Superior Gas Plant Plan Abandoned After Indigenous, Environmental Opposition

A rendering of the proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior, which utilities say would provide enough power for roughly half a million homes. Image courtesy of Minnesota Power.

The owners of a proposed $1 billion gas-fired power plant in northern Wisconsin are officially calling it quits on the Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior.

La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative and South Shore Energy notified the Public Service Commission that they’re canceling the project in a letter filed Wednesday by Daniel McCourtney, manager of strategic environmental initiatives at Allete. Allete is the parent company of Duluth-based Minnesota Power, which backed away from the plant in December.

“No construction has occurred on NTEC or the (generation tie line),” McCourtney wrote. “Accordingly, the owners respectfully request that the commission acknowledge their relinquishment of all rights associated with the (approvals).”

In 2020, the PSC granted approvals, or certificates of public convenience and necessity, to the project’s owners to build a natural gas plant that would produce between 550 and 625 megawatts of power. The utilities said the project would provide a reliable source of electricity as they shifted away from coal and invest in renewable energy.

However, the project faced years of legal challenges from Indigenous and environmental groups, local opposition and permitting delays.

Clean Wisconsin and Sierra Club had asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear its lawsuit challenging the PSC’s decision to approve the plant, but the state’s high court declined to hear the case.

Brett Korte, director of legal advocacy for Clean Wisconsin, said the cancelation is great news.

“All of the folks who have been advocating against this ill-advised power plant can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that there won’t be a power plant on the banks of the Nemadji River in Superior,” Korte said.

Opponents of the proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center, or NTEC, say utilities’ plans to build the natural gas plant in Superior would threaten public health and the environment. Danielle Kaeding/WPR

In December, Jennifer Cady, vice president of public policy for Minnesota Power, highlighted in a filing to the commission that air, wetland and construction permits had expired due to project delays. The company ended an agreement with its subsidiary South Shore Energy to buy power from the plant.

The city of Superior had also denied local approvals. Residents, tribes and environmental groups had raised concerns about the plant’s contribution to heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, and effects on wetlands.

The plant was also slated to be built near a Superior cemetery that contains the remains of roughly 200 ancestors of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

Supporters of the project had touted the 350 construction jobs and 25 full-time jobs that would be created with the plant, as well as $1 million generated annually in tax revenues.

The cancellation comes at a time when utilities in Wisconsin are racing to meet an expected 40 percent spike in Wisconsin’s electricity demand by 2032, driven by the expansion of data centers.

Wisconsin utility regulators recently approved energy developer Invenergy’s proposal to build two new natural gas power plants in southern Wisconsin. The state’s largest electric utility We Energies has applied to acquire the plants.

We Energies also received approval last year for a pair of new natural gas plants in Oak Creek and the town of Paris. The utility hopes to build another gas plant in Outagamie County.

Invenergy also wants to build a pair of gas plants in Calumet County that would be able to generate a combined 1,900 megawatts.

Editor’s note: Joe Schulz contributed reporting for this story.

Owners pull the plug on proposed $1B natural gas plant in northern Wisconsin was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.