North Dakota’s attorney general said he expects the state to sue Minnesota over a plan there to tax carbon created by electrical generation.
After discussing the issue with the state Industrial Commission in a closed session this month, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said “It is very likely that we will be suing the state of Minnesota.”
At issue is a measure by Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission to add a fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide to the cost of electrical generation starting in 2012. The majority of electricity in North Dakota is generated by coal-fired power plants, which emit a large amount of carbon relative to other fuels sources. North Dakota officials argue that the move would place an unfair tax on electricity from the state and discourage its use by Minnesota utilities.
Stenehjem said possible legal action would relate to constitutional protections against restrictions on commerce between states.
The North Dakota Legislature in 2007 allocated $500,000 for litigation on the carbon tax proposal, and the Industrial Commission has protested the plan more than once since then. Stenehjem said that he and other officials have met with the Minnesota governor and attorney general and North Dakota officials have exhausted other means of resolving the dispute. He said that a venue or a timeframe has not been chosen for litigation.
Besides their argument that Minnesota’s move is an illegal attempt to regulate utilities outside of that state, Stenehjem said the plan does not take into account technology here to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants by capturing carbon dioxide or converting coal to cleaner burner forms.
“What they’re failing to recognize is that we’re doing much more than Minnesota” in terms of clean coal research, Stenehjem said. “We don’t need Minnesota to come in and say that they love the environment more than we do.”
He said that state officials have invited Minnesota regulators to visit carbon capture projects here, but no one has accepted the offer.
Carbon dioxide produced by the burning of coal and other fossil fuels has been blamed for global warming.
(Reach reporter Christopher Bjorke at 250-8261 or chris.bjorke@bismarcktribune.com.)
Please Wait…
The coal industry benefits from numerous subsidies
If the State actually files suit, expect an immediate motion to dismiss. The Legislature wasted its money and apparently got terrible legal advice in the process.
be a tax if the carbon dioxide is captured
and stored safely? He makes a point that
ND is trying to do capture and storage.
Europe has very high gasoline taxes
that comes mostly from imported oil,
which is also a fossil fuel that emits
carbon dioxide (invisible, odorless, part
of the cycle of life...but too much of it
is like too much clean water--
still a disastrous flood).
Norway taxes its own oil for
its own citizens at ~$6/gallon, yet
Norway has been voted the best country
to live in for 7 of the last 10 years.
Such "green" taxing has helped Europe
to have 1/3 to 1/2 the energy intensity
of the US.
Denmark has about a $5/gallon gasoline tax
yet has a current unemployment rate of
4%. I was just in Copenhagen for the
Climate Conference and saw 75-80% of commuters
on bicyles, buses,trains,or Copenhagen's
new Metro subway. Most US cities are
about 2%.
Europe is greatly concerned that the
disappearance of Artic sea ice in the summer
will lead to accelerated climate change
and the melting of the Greenland ice shelf,
which would lead to significant sea level
rise and to the probable shutdown of the
Gulf Stream thermal engine--sending northern
Europe into much colder weather.
According to the Tax Foundation, ND receives
from the federal government about $3,000 per
person more than ND send in, whereas both
Ca and Mn are large "donor" states to the
federal government. Ca sends in about $50
billion per year more that it receives,
according to the latest figures. This
would more than wipe out its state deficit.
Alaska is the largest per capita recipient
state--about $8500 per person--despite
all that oil and gas revenue and
conservative Sarah Palin rhetoric.
:D