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Remember, U.S. Steel deals in the folding money
Just a friendly reminder, the biggest investor of new capital into the Iron Range economy this year will not be Essar Global, Excelsior Energy, Wal-Mart or even the Pabst brewing company. No, the most new money will come from U.S. Steel, which is dropping a smooth $350 million to restart an old line at Keewatin…
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Midnight in the halls of Iron Range power
I didn’t think Excelsior Energy could go a whole legislative session without deploying its vast lobbying force for something. Recently, in the tax bill conference committee, State. Sen. Tom Bakk inserted language that extends the property tax exemptions from 2010 to 2012 for everyone’s favorite black hole of government giveaways and special favors. Excelsior is…
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More steel and speculation in this week’s Biz North
Wayne Nelson and the writers at Business North do a fine job of covering the economic news of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. This week’s edition has a couple of interesting Iron Range stories. First, this story reviews Essar Global’s North American steel ambitions, something I talked about earlier in the week. This is the company…
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Rural broadband needs a little less hooey and a little more Huey
You know, it’s not necessarily cool to idolize the late Louisiana Gov. and Sen. Huey Long, who was assassinated at the peak of his power in 1935. Most people don’t know who he was and, technically speaking, he was a corrupt despot. But he took a poor state, Louisiana, and brought it from one century…
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Nashwauk is just one push pin on a big map for global steel company
It’s been said before, but Essar Global’s ongoing purchase plans of the Minnesota Steel project — a proposed iron mining and steel-making operations near Nashwauk — sends the Mesabi Iron Range deep into the complicated global steel market. For two decades, Iron Rangers have come to view the prospective mine and steel mill on the…
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Taking Requests: Minnesota Steel, sure thing or just a myth?
This is the third and, for now, final installment of the randomly occasional “Taking Requests” segment, in which I blog about Range issues on the minds of MinnesotaBrown readers. Today’s topic, at the prompting of a couple e-mails I’ve received, is the Minnesota Steel project near Nashwauk. For the past decade, the biggest of all…
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Wide open spaces (will build to suit)
The Duluth News-Tribune reports today on the practice of public entities building speculative buildings on the Iron Range to attract business. The appeal, according to the stories sources (all governmental), is that these buildings are modern, attractive and can be customized at public expense for any company willing to sign a long term deal that…
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A game changing announcement in Bemidji
State Rep. Frank Moe (DFL-Bemidji) surprised the political establishment of SD 4 and northern Minnesota by announcing he won’t seek re-election during what was expected to be his nominating speech for the 4A DFL endorsement Saturday. (The Bemidji Pioneer has a good story on this). Moe is finishing his second term in the House and…
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Minnesota Steel groundbreaking delayed
Financial close on Essar’s Minnesota Steel plant has been delayed until May or even June, according to reports I’m hearing. I have confirmed this in Range political circles. The worldwide financial market is bad, so Essar is having trouble locking in on “financial close” for what would be the first iron to steel facility on…
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Pawlenty’s bonding vetoes bring mixed bag for Northern Minnesota
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced line-item vetoes on several items in the bonding bill Monday. This was a modest surprise for some in state political circles because it was believed that Pawlenty might veto the whole thing to force legislators to make the unpopular choices about which projects to cut. Instead, Pawlenty did the dirty…
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Nashwauk steel plant still ‘go for launch’
Business North is reporting that a groundbreaking announcement on Essar Global’s Minnesota Steel iron mine and steel plant near Nashwauk is expected this month. So far, so good. Essar has a lot of “irons” in the fire, however, and I won’t pop open a bottle of anything expensive until I see really big shovels in…
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Oh, those Wednesdays
My weekly schedule is a little like that of a ninja. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Someone kills my master and damn, I’ve got work. Well, there were dudes in jammies with swords everywhere today. (And the metaphor will end … now). So I’ll give you a brief roundup of the stories I’m monitoring the rest…
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Minnesota bonding bill: "Deal or No Deal?"
The Minnesota House and Senate conference committee released its bonding bill list today and there’s some good news for northern Minnesota. Among other smaller projects across the Iron Range, Itasca County would receive $28 million for infrastructure for Essar’s proposed Minnesota Steel plant near Nashwauk. That’s not nearly the amount required to build the pipeline,…
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Coal Hacks Are Making Propaganda (CHAMP!)
There’s an ad in this week’s Scenic Range News (a weekly newspaper on the western Mesabi Range) promoting a new group, CHAMP, or Citizens Happy About the Mesaba Project. This is an obvious turn on CAMP, Citizens Against the Mesaba Project, a large well-organized citizen group that has held the line against Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba…
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Fate of Iron Range school district hangs in the balance
Education remains one of the top political issues (and largest portion of the state budget) in Minnesota. But on the Iron Range, education takes on special importance. Here’s why: 1) As a blue-collar region with an immigrant history, quality public education has been the #1 priority for the Iron Range for about a century. It…