The Nemadji Trail Energy Center, or NTEC, is a proposed 625 MW gas plant, that, if built, would be located in Superior, Wisconsin. It would be built along 31st Ave E, between Grand Ave and E 10th St, which is close to people’s homes, schools, and businesses, and only a few miles from Lake Superior. The fossil fuel project would be co-owned by Dairyland Power Cooperative (Wisconsin), Minnesota Power (Minnesota), and Basin Electric Power Cooperative (North Dakota). With construction and operation of the plant come community health concerns, significant impacts to climate change, and a big bill. These utilities have been pursuing this project for years, and it’s only become more clear that it’s the wrong decision.
What’s new with NTEC?
Dairyland Power Cooperative has 18 member coops in Wisconsin* and they cover much of the western part of the state. If your power comes from one of these coops, you’re also a member of Dairyland! The utility is pursuing the permits they need to operate in several state agencies, and they’ve also applied to the Rural Utility Service, a section of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for a loan to help finance the NTEC project. Throughout that application process, major concerns about the plant’s environmental and justice impacts have been raised.
Last summer, while the RUS was taking comments on an Environmental Assessment of the NTEC project, which they will use to determine whether or not to grant the loan Dairyland applied for, the Environmental Protection Agency submitted substantial comments. In addition to saying that new gas units “present financial risks to owners and ratepayers,” the EPA highlighted the need to analyze NTEC’s emissions in the context of national and state greenhouse gas reduction targets, including Governor Evers’ order that Wisconsin’s electricity be 100% carbon free by 2050. One of the most important takeaways from the EPA’s comments was their estimate that, taking into account the social cost of carbon, the cost of NTEC over 15 years would be $2.15 billion.
This winter, along with the Coulee Region Group of Sierra Club, our Beyond Coal to Clean Energy team held a press conference in front of the Dairyland Power Coop Headquarters in La Crosse, where we called on them to cancel plans for NTEC and uplifted the major cost, climate and health concerns associated with the project. You can join this call by sending a message to Dairyland President and CEO Brent Ridge!
The work to make NTEC an idea of the past continues, and we’re always looking for new people to get involved in our organizing work! If you’re interested in joining our work to stop NTEC, email jadine.sonoda@sierraclub.org.
*The following are Dairyland member coops in Wisconsin:
Barron Electric Cooperative/Barron
Bayfield Electric Cooperative, Inc./Iron River
Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative/Cornell
Clark Electric Cooperative/Greenwood
Dunn Energy Cooperative/Menomonie
Eau Claire Energy Cooperative/Fall Creek
Jackson Electric Cooperative/Black River Falls
Jump River Electric Cooperative, Inc./Ladysmith
Oakdale Electric Cooperative/Oakdale
Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services/Ellsworth
Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative /Centuria
Price Electric Cooperative, Inc./Phillips
Richland Electric Cooperative/Richland Center
Riverland Energy Cooperative/Arcadia
St. Croix Electric Cooperative/Hammond
Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative/Lancaster
Taylor Electric Cooperative/Medford
Vernon Electric Cooperative/Westby