SUPERIOR — Minnesota Power has backed out of its portion of a proposed natural-gas power plant that has spent several years in legal and regulatory limbo.
According to a filing with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission issued late Friday, Dec. 19, Minnesota Power announced it has terminated its Capacity Dedication Agreement with South Shore Energy, to build and operate the Nemadji Trail Energy Center and will not source energy from the facility, initially proposed in 2017 for a site on the Nemadji River near the Calumet refinery in Superior. South Shore Energy is a Wisconsin-based subsidiary which, like Minnesota Power, is owned by Allete.
, it was hoped that construction on the 550-megawatt facility could begin by 2020 and operations by 2025. Minnesota Power had viewed the NTEC project as a means of backing its turn toward renewable energy sources with an always-available option while phasing out older and more-polluting coal plants in the region. The plant, whose costs were most recently quoted at more than $1 billion, was to be a partnership between Allete, the La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative and Bismarck, North Dakota-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative.
In the filing, Minnesota Power said it needed to focus on sourcing energy from other places so it can meet demand targets while still taking coal plants at Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset offline in 2030 and 2035.
“With a portfolio that is nearly 60 percent renewable, and no nuclear baseload generation or any significant amounts of natural gas, the Company has identified a need for significant dispatchable generation to replace its remaining coal fleet reliably,” read the filing.
At the time of its proposal, NTEC was billed as “one of the single largest private investments in the area’s history,” but the project bogged down
over a series of regulatory questions
, such as permitting over air and water pollution, wetlands,
noise and health concerns from East End neighbors
,
treaty rights and archaeological objections from local Indigenous groups
and environmental activists who object to any plant burning fossil fuels due to the urgency of climate change.
The project was backed by business, organized labor and building trades members
excited about what could be multi-year job opportunities for their members.
Superior city government had also soured on the project,
choosing in April not to take up zoning changes and street abandonments
needed to begin developing the property.
“As further described in the October 15, 2025 filing, while the project has received 17 federal, state and local permits, critical permits that would allow for the construction of the facility have not yet been received,” according to the filing. “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.”
Minnesota Power’s decision does not kill the project outright, as Dairyland Electric Cooperative is the majority owner of the project, though Minnesota Power owns the proposed site.
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.