the federal grant.
    The project’s initial engineering and design work should be completed by year’s end, Basin spokesman Daryl Hill said. North Dakota’s Industrial Commission, which oversees a state coal research fund, put up $2.7 million for the study, which equaled half its expected cost.
    Hill said the carbon retention project’s final cost was not known. ‘‘We don’t have all the information yet about what we would actually need,’’ he said.
    About the possibility of $100 million in state support, Hill said: ‘‘We’d evaluate any opportunities for additional funding ... We would certainly consider it.’’
    Basin Electric operates the Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which makes synthetic natural gas from lignite. The plant retains almost 3 million tons of carbon dioxide annually and pipes it north to Canada, where it is pumped underground to coax extra oil from an oil field in southern Saskatchewan.
    Lignite is a low-energy coal that is normally burned by electric power plants built near the mine. Its high water content makes it impractical to ship lignite for long distances.