Spin, baby, spin

Remember that scene in “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” where King Arthur is dueling with the Black Knight and keeps cutting off the knight’s arms, then legs. Each time he cuts off a limb the knight refuses to admit defeat, saying things like “Oh, it’s just a scratch.”

Yeah, Excelsior Energy and their boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project (a proposed coal gas plant on the Iron Range) is down two arms and a leg right now but they’re still spinning. In a way it’s a lesson for future students of public relations of how to keep in the media cycle by pressing puffy stories on media venues that lack the time or knowledge to question the source.

Here’s WDIO Channel 10’s “story,” taken directly from the Excelsior press release and seen by half the Iron Range’s TV viewing audience:

Excelsior Energy Undertakes Major Water Quality Improvement Program

Excelsior Energy is planning on building Mesaba Energy, a coal-gasification plant, near Taconite. On Monday, they announced an agreement with local leaders, to recycle all of the water used in the plant. This is instead of discharging it into the Mississippi watershed. There was some concern about that discharge. Excelsior has also agreed to make significant investment, into the combined wastewater treatment facilities in Coleraine, Bovey, and Taconite, when construction begins. Local mayors and legislators say they are pleased with this outcome, and that it shows Excelsior has the new culture of environmental awareness.

And here’s the AP version that originated with the Duluth News-Tribune. (slightly better)

Proposed power plant changes its water plans
Associated Press – January 21, 2008

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – Excelsior Energy says it has abandoned plans to discharge coolant water from a proposed Iron Range power plant.

Instead, Excelsior says it has agreed to install a closed-loop “zero liquid discharge system.”

Excelsior CEO Tom Micheletti says the change will add about $20 million to the cost of the $2 billion project.

The company has also agreed to give up to $500,000 to upgrade wasterwater treatment facilities serving the towns of Coleraine, Bovey and Taconite.

Excelsior had sought to pump water from its cooling towers into surface waters just north of Taconite, where it wants to build a new coal-fired power plant.

Those plans have stirred environmental concerns because cooling water from the plant would probably contain heightened levels of mercury. The plant has also faced serious setbacks from state regulators.

A key observation that neither story covered is that these improvements add to the already ballooning cost of the proposed project, a cost that is the single biggest reason the PUC has not and will not grant the crucial power purchase agreement to Excelsior. This is a cyclical news bounce for Excelsior, but in reality only shows that this project has so many problems it can’t possibly be built. But by offering a token amount of money to local towns for wastewater improvements (and, incidentally, not nearly enough to ACTUALLY modernize the involved treatment plans) Excelsior’s overlords are hoping to gain political support for more kickbacks at the legislature and in Congress.
Again, nice P.R. work — but the reckoning will still come for this ugly boondoggle.

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