330: North Dakota's regional haze debate and a Fargo City Commission candidate

When it comes to regulating air quality - both in terms of health and cosmetic measures like visibility - North Dakota does an excellent job.

We have some of the cleanest air in the nation. Ours is one of only four states to have never violated a federal air quality standard protecting health or the environment. We've been building on that excellent record too. "Since 2002, total emissions from coal-powered electricity generation plants in North Dakota were reduced by 102,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, or 72%, and 41,600 tons of nitrogen oxide, down 55%," Patrick Springer reported last month.

Despite this, the Biden administration argues that North Dakota's state-level management of regional haze isn't good enough. They want to layer more federal regulations on top through the EPA's Regional Haze Program.

Mack McGuffey, an attorney who specializes in this area of environmental policy and is representing North Dakota's Lignite Energy Council, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the issue. He and his client are encouraging the public to provide public comment to the EPA, something you can do through CleanAirND.com, a website set up by the LEC to inform and facilitate that process.

Matour Alier, who is running for the Fargo City Commission, also joined this episode. We talked about his objections to a recent column of mine that was critical of him, how a local candidate can stand out in a field of 15 contenders, and his experiences as a refugee who went from living in a camp for a decade to being a home owner in North Dakota.

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