Senate hearing: bill would boost State Energy Research Center funding, extend sunset

Senate Bill 2143, introduced Jan. 21 by Sen. Dale Patton, seeks to raise biennial funding for the State Energy Research Center to $10 million and to extend the center’s continuing appropriation from June 30, 2029, to June 30, 2033.

Patton, R‑District 26, told the Appropriations - Education and Environment Division the bill is “very simple” and does two things: extend the continuing appropriation and increase biennial funding from $7,500,000 to $10,000,000. “We also have a couple of members from the EERC here that are available to answer questions related to their programming and so forth,” he said.

Tom Erickson, director of the State Energy Research Center at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks, described how the center uses state funding to support early‑stage innovation. Erickson said the program emphasizes exploratory research and allows the EERC to accept and test many early ideas that…