A while back, the Office of the Legislative Auditor confirmed it was reviewing specific complaints about $9.5 million in Iron Range Resources loans to Excelsior Energy for its Mesaba Energy Project, an expensive coal gasification plant that exists as part of a complex web of government grants, loans and regulatory exemptions.
Several complaints over potential inappropriate spending of this public loan money are being reviewed, as is the rather fluid nature of the loan’s terms. The OLA now confirms it is finishing its preliminary report, will be sharing it with involved parties and expects to release the report in mid-August.
ANALYSIS: I’m not privy to the inside information, but I can tell you that if voters were required to spend 10 minutes looking at the loan disbursements they’d find this whole deal pretty fishy, even if it is legal. The sooner this blot on the economic development landscape is wiped away, we can get down to the real work of modernizing the Iron Range.
One thing for sure, coal is not the future. At least, if you believe Al Gore. And he appears to have been pretty much right so far.
The irony of this situation is that high tech businesses, at least the massive scale and bleeding edge type, end up next to power plants! (check out where the latest Google data centers are being built and why they’re being built there).
Is Excelcior the answer? Maybe not, but let’s not forget how important electricity is to our modern life and modern industry.
Hey, I’ve been very realistic about the need for electricity. Check out some of my earlier posts. Google needs electricity for their massive server farms. That’s one part of the “tech” business I talk about. But I am also referring broadly to the use of technology for creative services and data management. That’s another aspect of the need for high speed internet that I talk about.
Excelsior is so expensive that I don’t see how it spurs growth. I fear that it’s massive cost and infrastructure needs will sap local resources (more than it already has) and accelerate the rising cost of energy, which is very unhelpful to every kind of business. A recent federal energy report shows the cost of these coal gas plants now rivals that of many kinds of alternative energies. And this thing is not as clean as advertised.
Aaron,
Thank you for your comments on this. I get the feeling that the anonymous blogger thinks that they will have to alter their lifestyle dramatically if they had to switch to renewable sources of energy. This is what the oil and coal companies want you to think. Their profits are at stake. The fact is it just isn’t true. Case in point, Al Gore has a 10,000 sq ft residence that is powered by solar panels, utilizes geothermal heating/cooling and he purchases wind energy. He is not totally off the grid but he has reduced his natural gas usage by 90%. I’m sure Al Gore does not live like a pauper!
Living on renewable sources of energy does not mean going without, just altering where it comes from. Choosing to be energy efficient also helps. Have a teenager that leaves lights on all the time? There are lots of little things we all can do to use less energy and not be afraid that we’ll have to do without.