With some $30 billion in new value-added projects announced in North Dakota recently, the state is well on its way to positioning itself as having the highest GDP per capita in the nation.
The West has already been a beneficiary of some of the largest of these new economic opportunities, including Cerilon’s $2.8 billion gas-to-liquids plant in Trenton, and a $1.9 billion cryptocurrency facility that’s already under construction in Williams County.
North Dakota Commerce Commissioner James Leiman told the Williston Herald on Friday he already has just over $30 billion in value-added or diversification projects right now. And he’s working on even more.
“Our department has been very aggressive in terms of not only developing and growing industry in the state, but positioning our largest sectors of the economy to be competitive over the next 20 to 30 years,” Leiman said. “The innovative approach to accomplishing this is what I think is significantly attracting the interest of companies across the world.”
The opportunities Leiman sees actually number in the trillions of dollars right now, with so many companies seeking a favorable home for their energy transition projects. North Dakota’s emphasis on innovation over regulation is sounding the right notes to many of those prospective investors, and it’s “geologic jackpot,” as Gov. Doug Burgum has described it, just makes it even more attractive for carbon sequestration and storage. The side-by-side oil and gas industry, meanwhile, opens up the possibility that the stored carbon can become a valuable commodity for enhanced oil recovery. That’s win-win-win for the businesses that get here first.
Among the highest profile of these early takers is Mitsubishi Power Americas, which announced a joint venture with Bakken Energy to repurpose the Synfuels plant near Beulah into a hydrogen hubs. The Synfuels plant already has the equipment needed for auto-thermal processing, which is more energy efficient, and, thanks to that it could become North America’s largest and lowest cost supplier.
Another fairly high profile announcement recently is the ADM-Marathon partnership to produce bio renewable diesel in Dickinson for California markets. That refinery is already operational, Marathon said in a recent earnings call, and they are working to “optimize” it.
“(Those) projects are locating here because we branded our state as an innovator, not a regulator, and companies feel that we have very similar value systems,” Leiman said. “We all want a clean world. We all want sustainable energy, and people have bought into North Dakota as the conduit for that growth.”
The state, however, does face significant headwind when it comes to finding the workforce for these value-added, diversification opportunities. There are already 30,000 unfilled jobs in the state for the existing commerce. New projects face an increasingly dry labor pool.
“It’s a challenge,” Leiman said. “I’d be lying to you if I told you it wasn’t. But the state is embarking on sort of a systems level view on how to solve this challenge.”
The multi-prong approach takes in early childhood education, to help free parents up to work at a significantly lower cost than daycare, while at the same time creating better educational outcomes. There are also career education efforts for underemployed individuals, people who could quickly shift to higher-paying jobs with just a little bit of retraining.
Another prong of the state’s efforts is the Main Street initiative, to help cities across the state, from Watford City and Williston to Fargo and Grand Forks, ensure they have all the amenities that new workforce wants to see.
The state is also looking to draw from typically high unemployment areas, like U.S. territories, to pick up workforce. About 800 Puerto Ricans recently relocated to central North Dakota as a result of those efforts, Leiman said.
The state is also working with workforce development firms to start branding North Dakota as a place where the American dream is alive and well — even if it might get cold in the wintertime.
“That’s what I tell people,” Leiman said. “I’m originally from New Jersey, and I would have never been Commerce Commissioner before I was 40 years old there. Because you know the old guard on the coast owns the joint. Here, this is a meritocracy. And if you’re willing to work hard, you can go anywhere you want to go. And that’s not true of the rest of the country.”
It also doesn’t hurt that the types of new jobs being created long-term are generally on the higher-tech end, Leiman added
“For every billion dollars, we’re only creating about another 100 jobs, because they’re super high-tech,” he said. “And we’re working very hard on developing that branding strategy, as well as the systems-level integration so we can go after the workforce we need.”
Leiman also serves as the Empower Commission’s Chairman, whose charter requires an all-of-the-above energy approach. He said coal countries need not fear hydrogen power. There is space for them in the state’s future, too, well into 2030 and beyond, for reliable, life-saving energy needed every winter, spring, summer and fall.
“I will do everything possible both as commerce commissioner and as chair of the Empower Commission to grow every single facet of the energy economy in the state,” Leiman said. “That’s everything from coal to wind to oil to gas to sustainable aviation fuels. You name it. We are going to grow every single industry in this state. That’s my mandate.”
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