6/20/11
by Perry Miller
An International Legislators Forum in Brookings
featured discussions on energy, research, and water
issues.
The 11th annual forum ran Sunday through Tuesday.
Lawmakers and officials from Minnesota, North and
South Dakota and Manitoba took part.
District 4 Representative and Speaker of the House,
Val Rausch of Big Stone City, co-hosted the event.
Rausch says he was pleased with the discussion on
energy transmission lines -- an issue that killed the Big
Stone 2 Power Plant.
Morrie Lanning is a Minnesota State Representative from
Moorhead. He says everyone involved wants to create
jobs and they're hearing a lot of good things in regards
to advancing technology to research to setting up parks
like the one in Brookings. He says we need to find ways
to collaborate more on a regional basis.
Peter Bjornson is the Manitoba Minister for
Entrepreneurship, Training and Trade. He says
collaboration was the theme of all the discussions.
He says at the end of the day as neighbors in this region,
there's so much we can do together to make our lives
better.
Carolyn Nelson is a North Dakota State Senator from
Fargo. She says they talked at length about cooperative
research efforts between NDSU and SDSU. She says
this is something that affects students as well as our
researchers.
The conference also included a tour of nearby wind farms
and visits to SDSU and the Innovation Campus.
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