Trump plan bolsters Rapid City-based earth hater

Black Hills Energy and the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission lubricate each other regularly and after priming the election pumps, the firm achieves multiple happy endings at the hands of Chris Nelson, Chairman Gary Hanson and Kristie Fiegen.

Black Hills Energy is just one of many companies based in South Dakota because of the state's regressive tax structure.

Black Hills Energy, of Rapid City, S.D., is preparing to build a 35-mile, $54 million natural gas pipeline in Converse County, east-central Wyoming. The Natural Bridge Pipeline will begin at the Wyoming Interstate Co. compressor station interconnect in east Douglas, Wyo. From there, it will track west, terminating at Black Hills Energy’s facilities in Casper, Wyo. Black Hills hopes to break ground on the project in April 2019, and have the pipeline operational that winter. [Kallenish Energy]

Wyoming receives nearly half of all federal mineral receipts.

According to a 41-page memo acquired by Bloomberg News the Trump Organization is planning to buy electricity from coal and nuclear plants that were planning to retire.

Travis Deti, head of the Wyoming Mining Association, said he doesn’t see this as a bailout, but as government intervention. And he doesn’t like that. He said it’s the kind of tactic that’s propped up renewable and natural gas. "I would prefer to see the government back off and prefer to see them back off where they’ve been so influential,” Deti said. [Wyoming Public Media]

During a public hearing Fall River County Commissioners took advantage of an Obama-era initiative and approved a 700-acre parcel in the Minnekahta Valley between Hot Springs and Edgemont paving the way for a new utility scale solar energy project. Korea-based Hanwa Group is expected to begin construction soon.

With a capacity of 40 MW, the company has already put into place power purchases with Black Hills Energy for delivery in 2018 and 2019, generating enough power for 45,000 homes – assuming 200kWHS per month. [Rapid City Journal]

Regulators and market forces in Colorado are driving Black Hills Energy from coal-fired electricity generation yet the firm remains focused on its substantial oil and natural gas holdings in the Mancos Shale within the San Juan and Piceance basins. The firm is bankrolling water diversions, too. The power oligopoly just moved into a $70 million facility in Rapid City financed mainly on the backs of subscribers without choices.

The South Dakota Republican Party owns the state's public utilities commission so this is how red states finance infrastructure improvements while bitching about Big Government.