Superior Mayor Determined To Stop NTEC As Labor Ramps Up Support
SUPERIOR, Wis. – Billboards and yard signs are beginning to pop up in Superior in support of building the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC). This comes as Mayor Jim Paine says he’s continuing to do whatever he can to derail the natural gas power plant for good.
Mayor Paine is banking on Wisconsin state regulators to change their approval of NTEC after his plea to the feds last year was not successful.
Meanwhile, organized labor is also upping their fight to get NTEC completed.
“I would like some independent bodies to review all this. This is a tough debate,” Paine told FOX 21.
Paine has sent a letter to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission as another attempt to stop Minnesota Power’s NTEC project.
“This is not the same plan that they approved. The site is just not the same, the world is not the same,” Paine said.
In the letter, Paine said NTEC’s design has changed from a water-cooled plant to an air-cooled plant. And he said ownership has changed since the state’s approval in 2020. Minnesota Power is now partnered with not only Dairyland Power, but also Basin Electric out of North Dakota.
“If [Minnesota Power] were bringing in partners and spreading the electricity all the way out into the far west of the United States, that triggered a lot more questions,” Paine said.
Kyle Bukovich is the president of the Northern Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades. “We believe that the mayor is pushing out misinformation. If you read his latest letter to the PSE, there is no facts stated in there,” Bukovich told FOX 21.
Bukovich says NTEC is a crucial bridge to cleaner energy in our region.
“Overall, it’s just good for the community and the environment as well. Natural gas is a lot lower carbon emissions than coal. If NTEC doesn’t go, then utilities will have to reevaluate their planning retirement of other coal-fire facilities. And if that is the case, we have to rely on coal even longer instead of transitioning over to natural gas, and eventually over to hydrogen,” Bukovich explained.
Bukovich says his organization also lunched an online petition in support of NTEC, which then results in letters sent to Mayor Paine and councilors. Click here for that petition.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Power remains committed to the project.
“This project has been extensively reviewed by energy experts, state and federal regulators and state courts and has received numerous regulatory approvals,” according to a statement from Minnesota Power to FOX 21. “This project has significant energy, environmental and economic benefits by safeguarding resilient power for our customers, reducing overall carbon emissions, and creating hundreds of well-paying construction jobs and local tax benefits.”
But Mayor Paine says the NTEC selling points introduced to him in 2017 when the project was first proposed is no longer valid.
“By far, the largest expansion of energy is personal. It’s home solar panels, you know, so we’re adding generation everywhere. Look at the city superior, I’m not making this up. We are spending less on utilities than we ever have, because we’re using less electricity. The fire hall’s about to be off the grid,” Paine said. “If we want to get away from fossil fuels, the last thing you should do is build a fossil fuel plant. If we want to invest in renewables, we should invest in renewables technology advances every single day, every single month, every single year.”
Mayor Paine also doesn’t like the proposed site being near the Nemadji River and local cemeteries, including an indigenous burial site. The NTEC site, which is owned by Minnesota Power, also buddies up to Enbridge Energy and Cenvous Energy.
Coming up Tuesday at 5:45 p.m., the Northern Wisconsin Building Trades is holding an NTEC press conference in the atrium of Superior City Hall. This comes after the Superior Federation of Labor’ rescinded its labor endorsements earlier this month from Mayor Paine, and three councilors who don’t support NTEC.
Mayor Paine has told FOX 21 his battle with NTEC has nothing to do with labor.
