BISMARCK, ND (KXNET) — With the temperatures warming and the summer around the corner, emerald ash borers are picking up their activity.

Governor Kelly Armstrong proclaimed May 17-23 Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week, and the North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA) is giving North Dakotans advice on how to protect their trees.

Emerald ash borers (EABs) attack true ash trees. The larvae feed under the bark, which disrupts the movement of water and nutrients. This often leads to the death of the tree within several years.

According to the NDDA, EABs have killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in the United States over the past decade.

North Dakota is home to more than 90 million ash trees, which are found along streets, in city parks, rural plantings, forests, and along the edges of rivers and lakes. EABs have been found in LaMoure and Cass counties.

The NDDA says EABs can be moved in firewood, and people in North Dakota should do what they can to prevent the spread.

“EAB spreads slowly on its own, but it can be moved long distances in firewood and ash nursery stock,” State Forester Tom Claeys said. “Please buy your firewood from local sources, and if you are coming from out of the state, please don’t bring firewood with you.”

The NDDA and North Dakota Forest Service (NDFS) will be placing nearly 300 traps around the state this month to attract EABs. These are two-footlong, three-sided, and purple, and people are asked to leave them alone.

People can use a treatment to prevent EAB from establishing in an ash tree, but this is not recommended until EAB has been found within 15 miles of the tree. It is prohibited to move firewood or other things from an ash tree outside a regulated area, including LaMoure and Cass counties.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — Families across Ohio say rising property taxes, inflation, and the increasing cost of living are putting more strain on their budgets. Households continue to question how much taxpayers can afford.

The issue is becoming a growing political debate statewide, as discussions continue over possible tax reforms and how Ohio communities fund schools, police, fire departments, and other public services.

Ohio homeowners say property taxes have climbed significantly over the past several years. A recent poll conducted by ABC 6 shows the majority of our viewers’ property taxes have increase $500-$1,500 annually.

When we asked whether their incomes had kept pace with those higher costs, the majority answered their income has increased, but it is not enough to keep up with every day costs.

That frustration is fueling broader conversations about affordability and whether Ohio’s current tax system is sustainable for working families and retirees.

Several Central Ohio school districts say failed levies could lead to reductions in programs and services. After voters rejected a recent tax issue in Pickerington, Superintendent Charles Smialek warned the district may eventually need to cut transportation, extracurricular activities, administrative rolls, and classroom resources.

“If we fail in November, it starts to cut into our classroom,” Smialek said in an interview with ABC 6 earlier this month.

Many districts throughout Ohio rely heavily on local property tax revenue to operate. Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is pushing a plan to reduce property taxes and eventually phase out Ohio’s state income tax over a 10-year plan.

But economists say lowering or eliminating those taxes would likely require the state to either raise other taxes or reduce spending.

Jared Pincin, Associate Professor of Economics at Cedarville University, said states without income taxes often depend more heavily on sales taxes and fees.

“Voters should be asking politicians what the specifics are with their plans,” Pincin said. “That’s the information politicians should be pressed on.”

He added that while tax changes can happen gradually, there is still a trade-off if the state wants to maintain current levels of funding for public services.

“If you’re going to eliminate the income tax and you want to keep the revenue the same, you’ll have to increase taxes or cut spending to offset that,” Pincin said. “Assessed property values have increased and even if the rate doesn’t change, that has allowed the tax bill itself to rise.”

Pincin recommended taking advantage of retirement accounts and relocating to a more affordable town to ease taxes. “Are you maxing out or are you putting away savings in accounts that are pre-taxed?” he added.

Governor DeWine warned sales tax rates could skyrocket to 20% if property and income taxes were abolished.

DeWine added that Ohio lawmakers may also have to consider hiking other taxes, such as the state’s income taxes, to plug the roughly $24 billion budget hole that would result with the elimination of property taxes.

A grassroots group called Citizens for Property Tax Reform is backing a constitutional amendment that would eliminate property taxes completely.

But another coalition, Ohioans to Protect Public Services, warns eliminating property taxes without a replacement funding plan could severely impact schools, police and fire departments, libraries, senior centers, and disability services.

Ohioans to Protect Public Services says property taxes make up nearly two-thirds of all local funding in Ohio. The group says “eliminating them altogether with no plan for what comes next is just reckless.”

Ohio’s Office of Budget and Management warned removing local property taxes without replacing the lost revenue could effectively “defund” many local government services statewide.

“A constitutional amendment to abolish local property taxes, with no plan to replace the lost revenues, would quite literally “defund” the police, fire departments, schools, libraries, senior centers, and other local government services in our communities statewide,” the statement said.

As the debate continues, many Ohio families say they are looking for relief and want to keep tax rates down.

This small city in rural northeastern South Dakota has established itself as an energy hub for the entire Great Plains region, and that reputation has received a big boost by landing what will be among the world’s largest energy storage projects.

In a groundbreaking project, South Dakota-based POET has partnered with Antora Energy of California to launch a thermal energy storage system adjacent to POET’s ethanol plant in Big Stone City.

The 5 gigawatt-hour thermal energy storage facility will absorb excess, low-cost energy from wind turbines that might otherwise be lost due to capacity limits on the existing power grid and store it in carbon blocks for use when needed.

Officials said the new technology will be a major economic and environmental boost to South Dakota while also pioneering the use of a new energy technology for potential use across the country and the world.

Developers cite potential benefits

Leaders of the two companies told News Watch in exclusive interviews that the storage facility – the first to be put in commercial production by Antora – will generate several benefits now and well into the future for South Dakota, including:

1. The facility will improve efficiency and increase outputs at POET’s ethanol plant in Big Stone City by providing a reliable source of sustainable energy both during times of peak and non-peak power demand, ultimately reducing consumer costs for ethanol at the gas pump.

2. It will increase production opportunities for South Dakota corn growers, who will see expanded markets for their grains to be converted into ethanol.

3. It will reduce reliance on fossil fuels by enabling greater storage of energy generated by wind, solar or other sustainable sources.

4. Construction and development of the plant has supported 300 new construction jobs in South Dakota and California and will generate new full-time employment in the Big Stone City area.

“They’re taking excess wind energy that doesn’t have a home on the grid and otherwise would be wasted, and they’re capturing that,” said Jeff Lautt, president and chief operating officer of POET in Sioux Falls, the world’s largest producer of ethanol.

“Nobody’s got a switch for the wind, so it blows when it wants to blow, yet there’s a steady demand for power that has to be met, and this system will provide for that.”

Andrew Ponec, chief executive officer of Antora Energy, was unwilling to share the total cost of the project. But a press release on the storage project noted that Antora has “catalyzed hundreds of millions in private investment in the company.”

Ponec said the majority of costs for the Big Stone project were paid through private financing, led by Grok Ventures of Australia, and not the U.S. government. He added, however, that thermal storage has received strong bipartisan support, including in the Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress in 2025.

A May 19 press release on the project from POET and Antora included statements of support from U.S. Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson and South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden.

“America’s need for energy is continuing to rise year after year, (so) the more of that energy we can take right here at home, the better,” Rounds said in the release. ”(This) project in Big Stone City will have a real economic impact in South Dakota while also creating jobs and boosting our domestic energy production.”

A regional power hub set in a small town

Big Stone City was selected as the site for Antora’s first large-scale thermal energy storage system because of the existing POET biofuels plant and the Otter Trail Power Co. plant on the site, and due to the city’s location as a major hub on the regional Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) power grid system, Ponec said.

“We’re an energy technology company, so we’re going to go to wherever there are big concentrations of energy users,” he said.

Thermal energy storage collects low-cost, off-peak energy from virtually any source – local wind turbines in this case – and stores it as heat in insulated blocks of solid carbon that reach 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat, which can be stored until needed, is then transferred into an oil that allows it to be carried to industrial users, in this instance the POET plant next door.

There, the heat is transferred to steam that powers boilers, distillers and other machinery used in production of ethanol and a host of other byproducts generated at the POET plant. The Big Stone plant produces 92 million gallons of ethanol annually, Lautt said.

Ponec likened the thermal storage process – which consists of dozens of large white metal boxes on the ground – to the operations of a giant toaster. Electricity from the outlet (energy from wind towers) is transferred to the toaster heating coils (the carbon blocks), which then generates heat to brown the bread (run machinery in the ethanol plant.)

The project uses very little water and does not create any substantial emissions, Ponec said.

To illustrate the nimble nature of thermal storage, Ponec noted that the Big Stone facility was built in less than a year. The facility is already providing power to POET’s plant and should be fully online in October.

Another type of energy storage for South Dakota

Thermal energy storage is similar to lithium ion energy storage in that both concepts seek to capture power that can be held until demand goes up and may exceed supply, thereby stabilizing the power grid and reducing costs for consumers.

But while lithium batteries store actual electricity and only for a few hours, thermal storage holds the energy as heat and can hold it for much longer periods, Ponec said.

South Dakota might soon be home to a pair of lithium battery projects, including in Codington and Brookings counties, which backers said will create new opportunities for wind and solar production in the state.

Antora makes money on the project by selling its energy to POET while opening the door to greater sustainable electricity production in the region and lowering power costs for the ethanol plant, Lautt said.

“It creates more efficiency for us, so we’re then using less natural gas to operate the facility, which makes us greener,” he said. “It really creates a win-win-win all across the footprint.”

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This story was originally published by South Dakota News Watch and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.