Hoeven Joins Secretary Rollins, Secretary Wright to Outline Efforts to Lower Fertilizer Prices

WASHINGTON – At the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) headquarters, Senator John Hoeven joined USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other agriculture and energy leaders to outline work to lower fertilizer prices for the nation’s farmers. Hoeven outlined projects in North Dakota to help bring down fertilizer costs both now and in the future, including: Grand Farm’s work as the National Program Manager for USDA’s new National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech (NPG-Ag), including Grand Farm’s focus on proving new weed control technologies, including to make fertilizer application more precise. The senator outlined the work of the proving ground to advance precision agriculture, as well as other technologies to ultimately make farming more profitable. Dakota Gasification Company’s (DGC’s) production of fertilizers, including ammonium sulfate, anhydrous ammonia and urea in North Dakota, providing a local source of critical fertilizer for the nation’s producers. DGC is producing more than 2,400 metric tons a day of fertilizer. Heartland Fertilizer Project – a new initiative to develop a blue ammonia and nitrogen fertilizer facility in Williston, North Dakota with the goal of making 600,000 metric tons per year of fertilizer using gas from the Bakken. The project is part of the Heartland Hydrogen Hub, a Department of Energy-selected Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub in conjunction with the University of North Dakota’s (UND) Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC). “President Trump designated Secretary Rollins to take the lead on the fertilizer issue, and she is leaving no stone unturned. Recognize that this has been a problem for our farmers for some time, it just hasn’t been solved, but she is after solving it in the short-term, in the medium-term, and in the long-term,” said Hoeven. “I want to highlight the National Ag Tech Initiative, which is working to set up proving grounds around the country. The first one is near Fargo, North Dakota, called Grand Farm, and we’re the program manager for the program nationally. Precision Ag is saving on how much fertilizer and chemical our farmers have to apply right now. It’s going to be better tomorrow, and it’s going to be better in the future. That is having a short-term and a long-term impact right now. The AgTech Initiative’s objective is to make our farmers more profitable.” “Secretary Wright is also here, and he has a lot of experience in our part of the world. We already have a company, Dakota Gasification Company, that is taking coal, converting it to natural gas, and taking that natural gas and converting it to anhydrous ammonia and urea, more than 1,000 metric tons a day in fertilizer produced here at home. Now we’re embarking on another major project, the heartland fertilizer hub to make 600,000 tons a year working with our great Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. This is an all-hands-on deck initiative,” Hoeven said. -###-