EPA head visits DGC
By Chris Erickson
Last week the local plant’s turbines weren’t the only things fired up when the Environmental Protection Agency made a visit to the area.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and staffers visited with North Dakota’s top elected officials at Dakota Gasification Company’s Synfuels plant during a round-table talk that included major players in the energy industry. The purpose of the talks was clear—to open a dialogue about how the agency’s policies could affect the energy industry, specifically for coal-fired power plants.
After a meeting in Bismarck with Gov. Jack Dalrymple, McCarthy and EPA Regional Administrator Shaun McGrath, among others, met at DGC with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp and John Hoeven and U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer to talk about the agency’s proposed emissions regulations and how exactly they would affect the energy business. Representatives from power cooperatives and the coal industry were also on hand to have their questions answered.
In a press release, Dalrymple noted that it was good to have the administrator in the state so she can see firsthand how important common sense regulation is to major energy states like ours.
