North Dakota Sustainable Energy Not So Sustainable

As late as August, 2008, North Dakota SEED – Sustainable Energy for Economic Development, was online at ndseed.org, offering insights about how to be sustainable in North Dakota:

ND SEED is the development of wind energy and other forms of renewable energy in North Dakota. To attain our vision, we are pursuing the following mission:

* SEED supports wind energy as economic development for farmers, ranchers, and rural communities.
* SEED supports small and utility-scale wind energy development that is reliable, efficient, and cost competitive with other forms of electrical generation.
* SEED supports siting wind turbines and power lines in an environmentally responsible manner.
* SEED supports wind energy as a viable renewable energy source.
* SEED supports the development and implementation of hydrogen production, using renewable sources, for the use in fuel cells.
* SEED supports developing wind energy to serve renewable energy markets in and out of state.
* SEED supports improving electrical transmission capacity so North Dakota can export more of its renewable electricity.

Unfortunately, it appears that NDSEED could not be sustained. The Dakota Resource Council, the parent organization of NDSEED, is online, but the NDSEED web site itself is now a placefiller, selling disreputable schemes for debt consolidation, mortgage refinancing, weight loss and cosmetic surgery.

When the seed of online activism cannot sustain its energy, it becomes a weed.

Big Stone II Fought By Dakota Resource Council

In North Dakota, the skies are big, but they’re not so big that power companies can pump pollution into the air as much as they please. For that reason, the Dakota Resource Council has been fighting to stop, or at least delay, the opening of a new coal-fired power plant called Big Stone II.The Council explains, “Coal mining tears up huge areas of the countryside. It requires enormous water use. Coal-burning produces many toxic pollutants that threaten human health and the environment, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, acid rain and mercury. Most dangerous of all, burning coal is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which are disrupting the world’s climate.”Thanks to the Dakota Resource Council from all of us who live downwind from North Dakota, and from the people of the Appalachians, whose mountains are being taken down in order to provide power through operations like Big Stone II.