WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND
By Scott Hennen
Host of “What’s On Your Mind?” Radio Show
heard on the Flag Family Network including KTGO 1090AM
in Watford City, Williston and Tioga, North Dakota
I was blessed to call Ralph Engelstad a friend. I was with him in 1999 when he announced his $100 million gift to construct the world’s finest college hockey arena. I have admired how his wife Betty and daughter Kris have continued to gift many millions more since his death. Ralph had a famous line he often repeated: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” That’s a life lesson that should be on the dashboard of every American. North Dakota has worked hard, and the luck is lining up. Our Governor is a gritty, hard–working guy. And he is lucky to be our Governor, but he earned it, working his way up from a scrappy criminal defense attorney to State Senator, Congressman, and now, in his first term, Governor.
Governor Kelly Armstrong joined us at the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council annual meeting in Bismarck, and there was no mistaking the bounce in the step of the lignite industry. As the Governor put it, coal has been waking up every day for 30 years “and got punched in the face, and all they do is keep the heat on in the winter.” Yet today, with President Trump back in the White House and Secretary Doug Burgum helping drive policy at Interior, he sees an industry finally catching a break. “There’s not another industry that has been more positively impacted by President Trump getting elected than North Dakota lignite energy,” he said.
But Armstrong didn’t sugarcoat the reality that regulatory relief alone won’t fix everything. He reminded us that Congress must act, not just regulators. And he offered a fascinating insight about the culture shift happening outside North Dakota. The very people in New York and San Francisco who once sneered at fossil fuels now understand they need them to build their next ten-billion-dollar breakthroughs. AI, quantum computing, data centers, digital currency - none of it happens without reliable, dispatchable baseload power. “Energy is always going to be about addition, not substitution,” Armstrong said. That’s a refreshing dose of reality in a debate often drenched in ideology.
When I asked him for the top opportunities ahead, he didn’t hesitate. Enhanced oil recovery was first on the list, and that brought us to the word everyone at this conference is talking about: CO2. Armstrong was crystal clear. “We need CO2. We leave 85 percent of the oil in the rock.” Whether people like 45Q (federal tax incentives) or not, he argued, the rule of the real world is simple: you play by the rules as they are, not the rules you wish existed. And if those rules let North Dakota unlock more oil, extend the life of our 800-year lignite supply, and boost the state economy, then we should seize the opportunity. Because this isn’t theoretical. Another 15 to 20 percent of Bakken oil through CO2 injection is “another whole oil boom for North Dakota without the negative impacts.”
He also warned that the greatest threat to North Dakota’s business - friendly culture isn’t federal overreach but local setbacks that make it impossible to build anything at all. And as he talked about data centers, pipelines, fiber, and the race for AI compute, he left no doubt North Dakota can be one of the top three or four states leading America’s technological future-if we choose growth over fear.
Governor Kelly Armstrong is having fun in the job, and he’s bullish on our future. We all should be. It’s good to be us!
Visit www.watfordcitynd.com and subscribe to the McKenzie County Farmer today!