Speakers & Resource Presenters Bios

Prairie Climate Stewardship Conference

Energy and Agricultural Solutions for North Dakota

July 10 & 11, 2008

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Sponsors

Speakers

Steve Brick manages the environment program at the Joyce Foundation. Mr. Brick has worked for 30 years in the field of energy and the environment, previously serving as associate director of the Energy Center of Wisconsin, director of external relations and environmental affairs for the National Energy Group of the utility PG&E, science and policy coordinator for the Clean Air Task Force, and vice president of an energy consulting company. He has a B.A. and an M.S. in energy analysis and policy from the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kent Conrad was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, a position to which he has been reelected five times. Since the Democrats regained the majority in the Senate, he chairs the Budget Committee where he is recognized as an expert on budget matters and a leading advocate of balancing the federal budget. Senator Conrad also chairs Subcommittee on Energy, Science and Technology of the Agriculture Committee and the Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-Term Growth of the Finance Committee. During his 20 years in the Senate, he has played leadership roles in federal farm legislation, including the recent farm bill, rural health care policy, trade and comprehensive energy legislation. Senator Conrad also hosts the annual Marketplace for Entrepreneurs in North Dakota with Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. He was elected North Dakota Tax Commissioner in 1981, where he served for six years. A fifth-generation North Dakotan, Senator Conrad was born and attended school in Bismarck, and he earned a BA from Stanford University in 1971 and an MBA from George Washington University in 1975.

Byron Dorgan was reelected to a third term in the U.S. Senate in 2004, and he served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 1996, he has served as Assistant Democratic Floor Leader, and he has chaired the Senate Democratic Policy Committee since 1998. Senator Dorgan chairs the Indian Affairs Committee, the Energy & Water Appropriations Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, the Energy Subcommittee of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, and the Interstate Commerce, Trade and Tourism Subcommittee of the Commerce Committee. In his Senate career, his top priorities have included international trade, rural economic development and access to technology, alternative energy resources and technologies, and expanding North Dakota’s research and development potential through the Red River Trade Corridor and other efforts. Senator Dorgan was appointed to the office of State Tax Commissioner in North Dakota at age 26. He was reelected to that office in 1972 and 1976. A native of Regent, North Dakota, Senator Dorgan received a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Dakota and an MBA from the University of Denver.

Dale Enerson is the Director of the National Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program headquartered at Jamestown, North Dakota. Until recently, he was the economist for North Dakota Farmers Union. Mr. Enerson’s work experience includes no-till farming, teaching adult farm management education, serving as board chairman of Dakota Quality Grain Cooperative, working as a Farm Services Agency loan servicing contractor, working as a loan officer with Farm Credit Services, and teaching high school vocational agriculture. Enerson holds a Masters degree in agricultural education from North Dakota State University. Enerson and his family farm part-time near Stanley, ND.

Betsy Engelking is Manager of Resource Planning and Bidding for Xcel Energy. She has overseen all aspects of planning and acquisition of long-term resources for Northern States Power Company systems since 2004. Ms. Engelking was previously manager of Resource Planning for Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative serving 28 member rural distribution cooperatives in Minnesota. She also served for ten years as principal energy advisor to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, where she chaired the NARUC staff subcommittee on Energy Resources and the Environment. Ms. Engelking was a founding member of the National Wind Coordinating Committee and participant in the Powering the Plains regional energy policy project. Ms. Engelking has a B.S. degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia and an MBA in finance from the University of Minnesota.

Bill Grant is the Director of the Midwest Office of the Izaak Walton League of America and Associate Executive Director of the League. He has directed the League's advocacy of utility regulatory reform policies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in the Upper Midwest, and has been instrumental in the development of several League publications. Before joining the League, Grant spent seven years with the Minnesota Department of Public Service. His responsibilities included review of utility conservation plans, integrated resource plans, and certificate of need filings, and interventions before federal regulatory agencies. Mr. Grant holds a B.A. in political science and history from Macalester College in St. Paul (1979), and a Masters in Public Administration from Hamline University, St. Paul (1995).

Scott Handy is President and CEO of Cass County Electric Cooperative, Inc., a position held since 2002. Mr. Handy has served in various positions at Cass County Electric since 1982, including Electric Use Specialist; Member Service Director; Manager of Member and Public Relations; Assistant General Manager, and Sr. Vice President. From 1980 to 1982, he was the Energy Consultant to NDSU Cooperative Extension Service. A board member of many community and industry organizations, Mr. Handy frequently speaks at various local, state and national events in the electric industry and has been published in several industry periodicals. He holds a BS from North Dakota State University (1980) and is a graduate of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Management Internship Program (1990) and the Advanced Management Internship Program (1994), University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

John Hoeven was elected to his first term as Governor of North Dakota in 2000, and he was reelected to a second term in 2004. His major priorities as governor have included development of the state’s fossil and renewable energy resources and industries, increased funding for teacher salaries, economic and business development, and initiatives such as Centers of Excellence that build partnerships between education and research institutions and the private sector. During his two terms, Governor Hoeven has served as chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, the Midwestern Governors Association and the National Governors Association's Health and Human Services Committee and Natural Resources Committee. He has also chaired the Governors' Ethanol Coalition. Governor Hoeven served as executive vice president of First Western Bank in Minot from 1986 to 1993. From 1993 to 2000, he was president and CEO of the Bank of North Dakota. Born in Bismarck, Governor Hoeven earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1979 and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University in 1981.

Niles Hushka is a professional engineer and CEO of Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson Solutions, an engineering and asset development firm with a wide scope of projects, including vertically integrated oilseed extraction and biodiesel plants. Mr. Hushka’s passion for environmental conservation, renewable fuels and their impact on national energy independence has him deeply involved in all facets of responsible development. He is actively involved with numerous professional organizations including the American Consulting Engineers Council and the National Society of Professional Engineers. Mr. Hushka serves on the board of directors of the YMCA, St. Alexius Medical Center and Wells Fargo Regional. He is President of Northern Plains Investments, a Regional Angel Investor Network Fund and is a past chairman of the Bismarck-Mandan Development Association.

Roger Johnson is Agriculture Commissioner of North Dakota, having first been elected to that post in 1996 and re-elected twice in 2000 and 2004. Commissioner Johnson is one of three officials who make up North Dakota's Industrial Commission, which allocates the state's coal and renewable energy-related investments. As chairman of the Rural Development and Financial Security Committee of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA), Commissioner Johnson played a leading role in the development of the "safety net" policies for agriculture contained in the 2002 Farm Bill and federal crop insurance programs based on the cost of production. He is currently the President of NASDA and was deeply involved in drafting policy for the current Farm Bill. A third-generation family farmer, Commissioner Johnson graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in agricultural economics and has an extensive background in agricultural mediation.

Paul Loeffelman serves as director of environmental public policy for American Electric Power. He works to develop corporate positions on environmental and clean energy public policies. He coordinates company interactions across 11 states served by AEP. Mr. Loeffelman actively participates in the work of industry and policymaker coalitions to enact public policies at regional and state levels that protect the environment and assure affordable, reliable generation and delivery of electricity, and he is active internationally in AEP initiatives and projects focused on sustainable development greenhouse gas emissions reductions. He began his AEP career in 1976 as a biologist in the company’s Environmental Services group. In 1991 he was named manager – environmental audits in environmental affairs, and was responsible for developing AEP’s Environmental Audit Program from its inception that year.

Annabelle Malins serves as Her Majesty’s Consul (Acting) at the British Consulate in Denver. A technologist turned diplomat, she has spent most of her career in production and technical consultancy in the agriculture industry in the United Kingdom and in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Malins joined the diplomatic service in 1999 and took up her diplomatic appointment in the US in 2005 as Consul for Science and Innovation based in San Francisco. She has a particular interest in UK-US state government and local government exchanges on climate and energy issues. Since Prime Minister Tony Blair’s visit to California in 2006, Malins has been the lead contact on UK-CA collaboration on climate change and clean energy, as well as working with a number of Western states on climate change issues. She has BSc Hons (Botany) and MSc (Crop Protection) degrees and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management.

Robert Mannes is President and CEO of Core Energy, LLC, in Traverse City, MI and an entrepreneur in the field of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Core Energy operates the only EOR project in the lower Midwest that uses captured CO2 from an industrial source, recovering oil with a significantly reduced CO2 footprint over alternative domestically produced or imported petroleum. Core Energy belongs to the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership. Already successfully storing CO2 permanently in an oil and gas formation on a fully commercial basis, Core Energy is currently hosting the largest test in the U.S. to date of CO2 storage in a deep saline aquifer. Core Energy has developed a measuring, reporting and verification protocol for CO2 offsets in Michigan and is registering credits in anticipation of future trading. Mr. Mannes participates in Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord Advisory Group that is designing a Midwest CO2 cap-and-trade system.

David Miller is director of research and commodity services for the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and Chief Science Officer for AgraGate Climate Credits Corporation. Mr. Miller helped IFBF become a leader in carbon credit aggregation. He has also been a key player in helping to establish the rules of the Chicago Climate Exchange on carbon offsets. Through AgraGate Climate Credits Corporation, Mr. Miller has been instrumental in developing carbon credit protocols for agriculture and developing contracts and aggregations services so that farmers, ranchers and landowners can participate in carbon programs. Mr. Miller is active in production agriculture, operating a 400-acre grain farm in southern Iowa. He is also active in several national professional organizations. Mr. Miller received a BS degree in Agriculture and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Missouri and completed the course work for a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics.

Jeffrey Phillips is Senior Program Manager, Advanced Generation at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Dr. Phillips began his involvement with the Institute in graduate school, providing support to an EPRI-sponsored project as part of his PhD research. He joined EPRI's CoalFleet program in 2004 after working for 18 years on gasification and combined-cycle projects for the Royal Dutch Shell group, Molten Metal Technology, and Fern Engineering. Dr. Phillips holds a BA in mathematics from Austin College, a BS in mechanical engineering from Washington University, and MS and PhD degrees from Stanford University, also in mechanical engineering.

Earl Pomeroy was first elected in 1992 as North Dakota's only member of the House of Representatives. In the 107th Congress, he joined the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the 107th Congress, becoming the only Democrat on Ways and Means to be awarded with a second committee slot, the House Agriculture Committee, where he served during his first four terms. Congressman Pomeroy co-chairs the House Democratic Social Security Task Force, and he also co-chairs the bipartisan Rural Health Care Coalition. Among his priorities during the 110th Congress, Congressman Pomeroy has focused on the new farm bill and a strong safety net for farmers and investments in nutrition, conservation and renewable energy, as well as extension of federal tax credits for renewable energy sources including wind and biodiesel. In 1980, he was elected to the State House of Representatives and elected State Insurance Commissioner in 1984, also serving as President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Born in Valley City, ND, he earned a BA in political science and a law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1979.

Charles (Chuck) Rice is a Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. Dr. Rice earned his degrees from Northern Illinois University and the University of Kentucky. He teaches courses in soil microbiology and conducts research on microbial ecology and soil carbon and nitrogen transformations, including C and N emissions, in agricultural and grassland ecosystems. Dr. Rice has been elected fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, and recently the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences. He currently directs the Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (CASMGS), a 10-institution organization researching the potential of agricultural soil to sequester carbon dioxide while benefiting producers. Dr. Rice served as Lead Author on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, which received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Greg Ridderbusch is Vice President for Business Development and Strategy at Great River Energy, a transmission and generation utility serving 60 percent of the land area in Minnesota, with generation assets in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. GRE’s business development division pursues collaborative project deals with industry and agriculture, seeking opportunities to create value for the utility through business relationships with bio-fuels and other entities. Mr. Ridderbusch spent 10 years prior to GRE as a utility management consultant serving utility leadership teams across the country on strategy and business planning assignments. His background also includes service as an engineer officer in the Army and managing an investment portfolio in new product development. Mr. Ridderbusch earned a Bachelor of Science degree from West Point, a Master of Science Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Cody Schuler is the pastor of Edgewood Church, Fargo, ND and an advocate of climate stewardship. He believes care of creation is a vital discipline of the Christian faith and challenges the church and all people of faith to lead on issues concerning our environment. Rev. Schuler is an ordained elder of the Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church and holds degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Duke University.

Paul Schuster is the pastor of St Mark’s Catholic Church in Bottineau and St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Westhope. He also teaches World Religion for the Continuing Education division of UND. Originally from Willow City, Fr. Schuster completed a B.A. in philosophy-humanities from North Dakota State University in 1988 and did graduate work in philosophy and theology at The Catholic University of America. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) in 1993.

Rich Wardner has been a member of the North Dakota Senate since 1999, after serving in the North Dakota House of Representatives from 1991-1998. A member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Wardner currently chairs the interim Energy Development and Transmission Committee. Under his chairmanship, the Committee is reviewing the full range of energy resource and technology needs and opportunities for North Dakota. Senator Wardner has also served as executive director of the Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce. His past legislative service includes a term as chairman of the Council of State Governments’ Midwest Legislative Conference from 2001-2002, and he is active in the regional Legislators Forum and other legislative organizations.

Resource Presenters

Tom Dahle has served for 10 years as Scoutmaster of Troop 123, sponsored by Faith Lutheran Church, Bismarck.  Prior to that he held leadership posts in Scouting for 8 years.  An Eagle Scout himself, Mr. Dahle backpacks with his Scout Troop on the Mah Dah Hey Trail in the Badlands.  A certified public accountant in private practice, he taught high school math in grades 9-12 for 12 years in Fisher, Minnesota.  He is a steering committee member of Prairie Stewardship Network.  Mr. Dahle graduated from the University of North Dakota with a major in History.

Sam Hager is a Life Scout who recently graduated from 8th grade at St Anne's School in Bismarck. For his Eagle Scout service project, Sam will engage in education and outreach on climate change and climate stewardship.  

Mark Lundberg is a Principal at YHR Partners Architects, Moorhead. Lundberg, a graduate of North Dakota State University, is a registered architect with 20 years of experience. He is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) approved professional and member of the U. S. Green Building Council. Mr. Lundberg has a longstanding interest in environmental issues and energy efficient building design. He has worked on several green building projects, and he specializes in the design of educational, religious and senior housing facilities. Mr. Lundberg has won many design awards and was a finalist for the City of Fargo Broadway Square Design Competition in 2004.

Carl Pedersen is the Energy Educator with the North Dakota State University Extension Service. He is working to encourage the efficient use of energy in small business and residential sectors of North Dakota. Prior to coming to NDSU, Mr. Pederson worked in the electrical generation and distribution industry, commercial and residential construction and secondary education. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point and Southwest Minnesota State University.

Keith Trego is executive director of North Dakota Natural Resources Trust, which seeks to preserve, enhance, restore, and manage wetlands and associated wildlife habitat, grasslands and riparian areas. Mr. Trego has extensive experience in resource management, having worked for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in the 70s in various capacities, including resource planner, district game warden, and deputy director. He left the agency in 1981 to pursue private business interests in real estate, insurance, and computer software development. He also worked in the Computer Services Division at Basin Electric Power Cooperative for nearly eight years. Mr. Trego received an undergraduate teaching degree in science and mathematics from Mayville State University (MSU) in 1971 and completed a master’s degree in fish and wildlife management from North Dakota State University in 1973. He grew up on a farm at Erie, North Dakota.

Jason Schaefer has been involved in numerous environmental campaigns as well as youth advocacy and education work. He has worked for MoveOn.org, and organized several successful grassroots groups. Mr. Schaefer’s contributions to the community include organizing an all-ages skate park, opposing dangerous landfills and creating citizen led ballot initiatives supporting renewable energy. He currently serves on the Dakota Resource Council's Clean Energy Committee and on Grand Forks, ND Mayor Mike Brown's Cool Cities Climate Change Task Force. Mr. Schaefer grew up in North Dakota and received a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of North Dakota in 2003.

Lola Schoenrich joined the Great Plains Institute this year as a Program Manager for energy efficiency programs. She is also working on the North Dakota Native Grass Spiritwood Energy Initiative. Previous to joining GPI, Ms. Schoenrich was the Energy Program Director for the Minnesota Project, where she led both policy-level and community-scale clean energy initiatives focusing on electricity and biofuels during her 20-year tenure. She helped to start the Clean Energy Resource Team Project (CERTS), a broad public-private initiative that brings together community members across Minnesota and connects them with the technical resources to foster strong communities, create local jobs, and develop clean and reliable energy from wind, biomass, and solar power. Ms. Schoenrich was also Executive Director of the Self-Reliance Center, running community-based energy efficiency and conservation programs in Minneapolis neighborhoods.

Richard Strong is a Research Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Building Research in the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. He has worked in both private and public sectors, and in governmental and university settings over the last 30 years. Mr. Strong practiced architecture with several Minneapolis firms and in his own firm during the 70s and 80s. He was one of the initiators of the Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide while a project manager at Hennepin County during the 90s. Mr. Strong has taught sustainable design at Carleton College the last three years. Currently he is involved in monitoring the Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines at the University of Minnesota. Strong holds a Bachelors degree in Architecture from North Dakota State, a Masters degree in Urban Planning from McGill University, and a Masters degree in Design from Harvard University.

Mike Williams is a Fargo City Commissioner elected in 2004. Commissioner Williams is an insurance adjuster/risk manager and director of auxiliary services for Greenfields Energy, a developing new business venture. He currently chairs the North Dakota Alliance for Renewable Energy, a coalition of utilities, private industry, farm and commodity organizations, conservation and environmental groups and government agencies working to advance renewable energy policy and development. Born and raised in Fargo, Commissioner Williams has dedicated considerable time and effort to Fargo’s growing number of environmental and energy initiatives, including the City’s profitable landfill project, which captures methane gas for sale and commercial use, while avoiding the release of a potent greenhouse gas.