North Dakota Coal Allied With Electric Cars? Oil Is Unimpressed.

North Dakota Coal is hoping carbon-capture digs them out of a hole...Electric Vehicle Industry appears to agree. The fight is already here...

Oil vs Coal...Which is North Dakota's favorite fossil fuel?

Can't we love them both equally?

Well, oil brings in a whole lot of money but is also kind of a quitter and coal makes our Minnesota neighbors angry.  Unfortunately, neither one can keep their rooms clean.

While the oil industry cleans up by packing up and moving out sticking North Dakota taxpayers with the tab for picking up their radioactive "socks".  Production is down but oil fluctuates with pricing and demand and the boom could come back. Places like Watford City have thrived in the light of flaring wells.

Coal on the other hand isn't planning on moving back after moving out, so the state needs to find some way to keep coal operating in the state.  The problem is the coal industry relies on customers purchasing the electricity they produce. Customers have become more environmentally aware and are now resistant to buying power from carbon-producing coal plants.  What's North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum going to do about that?

Burgum signed several bills during this year’s legislative session.  Those bills included:

 House Bill 1412, which exempts coal plants from the state’s coal conversion facility tax for the next five years. The bill is expected to save the industry over $20 million per year, freeing up funds to invest in innovative projects such as carbon capture and sequestration that will curb emissions and improve the industry’s long-term viability.

Senate Bill 2152, which provides a sales tax exemption for carbon dioxide used for secure geologic storage.

SB 2206, which allows utilities to recover costs for carbon capture.

The ambitious plan is to capture the carbon emissions and bury those deep in the earth where they most certainly will never emerge.  It's a revolutionary plan that has no precedent and plenty of skeptics even within the industry.

So who could align with coal in their quest to make the world a cleaner place?

I know, you've probably forgotten by now...but it's the electric car! No longer will coal be the villain in energy production. It's will clean out its carbon and then power the clean-running electric vehicles by selling clean energy across the country!  Here's a great article outlining the strategy.  Still, a lot of theory is involved in the strategy's success...but Tesla started out with a theory and give them a few more years and I believe electric vehicle use numbers will explode!

Of course, to keep the conversation going they need a few more charging stations in North Dakota.

The coal industry has got EVs back but I'm sure the oil industry will be fighting the surge of electric vehicles from wherever it is the oil patch workers moved back to.