Saturday, April 16, 2005

Leveraging Coal Resources to Their Fullest

Beulah, ND has the highest per capita income in the state. Lignite coal lies close to the surface of the surrounding rolling hills. The town has several electric generation plants and one of only two coal gasification plants in the world. The other is in South Africa. Jobs are plentiful and pay well.

Many communities would just sit back and “let the good times roll.” But a community that is the hometown of Jerome Strom, who I blogged about yesterday, isn’t the type of town to just sit back and let things happen on their own.

Beulah has contracted with Dr. Marian Chertow of the Yale University Center for Industrial Ecology to develop a plan for all of the by-products that could be harvested. Some are obvious such as anhydrous ammonia and ammonia sulfate. But her study, which is to be presented on May 1st will hopefully offer other ideas for Beulah and the surrounding area.

Duke Rosendahl, head of economic development for neighboring Hazen emailed me after my talk of why a community can NEVER stop doing economic development, “The work is NEVER done... there's no slack time .. take it (the job of growing) seriously because.. most others won't ..It only takes a few to make things happen.... but those few are rare and precious and have the "can do" spirit that makes a community a winner.”

I saw that type of spirit in Beulah.

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