By Kennedy Maize
After years of wobbling uncertainty, a $1 billion, 625-MW natural gas combined-cycle power plant planned for far northwestern Wisconsin near the city of Superior, not far from Duluth, Minn., has been officially pronounced dead.
The death notice for the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC) came in a letter Oct. 28 to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin from Daniel McCourtney, manager of strategic environmental initiatives at investor-owned Allete, the parent of Duluth-based Minnesota Power. He wrote on behalf of Dairyland Power Cooperative and South Shore Energy, LLC, a Minnesota Power subsidiary that was a partner in the project, cancelling the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity regulators awarded in January 2020, along with approval for a 345-KV tie line connecting the project to the grid. 
South Shore Energy would have bought power from NYEC.
It came as no surprise. Minnesota Power pulled out of the project in December, leaving Dairyland, based in LaCrosse, Wisc., holding what was left of it. Dairyland is a public power generation and transmission cooperative serving some 26 rural electric cooperative distribution utilities and 27 municipal utilities, serving 800,000 customers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois.
The project generated lots of opposition from the beginning, which McCourtney mentioned obliquely in his letter to the regulators, noting, “No construction has occurred on NTEC or the Gen-Tie Line. Accordingly, the owners respectfully request that the commission acknowledge their relinquishment of all rights associated with the (approvals).”
Reporting on the demise of NTEC said that “the project faced years of legal challenges from Indigenous and environmental groups, local opposition and permitting delays.”
When it pulled out of the project in December, Minnesota Power’s Jennifer J. Cady, vice president – public policy and external affairs, wrote to the commission that “critical permits that would allow for the construction of the facility have not yet been received. Due to ongoing permitting delays, a Wisconsin state air permit, wetland permit and construction stormwater permits have expired. Additionally, the Project owners respect Tribal sovereignty and have been working closely with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa regarding their land and studies near the project site.”
The Sierra Club’s Wisconsin chapter had long opposed the project. When the end came, Elizabeth Ward, the chapter director, said, “NTEC has faced years of public opposition and was outdated as soon as it was proposed. This is a victory for the Great Lakes, our climate, and the city of Superior, whose city leaders have relentlessly worked to protect residents from the air pollution caused by a dirty, expensive gas plant.”
Local environmental group Clean Wisconsin praised the decision to kill the project. Director of Legal Advocacy Brett Korte said, “Clean Wisconsin first intervened at the Public Service Commission to stop the plant in 2019 and the fight continued in court and city council chambers, before agencies, and in public conversation. We are grateful to all the partners including tribal advocates, other environmental organizations, and community members who never stopped fighting and believing that against all odds, this gas plant would be defeated.”
Superior Mayor Jim Paine commented, “I’m grateful that Minnesota Power has recognized that this was not a safe or appropriate place for such obsolete technology.”
The plant also drew opposition from neighboring Minnesota. “NTEC was never a good idea,” said Evan Mulholland at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “NTEC would have been bad for the climate, too expensive, unnecessary for grid reliability, harmful to public health, and it was proposed in the wrong location. MCEA is grateful for all the organizers and partners who helped with the campaign against NTEC over the past 10 years.”
The Quad Report, covering energy policy and politics