By: Jacob Orledge
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A surging demand for power and the Trump administration’s embrace of the coal industry could lead to the construction of new coal-fired power plants in several states including North Dakota, a coal industry official said Thursday.
“I never would have thought that a few years ago, but today, I think it’s possible,” Carroll Dewing, a vice president of North American Coal, said during the Lignite Energy Council’s annual meeting in Bismarck.
North American Coal, which owns three coal mines in North Dakota, has been discussing that possibility with large tech companies in need of power for data centers, Dewing said.
“It’s a possibility for something like that happening in North Dakota in the future and maybe not in the long-range future, either,” Dewing said. “I think the country maybe is changing somewhat as far as how they think on baseload power and what it’s going to take to keep things actually lights on.”
The new and more favorable reception the coal industry gets from federal regulators was a major theme during the two-day event. But industry supporters know it may not last. Any administrative rules created by the Trump administration can be repealed and replaced after a future presidential election.
“Now is the time for aggression,” Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong said during a brief speech. “Don’t waste the opportunity by being too careful.”
The change in attitudes at the federal level has opened some eyes in the coal industry. Dewing said that when he attended an event at the White House dedicated to coal in April, he saw people walking around wearing hard hats as if they were working at a coal mine.
“It was so surreal to be in the White House and see a bunch of people with coal miners’ hard hats on, and they were being talked about in a good way,” Dewing said. “They were being honored.”
Stacy Tschider, CEO of Rainbow Energy Center, which owns the Coal Creek Station power plant, said he’s viewed models showing domestic power demand will rise between 20% and 50% by 2030 due to the growth of data centers powering artificial intelligence.
“It’s a good time to own a coal plant,” Tschider said. Microsoft’s decision to reopen a closed nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania is indicative of the demand, he said. “If Microsoft is crazy enough to open up Three Mile Island, how desperate are you for power? I mean, think about that. It’s crazy.”
The governor said the tech industry’s recognition that fossil fuels are the only way to power data centers and make “their next billion dollars in profit” has turned a traditional adversary into an ally.
“They know as well as anybody else who can read and understand science that you are not powering that on wind and solar,” Armstrong said. “They know they need us now.”
That, combined with the current federal administration’s receptiveness to coal as an energy source, creates the opportunity Armstrong urged North Dakota’s coal industry to seize.
“We have essentially three years in which we have the opportunity to reset the deck that could functionally and substantially change the outcome of this industry in North Dakota,” Armstrong added.
Rep. Todd Porter, R-Bismarck, said opponents of fossil fuels are “just in hibernation.”
“If states like North Dakota, industries like the coal industry and coal-fired baseload power plants, aren’t securing their future during this little blip, they’re making a huge long-term mistake because this war isn’t over,” said Porter. “The anti-coal movement has not gone away.”
Sen. Dale Patten, R-Watford City, is planning to spend this winter studying what the next generation of coal is going to look like in preparation for the 2027 legislative session to ensure the state takes advantage of the next three years.
“What do we need to do legislatively to make sure that, as much as we can, we’ve locked in the opportunities that we have there?” Patten said.
That will mark a change from the 2025 legislative session when advocates of the coal and oil industries were focused on defeating anti-infrastructure bills, Porter said.
Rep. Anna Novak, R-Hazen, emphasized the importance of the coal industry to local communities. She said McLean County has done a good job of navigating those anti-infrastructure crosswinds by creating an industrial park zone centered on Coal Creek Station and concentrating the industrial presence in one area, minimizing impacts.
“McLean County has done a really nice job, I think, kind of threading that needle of looking at what’s best for everybody,” said Novak, who represents a district where the coal industry is a significant economic driver.
Multiple speakers during the conference said they want to reduce the regulatory pendulum swings that seem to occur every four years after a presidential election. Dave Glatt, director of the Department of Environmental Quality, said any new rules or regulations introduced should be as objective as possible.
Josh Stanislowski, director of energy systems development at the Energy and Environmental Research Center, doesn’t have a solution for the swings of the pendulum. But he has faith the coal industry will endure despite it.
“Politicians are going to come and go,” Stanislowski said, “But coal mines are forever.”
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