VALLEY CITY, N.D. (WWGO) – The presentation titled “Can North Dakota Be Carbon Neutral by 2030? Governor Burgum’s Plan” has been rescheduled and will be presented on Wednesday, June 15 at 7 pm in the the Rhoades Science Center on the campus of Valley City State University in Valley City, ND. The event is sponsored by “What in the World Is Going On?” (WWGO.)
Tom Oakland who is the business development and research manager at the ND Department of Commerce will be the guest speaker. Oakland has been involved with energy most of his career, beginning with a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering, he then worked at the Minot Air Force Base as the energy manager. He continued his tenure in the energy industry as the system engineer for the DryFine system at Coal Creek Station. In 2020 he started Automow of North Dakota, bringing robotic lawn mowers to the residential and commercial sectors of North Dakota. In 2021 Oakland began his position at the ND Department of Commerce.
Oakland will define what is meant by carbon neutral, and identify the ND plan to become carbon neutral by 2030. He will list the carbon sequestration projects on the horizon in ND, and what are the plans being made to reduce the carbon footprint related to agriculture, yet support our farmers. He will list who is on the governor’s team to advise him on carbon issues, and talk about how the state will be changing over to Electronic Vehicles (EV), with the timeline. He’ll share information on the power sources that will be used for the increase in electricity that will be needed for homes, EVs, etc. and what proactive ways are being evaluated to lower the carbon footprint of home heating and cooling.
This is the fourth and final presentation in the series on Climate Change. Over 50 billion tons of greenhouse gases go into the atmosphere every year. We need to aim for Zero in order to stop the warming and avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Statistics show us that 13.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 came from the United States even though we have only 4.25% of the world’s population. The first presentation in March was by Paul Jensen from Fargo’s CLEAN (Citizens Local Energy Action Network). He discussed the need to find alternatives related to transportation, and focused on electric vehicles. Nationally transportation accounts for the largest amount of U.S. greenhouse gasses at 29%.
Other presentations discussed the value of oceans and wetlands in storing carbon, with the third presentation on Project Tundra asking the question as to whether sequestration of carbon through a plant such as this can be effective. As stated in a recent Forum news article, carbon capture projects such as this and others have “performed poorly and were considered expensive failures.” The question is, can it work in North Dakota.
The presentation is sponsored by WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON? (WWGO) which is a VCSU campus and community group. WHAT IN THE WORLD began shortly after 911 for the purpose of addressing issues of local, national and international importance.
Everyone is invited to come and learn more about Climate Change at 7 pm on Wednesday, June 15. The event is free. For more information call 701-845-7321 or look on Facebook.