Boeshans Named Lignite Energy Council President
Tuesday, May 1, 2018 12:00 AM
BNI Energy President and General Manager Wade Boeshans assumed the role of chairman of the Lignite Energy Council at its board meeting on April 4. Boeshans replaced outgoing chairman Paul Sukut, general manager and CEO of Basin Electric, at the LEC’s spring board meeting.
Boeshans shared his family history of growing up in the heart of North Dakota coal country, where his family has lived for generations. He recalled his early childhood as a proud Beulah Miner and what the economic benefits of lignite coal industry expansion in the 1970s and early 1980s meant to the state, the region, his family and the region’s way of life.
“I am honored to be serving as the chairman of the Lignite Energy Council for the next two years,” Boeshans said to the several hundred LEC meeting attendees. “We have a unique opportunity to position the industry for continued success amid a variety of industry trends.”
Also at the meeting, ALLETE Chairman, President and CEO Al Hodnik transitioned ALLETE’s LEC board seat to Al Rudeck, president of ALLETE Clean Energy.
“It has been rewarding for me to contribute to LEC’s strategy and member value proposition” Hodnik said. “ALLETE’s support of the Lignite Energy Council is illustrative of our employees developing strong partnerships in our shared purpose to answer the call to transform the nation’s water and energy landscape. Wade and Al make a great team and will carry sensible energy policy and thought leadership forward, consistent with ALLETE’s all-of-the-above energy policy philosophy and sustainability value.”
ALLETE has been a longtime member of the Lignite Energy Council, a trade association of more than 250 companies that together maintain a viable lignite coal industry and enhance development of the region’s lignite coal resources for use in generating electricity, synthetic natural gas and valuable byproducts. Members of the Lignite Energy Council include mining companies, major consumers of lignite, and businesses that provide goods and services to the lignite industry.
The lignite industry is North Dakota’s fifth-largest industry behind agriculture, oil and gas, tourism and manufacturing. The lignite industry (coal mining and coal conversion) accounted for $3.4 billion of the state's economic base in 2015.
This article was reprinted with permission from ALLETE Stream.
Wade Boeshans Al Rudeck
