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Climate Change Legislation

Basin Electric's position

Both Dakota Gas and its parent company, Basin Electric, support a balanced solution to climate change.  It is clear, however, that any climate change legislation must be responsible and avoid long-term economic consequences to consumers and the economy. It must have achievable targets and tangible benefits.

Finally, and most importantly, the implementation of legislation and the commercialization of technology must be timed correctly. The wrong choices on the climate change issue would have a devastating effect our economy and our future.

Dakota Gasification Company CEO Ron Harper waits to speak at a recent climate change and energy panel discussion. Harper is CEO and general manager of Basin Electric, parent company of Dakota Gas and seven other subsidiaries.

What are the right choices?

Basin Electric supports the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) model. The EPRI model proposed the implementation of a broad range of new technologies over the next two decades.

It proposes reducing carbon dioxide emissions dramatically, but does so in a way that softens the impact to already soaring energy costs. It would require the U.S. Congress to focus on technology development to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and make the timing of reductions more in line with technology developments.

A sensible plan to protect the environment and our economy must include:

Incentives - Incentives for carbon dioxide (CO2) use in enhanced oil recovery and enhanced coalbed methane recovery offer economic compensation for the development of technology to demonstrate carbon capture.

Timing - Any defined emission reduction targets must be achievable and timed with the advancement and commercialization of technologies.

Consumer protection mechanism - Consumer price protections must be put in place to mitigate harmful economic conditions on the end consumers of electricity.

Regulatory certainty - Utilities need to know the rules of the road if they want to keep the lights on. Further, the rules cannot change once a non-reversible decision has been made and should provide a uniform playing field for the entire country to avoid regional economic impacts.

All sectors must be included - Every entity that produces greenhouse gas emissions must be included in the legislation, not just electric generation.

World-wide effort - It's not just the United States producing CO2. A world-wide effort is needed to make a measurable CO2 emission reduction.

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