Now that Excelsior Energy’s boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project is hitting the hard wall of reality (that its overpriced coal gas plant won’t have a customer because of the vast expense of the technology) its leaders are lashing out at opponents. I joked in an previous post about Excelsior co-CEO Tom Micheletti’s reference to Minnesota Power as “Anti-Range Power” because of MP’s longstanding and increasingly effective opposition to his project. Well, that wasn’t just an offhanded remark. That’s his new PR strategy. Read Micheletti’s letter to the editor from Wednesday’s Hibbing Daily Tribune entitled “Anti-Range Power will stop at nothing.”
Micheletti is trying to rip MP’s recent environmental upgrades as insignificant because MP was mandated to clean up their plants by new anti-carbon regulations.
Well, duh.
Excelsior is only proposing a coal gasification plant on the Range because they deduced that they could get vast amounts of government financing and political support for it … all related to regulatory trends in the energy business and loyal political friends in the region. What he fails to acknowledge is that Minnesota Power has merely figured out a more practical, certainly more profitable solution to the short term problems of converting to cleaner energy. A plant like Micheletti’s needs to be near the coal and the energy demand in order to be financially viable. This one isn’t and people are finally starting to figure that out.
Remember, Micheletti and most of his colleagues have been around the legal and political side of the energy business for decades. I encourage any journalist to review their career paths, especially the energy projects that immediately preceded this one. I haven’t had the time to dig in (this is not my day job), but there are so many unanswered questions that it would be simply foolish to take this company at its word.
I have come to the conclusion that economic development has become the underbelly of local and state politics. As soon as you hear about an economic development project, the very first step you should take is to find out who are the players, who is getting paid how much for what, and then assess whether they truly want it to succeed, or if they simply want to make a few bucks for appearing to care about the region.
One clear indicator it is a money grab – they want to build something on top of ore that could be mined some day. Another clear indicator – the players are the same as have lined up with previous projects. Third indicator – there is a lot of smoke, and precious little fire, to their project. Fourth indicator – the project smells like dead fish from the get-go.
This project has failed all four tests. From the very beginning it was clear this was a money grab. What’s more, it fails what might be the fifth test – nobody wants their product.
Time to put this one to bed.