Some North Dakota cities say not having a natural gas supply is hurting their efforts to attract manufacturing.
"We're basically without a tool if we don't have natural gas," Jamestown economic development director Connie Ova told the Legislature's interim Economic Impact committee.
Ova says the city is trying to attract business to the Spiritwood Energy Park – and those efforts were dealt a blow when CHS decided against building a big fertilizer plant there. Ova says plans were in place to bring natural gas to Spiritwood by connecting to a natural gas pipeline near Wishek. But she says that’s now on hold.
"They've told us the hard work is done," Ova said. "They have all the easements, they have all of the right of ways, they have everything they need -- 18 months worth of work. But they do need to have at least a handful of users."
Hillsboro is telling the committee a similar story.
"We've had one instance where we've had a company that recently located to Minnesota, because it had natural gas," said Paul Geray, the chairman of the Hillsboro Economic Development Corporation. "When we asked why the company chose that site, they said they loved everything about Hillsboro, but we dodn;t have that natural gas."
Geray says another business went to Moorhead.
"So we're really concerned," said Geray. "Okay -- if this had been just a couple that came forward, how many are we missing that fly under the radar, that are seeing there's no natural gas in Hillsboro, and we aren't going to go that route?"
A utility company representative says companies need solid commitments before they'll build the natural gas pipelines. Dennis Haider is the executive vice-president of MDU Resources. He says the Williston Basin Pipeline Company – a division of MDU – had what he called an “open season” on a northern tier Dakota Pipeline. But he says that project is now on hold.
"We did not get enough interest in that to proceed with the project," said Haider.
Haider, Ova and Geray say it will likely take some state incentive programs to help the companies expand their natural gas pipelines to serve those unserved areas.
