Superior Plan Commission Makes No Recommendation On Road and Rezoning Requests for NTEC

Issues now go to the City Council regarding proposed natural gas-powered electricity plant.

SUPERIOR, Wis. — It was standing-room only Wednesday evening as the Superior Plan Commission met to vote on issues involving the proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC).

The commission was considering a request by Minnesota Power to vacate a street and rezone a piece of property at the proposed NTEC site.

The meeting ended after nearly four hours of comments.  In the end, a recommendation to approve vacating a road and the rezoning failed to pass on a 4-2 vote.

The matter now goes to the Superior City Council for its review and another vote.

Residents, doctors, and others were on hand to speak against NTEC, citing health and environmental concerns.

“I feel like this hasn’t been talked about how this is detrimental to the future of our city planning. We want to draw people for tourism, this is bad for tourism,” said Lynn Wohlwend, a Superior resident.

“This is bad for the neighborhoods and then there are, of course, the life issues we’ve been talking about what with pollution. I don’t care how many times you say this meets federal standards, you can still get cancer risk, and heart attack risk,” Wohlwend said.

Among the people speaking in favor of the plant were union workers, the city administrator from Cohasset, Minnesota, and a representative from the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce. These speakers talked about the benefits to the entire Twin Ports area in terms of new jobs, and the city benefiting from additional tax revenues.

Dan Olson is the Business Manager for Laborers Local 1091. He spoke in favor of the project, saying it would provide good-paying work for hundreds of trade members. He also read a list of previous times that City Council members had voiced strong support for the project.

Minnesota Power, a partner with the project, said they believe the plant is an important part of the power company’s goal of moving toward a carbon-free energy supply. They say NTEC would be a reliable power source when the wind isn’t blowing for windmills and the sun isn’t shining for solar power.

“Questions about the needs for the plant or environmental precautions all have been reviewed by state and federal agencies that are responsible for determining, one, whether this plant is needed, and two, what are the environmental protections that are coming along with this plant,” said Amy Rutledge, Manager of Corporate Communications for Minnesota Power.

“We have secured 14 regulatory approvals since we first announced this program seven years ago,” Rutledge said.

The four commission members voting against the requests were Chair Jim Paine, Lindsey Graskey, Brian Finstad and Garner Moffat.

Voting for the requests were Vice Chair Brent Fennessey and Ann Porter.