09.02.21

Hoeven Statement on Otter Tail Power's Plan to Sell Share in Coyote Station

BISMARCK, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today issued the following statement after Otter Tail Power Company announced its intent to sell its partial ownership of the Coyote Station Power Plant in Beulah by 2028. Hoeven spoke with Otter Tail President and CEO Chuck MacFarlane this week to discuss the planned sale of the company’s partial ownership and efforts to ensure the station continues operating beyond 2028. The station’s co-owners include the Northern Municipal Power Agency, Montana-Dakota Utilities (MDU) and NorthWestern Energy.

“We’ve worked hard to help ensure coal’s continued role in our nation’s energy mix. This includes pressing for coal to be properly valued as a baseload power source that is available 24/7, while also advancing efforts to crack the code on CCUS to reduce emissions from coal and a variety of other energy sources,” said Hoeven. “Following Otter Tail Power’s announcement today, we look forward to working with the other co-owners of Coyote Station to ensure this vital coal-fired baseload facility continues to provide affordable, reliable power to customers in our region.”

Ensuring a Fair Value for Coal

Hoeven is working to ensure coal’s role as a reliable source of baseload power is properly valued. Accordingly, the senator has been making the case to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) for the need to maintain diverse sources of electricity to promote the reliability and resiliency of the grid.  

Cracking the Code on CCUS

Hoeven has been working for more than a decade to crack the code on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies to enable the nation to continue making use of its abundant energy resources, like coal, while reducing emissions. To this end, the senator is advancing:

  • Front end investment in technology development, including bolstering the partnership between the Department of Energy (DOE) and the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) in support of efforts like Project Tundra.
    • Hoeven has helped secure $43 million in federal funding for Project Tundra to date.
  • Loan guarantees to help project developers secure financing to build the equipment and infrastructure needed to capture and store CO2.
    • Hoeven included funding in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 appropriations legislation for critical loan guarantee programs at DOE and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS).
  • Enhancements for the 45Q and 48A Advanced Coal tax credits to provide important revenue streams to project developers and encourage adoption of CCUS.
    • Hoeven is sponsoring legislation to modernize the 48A tax credit for CO2 capture retrofit projects and helped introduce a bipartisan bill to provide a direct payment option for the 45Q and 48A CCUS tax incentives.
    • The senator previously worked to get the 45Q tax credit implemented in a way that makes CCUS projects more commercially-viable.  

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