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U.S. Senator-elect Heidi Heitkamp tenders her resignation at Dakota Gas board meeting

Heitkamp has been a Dakota Gas director since 2001.

Dakota Gasification Company - December 14, 2012

U.S. Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp tendered her resignation at the Dakota Gas December meeting. She is pictured here with Basin Electric President Roy Ireland (left) and Dakota Gas Chairman Don Applegate.

U.S. Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp attended her last Dakota Gasification Company (DGC) board meeting Dec. 10. She tendered her resignation in a letter to Basin Electric President Roy Ireland and Dakota Gas Chairman Don Applegate, saying, “With my election to the United States Senate, I am required to resign my position on the Board for Dakota Gasification Company.

“I have greatly enjoyed being part of the management team for this wonderful, and still innovating, company. Where we all know that the employees have made the plant technologically successful, the Basin and DGC boards are also due credit for DGC's success. Your willingness to take the financial risks necessary to keep the plant safe and economic has made this facility a worldwide example of what can be done to achieve energy independence for our country.

“During the campaign I referred to the Great Plains Synfuels Plant as the ‘Marvel on the Prairie.’ It has always been an example of the kind of innovation that is possible with great workers and visionary leadership and I am very proud to have been a small part of this continuing and ever evolving experiment. ...

“On a personal note,” she continued, “I will miss my monthly meetings with you and other board members. The Basin board and senior leadership have become family. ...”

Heitkamp won the close election for the North Dakota senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ken Conrad by about 2,900 votes over Rep. Rick Berg, a first-term congressman. Heitkamp has been a Dakota Gas director since 2001. An appointment for her replacement will be named later to fill out two years remaining of a three-year term.

She served as North Dakota attorney general from 1993 to 2000. She served as North Dakota’s tax commissioner from 1986 to 1992 and as an attorney for the tax commissioner’s office from 1981-86. Her career began as an attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency from 1980-81.