HB 1383 Summary

• Creates an environmental impact mitigation fund in the state treasury with a $5,000,000 initial appropriation for the biennium beginning July 1, 2019, to provide grants to political subdivisions for mitigating environmental impacts from development projects.

• Allows applicants to elect to provide voluntary payments to the agriculture commissioner to mitigate adverse direct environmental impacts, which are deposited into the environmental impact mitigation fund.

• Expands the federal environmental law impact review committee membership to include representatives from the North Dakota Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, investor-owned utilities, and rural electric cooperatives, while removing the lignite energy council representative.

• Prohibits the Public Service Commission from conditioning permit issuance on applicants providing mitigation payments to offset negative impacts on wildlife habitat assessed by other state agencies.

• Establishes that prime farmland, unique farmland, and irrigated land cannot be identified as exclusion or avoidance areas in site and corridor evaluations, and clarifies wind turbine setback requirements for nonparticipating landowners.