Central ND News

Governor Kelly Armstrong welcomed U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright to Grand Forks, North Dakota, on August 13, 2025. The visit focused on North Dakota’s contributions to national energy security and the state’s alignment with the Trump administration’s goal of achieving U.S. energy dominance.

“As a Top 10 energy-producing state and the nation’s No. 3 oil producer, North Dakota stands ready to partner with the Trump administration and private sector to achieve U.S. energy dominance and provide reliable, affordable energy for all Americans,” Armstrong said. “We appreciate Secretary Wright coming to North Dakota to hear firsthand about our efforts to expand energy production – including enhanced oil recovery using captured CO2 – and strengthen the electric grid with an all-of-the-above strategy that combines baseload generation from coal and natural gas with intermittent renewable energy.”

Armstrong spoke at a roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Senator John Hoeven at the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center. Attendees included U.S. Representative Julie Fedorchak, Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, Department of Mineral Resources Director Nathan Anderson, Pipeline Authority Executive Director Justin Kringstad, UND President Andy Armacost, as well as state legislators and representatives from the energy industry.

The governor pointed out that under the Trump administration there has been renewed support for coal, oil, and gas industries in North Dakota. He referenced a recent White House event promoting coal as an example of this change.

“That mentality shift was like lifting a 5,000-pound weight off the backs of a lot of people here who have made communities in this state really, really viable for a very long time,” Armstrong said, noting the tech sector also is realizing the need for reliable, constant sources of power. “You are not powering a data center or quantum computing or artificial intelligence on wind and solar alone. The models don’t work, the metrics don’t work. So we have a chance to change the narrative … with a business economy that is about to figure out they need an energy policy based on reality and not ideology. And we are so much farther ahead than anywhere else in the country.”

Since Secretary Wright took office in February 2025, Governor Armstrong has communicated regularly with him about key projects affecting North Dakota’s energy infrastructure such as funding through federal Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program for initiatives like Project Tundra and the planned North Plains Connector transmission line linking Montana and North Dakota across major electric grids.