People in Hillsboro and Mayville could soon be able to heat their homes with natural gas.

Dakota Natural Gas – a subsidiary of Greater Minnesota Gas – is proposing to bring natural gas from the Viking pipeline in Minnesota to Traill County. A big user of the gas would be the American Crystal Sugar plant, north of Hillsboro.

Dakota Natural Gas has applied to the North Dakota Public Service Commission. PSC Chairman Brian Kroshus said this will allow people to convert from more expensive propane to natural gas.

Xcel Energy has been fined $10,000 for missing a December 31, 2019 deadline to have a new lighting system on the turbine towers at its Foxtail Wind farm in Dickey County.

The light system is known as “ALDS,” for “Aircraft Light Detection System.” Instead of the blinking red lights, this will turn lights on and off – or dim them – based on aircraft in the area.

North Dakota’s Industrial Commission could be filing a “friend of the court” brief in an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that the Dakota Access Pipeline be shut down, while the Corps of Engineers completes an Environmental Impact Statement on the Pipeline.

The ruling says Energy Transfer Partners has a month to empty the pipeline. The company has appeals in motion to allow that pipeline to continue to operate.

The Commission chairman, Gov. Doug Burgum, said the state needs to show to the courts the economic harm that will come if the pipeline is shut down.

The director of the North Dakota Pipeline Authority said a federal judge’s decision to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline until the Corps of Engineers does an “Environmental Impact Statement” is throwing a curveball at the state’s oil industry.

The pipeline has been carrying 550,000 barrels of Bakken crude daily. The judge set a 30 day deadline to get the oil out of the pipe, so it can be shut down.

A federal judge has ordered the Dakota Access Pipeline to shut down, pending an environmental review.

Judge James Boasberg had earlier ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to do a full Environmental Impact Statement on the $3.8 billion, 1100 mile pipeline. The Corps had done an “Environmental Assessment,” a rung lower than a full EIS.

The ruling says the pipeline must be shut down and emptied of oil by August 5th.

The pipeline carries 570,000 barrels of Bakken crude per day. A project is pending that would have doubled its capacity.