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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced John Harju, Vice President for Strategic Partnerships at the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC), as a witness at today’s Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing entitled, “Examining the Development of Projects and Implementation of Policies that Support Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) Technologies.” In his remarks, Senator Cramer highlighted Mr. Harju and EERC’s work on carbon capture, utilization, and storage, ongoing innovative research in energy production, as well as his leadership in North Dakota. Excerpts and full video are below.   

“Thank you Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito for having this important hearing on a topic that we’re all interested in. It’s one of the times Senator Whitehouse and I really get to dig in on the same side of something. CCUS is clearly a topic near and dear to North Dakota, as obvious by one of our witnesses. We’ve been at this for a couple of decades, I was an economic development director when a regional organization called [Plains C02 Reduction Partnerships] was formed and John Harju was at the forefront then at EERC, and it's starting to bear some fruit. North Dakota has been implementing carbon capture, utilization, and storage now for a while. Just last month, Red Trail Energy, an ethanol producing company in western North Dakota, started injecting C02 deep into our geology removing nearly all of the associated carbon emissions involved in the production of ethanol at the plant. Recently Denbury resources, Senator Capito talked about the two states that have Class VI primacy. There's a gas producing facility in Wyoming that pipes CO2 to North Dakota for utilization for tertiary oil recovery.

“Critical to helping all of this, of course, and achieve their accomplishment is today’s witness, John Harju, and the rest of his team at the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, otherwise known as the EERC. They are a premier research entity on all fossil fuels, as well as renewable and alternative fuels, and has become a world leader in the field of CCUS, consulting on projects not only in North Dakota, but throughout the country. I’d like to reiterate a point and brag about them: John and his team are not just consultants – they are engineers who build and test components, they analyze core samples, perform modeling, advocated for public policy at the local, state and federal level, and help projects navigate bureaucracies. They do it all. Colleagues, whatever curiosities you may have, you will not find a better resource than the EERC.

 “John, in particular is a familiar face in North Dakota and has been an excellent resource and an important friend to my office. He serves as the Vice President for Strategic Partnership’s at the EERC and leads the center’s efforts to build working relationships with industry, government, and research entities globally in support of the EERC’s mission to provide solutions to the world’s energy and environmental challenges.

“I'm just really grateful for his willingness to be here today and for his good work and look forward to his testimony and answering our difficult questions.”

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