Big news on the western Mesabi: The 40-year dream of a “cross-Range expressway” is every-so-slightly closer to reality. From a Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) press release: ST. PAUL, MN – Today, Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) announced ten highway construction projects slated to receive funding through the state’s new… Read More →
Range town mergers could protect jobs, services
November 8, 2013 by 5 Comments
One of the under-reported outcomes of last Tuesday’s off-year local elections was the overwhelming vote by the northern Minnesota communities of Carlton and Thomson to merge. In local media, this was portrayed as the simple matter of tiny Thomson’s overworked mayor and staff. In practice, however, these towns are providing a blueprint for many small… Read More →
Psychology of failed Iron Range project’s ‘sunk cost’
June 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The agreement by the IRRRB to extend the loan, reduce the payments and otherwise throw a life line to Excelsior Energy last week escaped with relatively little outrage. Even my own response to this topic I’ve written hundreds of posts about was rather muted. It got a local story in the Grand Rapids and Hibbing… Read More →
IRRRB OKs extension for failed Range project
June 18, 2013 by 1 Comment
On Monday the IRRRB voted to approve the reorganized loan agreement for Excelsior Energy, the failed Iron Range economic development project that spent $40 million in taxpayer dollars with no results. The agreement extends the loan until 2019, since the company is unable to make payments. The Duluth News Tribune reported on the proceedings. Board… Read More →
IRRRB to seek loan restructure for Excelsior Energy
June 14, 2013 by 3 Comments
So, in case you’ve forgotten, Excelsior Energy, the beleaguered company forged by energy industry lobbyists with Iron Range ties more than a decade ago, still exists. It’s out of money. Its efforts to mandate a customer using political connections to finance the construction of a new power plant in Itasca County have all failed. But… Read More →
Land auction may scuttle beleaguered Range project
December 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
UPDATE: The land in question was sold at auction today … to Excelsior Energy! Some thoughts below. The hard luck story of Excelsior Energy’s failed Mesaba Energy Project reaches a new milestone today as a land auction could deprive the proto-company of the site it named for its proposed power plant. The company had initially… Read More →
Excelsior Energy gets fresh attention: permits, no customer.
August 17, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Jennifer Austin at Northland’s News Center reports on Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Energy Project. The PUC has allowed the permits already granted to stand while the developers search for a customer. Only Minnesota Power seems capable of making a deal happen and they are mum on the subject. MP and Excelsior have not played well together… Read More →
Federal government cuts off Excelsior Energy
July 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The beleaguered Excelsior Energy Mesaba Energy Project took another blow recently, as the federal government announced it is ending financial support for the proposal. The Duluth News Tribune‘s Peter Passi has the story. This leaves the 11-year-old start-up company with the money it has collected so far, almost entirely from local, state or federal sources,… Read More →
Return of the Zombie Power Plant
July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Leslie Brooks Suzokamo of the St. Paul Pioneer Press penned this story about the latest attempted resurrection of Excelsior Energy’s failed Iron Range power plant. As we’ve observed here before, the beleaguered decade-old start-up has proposed a natural gas plant now instead of its originally-planned coal gasification plant. Give the story a read. Founded by… Read More →
Excelsior Energy tries new approach to failed Range project
June 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment
So Excelsior Energy is still kicking around. This is the collection of energy industry lobbyists and lawyers who had proposed a $2.1 billion coal gasification plant that never got built because it was overpriced and unwanted by any potential customers. Nevertheless they received more than $40 million in local, state and federal taxpayer dollars. Now… Read More →
