North Dakota
EERC showcases ‘energy research of tomorrow’ at annual summit – UND Today
North Dakota poised to lead nation and world in carbon capture, hydrogen development, rare earth element extraction
Last week, UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) hosted its annual Energizing North Dakota’s Future Summit. The event brings together academics, industry professionals and state policymakers to discuss topics critical to the future of energy production in North Dakota.
Charles Gorecki, CEO of the EERC, kicked off the event — now in its eighth year — by highlighting the state’s position as a major player in the global energy supply chain.
“I really believe providing clean, reliable and affordable energy starts at home,” he said. “We have the opportunity with the resource base we have to solve those challenges — North Dakota is an ideal place to do that. We can export that technology around the country and globe, so we can have more clean, reliable and affordable energy for a growing population that demands it.”
David Straley, director of government and public affairs at the North American Coal Corp. and chair of the EERC Foundation’s board of directors, agreed. Straley also praised the work of the EERC’s more than 200 employees.
“These are some of the best and brightest scientists in America solving real-world problems,” he said.
Delivering the event’s keynote address, UND President Andrew Armacost thanked state legislators in attendance for their continued support of higher education in North Dakota. He cited the $182 million earmarked toward research expenditures at UND last year — up $72 million from four years prior — plus a new science, technology, engineering and mathematics complex and recently launched degree programs in biomedical and aerospace engineering, as evidence of robust scholarship on campus.
Furthermore, the EERC’s work is a key component of UND’s national security initiative — a partnership with the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to bolster research, education and workforce development, Armacost added.
Make no mistake, “energy policy is national security policy,” he said. “How we embed our research in energy systems will be a vital part of this whole national security and space initiative.”
Heartland Hydrogen Hub
As one of seven regional clean energy projects selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Heartland Hydrogen Hub is a planned project to decarbonize sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing, while producing clean hydrogen for use in power generation. The EERC will work with industry partners Xcel Energy, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and TC Energy across five states – Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin.
The total amount allocated toward the project — currently under negotiation — is up to $925 million, funded in part through the federal Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
Chad Wocken, assistant director of clean energy solutions at the EERC, said one of the project’s goals is to expand upon hydrogen’s existing applications.
“The hope is that over time, those can expand from what have been traditional industrial uses of hydrogen and start to look at using it as a fuel for heavy duty transportation,” he said. “EERC’s role in the hub is overall program management. As an impartial third party, we can facilitate the public-private partnership — we don’t have a commercial stake in the game.”
Zachary Thobe, senior business development representative at Marathon, said North Dakota is a natural fit for the hub due to its “abundant resource capabilities” in the fields of natural gas and carbon capture — both essential ingredients for producing clean hydrogen
The project also has a workforce development component that will partner with the region’s technical colleges and universities to train students for the jobs that will support the hub’s operations.
Rare Earth Elements
Another area in which North Dakota is poised to be a leader is in the extraction of rare earth elements, harvested from the vast deposits of lignite coal present in the western part of the state.
Jason Laumb, director of advanced energy systems initiatives at the EERC, listed a host of applications requiring the use of rare earth elements, including magnets and batteries.
Laumb added that carbon is critical to making the batteries used in consumer electronics and defense applications. One of carbon’s derivatives, graphene, is particularly useful due to its flexibility, resistance and strength.
“As we become a more electrified society — using more batteries — we’re going to need more carbon,” he said. “In what form? Graphite and graphene. A strand of graphene the thickness of a human hair can lift a grand piano. It’s 200 times stronger than steel.”
Despite graphene’s potential, Laumb said, its high cost remains a major barrier to widespread application.
Laumb also said increasing domestic output of rare earth elements will be a boon to national security.
“Think about an F-22 Raptor – 800 pounds of rare earths are used in one airplane,” he said. “Where do those come from right now? China. I don’t want to get the parts for our airplanes from China, do you?”
“I see North Dakota leading the world in making these products more sustainable — better, stronger and faster,” Laumb added. “Why? Because we don’t shy away from opportunity.”
Enhanced oil recovery
Already the third largest oil-producing state behind Texas and New Mexico, North Dakota’s oil fields hold even more potential due to enhanced oil recovery (EOR).
North Dakota’s oil fields come in two forms — conventional and non-conventional — the latter of which comprises the Bakken Formation. The difference in fields lies in the construction of oil wells, with the Bakken’s wells stretching as deep as three miles and using hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” technology.
EOR increases output by injecting gases into wells. These gases are typically carbon dioxide, but sometimes involve a mixture of methane, ethane and propane, altering the physical properties of oil to allow it to flow more freely.
James Sorensen, director for subsurface research and development at the EERC, said there is the potential to extract upwards of a billion additional barrels of oil from conventional fields in North Dakota. And the prospects in the Bakken are even more promising, he said.
“We believe there’s about 3-7 billion barrels of oil that could be had from applying EOR in the Bakken,” he said. “The way we’re going to achieve those numbers is to innovate, make things more efficient and economical.”
Gorecki added that increased oil production will bring in more tax revenue, as “half of the state’s tax revenue comes from the extraction and production tax of producing Bakken crude” — and those dollars pay for many of the state’s public services and infrastructure projects.
North Dakota
Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits
BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.
“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.
Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.
During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.
Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court
heard oral arguments in the case
this spring.
“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.
Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune
The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”
Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.
“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”
In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.
“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.
Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.
“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.
He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.
“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”
North Dakota
Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive
FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.
Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.
Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.
How the scheme unfolded
According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.
Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.
At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.
Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.
Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.
Additional charges in Minnesota
Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.
According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.
The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump
North Dakota State playing in the FCS playoffs and College Football Playoff in back-to-back years? It’s likelier than you think.
That’s because on Wednesday, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA Division I cabinet voted to repeal a rule that effectively barred teams transitioning from FCS to FBS from playing in postseason games in their first FBS seasons. The Bison are making that move along with Sacramento State in 2026.
The reported change has been a long time coming; the rule has hampered teams from immediate bowl eligibility for decades. Its good intentions of dissuading teams from rashly making the FCS-to-FBS leap have been rendered obsolete in recent years by the fact that programs generally arrive in FBS more prepared than ever before.
Consider the number of new FBS teams that have had to work within the provision in the past decade alone
That list includes: Liberty (home for the holidays at 6–6 in 2018), James Madison (8–3 in 2022 under coach Curt Cignetti, and barely able to play in a bowl at 11–1 in ’23 due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams), Jacksonville State (8–4 in ’23 before backing in like the Dukes), Missouri State (7–5 in 2025, also backed in) and Delaware (6–6 in ’25, ditto).
James Madison in particular became a cause célèbre in ’23 because it started the season 10-0, climbing as high as No. 18 in the AP Poll in mid-November. Then-Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares bandied about suing the NCAA before the Dukes lost 26–23 to Appalachian State, an event that caused the program to back off and accept a bid to play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. James Madison lost that game 31–21, by which time Cignetti had left for Indiana.
There was a time when the FCS-to-FBS jump was an imposing one, and the NCAA did not want to incentivize making it lightly—not even a proud Florida A&M program could make a mid-2000s attempt at a jump stick. However, the Flames, Dukes and other teams have shown it’s not so great a climb for programs with the right resources and management.
Now the Bison and the Hornets stand to benefit.
How far can North Dakota State and Sacramento State go in the near term?
The Bison opened 12–0 last year before a shock loss to Illinois State in the FCS playoffs’ second round, so that question may answer itself. North Dakota State does not play a single Power 4 team—a potential strength-of-schedule albatross if it has designs on really surging. A potential roadblock: the fact that the Bison have to visit the Mountain West’s two favorites, UNLV (Oct. 10) and New Mexico (Oct. 24).
It’s a different story for the Hornets, a 7–5 squad a year ago whose move to the FBS is widely seen as a gamble on their growth potential. Sacramento State also does not play a major-conference team, but has a breakneck travel schedule ahead of it—the Hornets will visit Ypsilanti, Mich.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Muncie, Ind.; Mount Pleasant, Mich. and Honolulu. Combine that with a first-year coach—Oakland native and ex-MC Hammer choreographer Alonzo Carter—and it could be a long FBS debut in California’s capital.
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