Dakota Gas has a strong commitment to the environment. We have improved our environmental footprint by achieving better reliabilities, improved efficiency, and meeting environmental goals. The Synfuels Plant meets or exceeds all state and federal laws. Based on stack emissions, it is the cleanest energy plant operating in North Dakota.

The Synfuels Plant features a unique flue gas desulphurization unit-or scrubber-that began operating in 1996. Installed to remove sulfur dioxide from the plant's flue gases, the scrubber is unusual because it uses anhydrous ammonia as the scrubbing reagent, producing a valuable fertilizer, ammonium sulfate marketed as Dak Sul 45^®, instead of a waste product.

Dakota Gas is an international leader in the capture, compression, and sequestration of carbon dioxide. Since 2000, Synfuels Plant carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere has been compressed and delivered through a 205-mile pipeline to oilfields in Canada for use in enhanced oil recovery.

As an environmental benefit, virtually all of the injected carbon dioxide will remain permanently sequestered in the depleted oil fields long after they have been abandoned. With three compressors in operation, Dakota Gas can now deliver for sequestration 48.8 percent of carbon dioxide produced at the Synfuels Plant, which represents 16 percent of carbon dioxide produced from all the coal combusted from the nearby Freedom Mine-making it a proven technical and economic success for both Dakota Gas and its Canadian customers.

Dakota Gas reinforced its commitment to safety and the environment by adopting the American Chemistry's Council Responsible Care Policy.

Dakota Gas completed the auditing process to become a certified Responsible Care^® company in 2008. To qualify, a company must have reduced environmental releases and achieve an employee safety record more than five times safer than the average U.S. manufacturing sector.