Minnesota

By Jesse Emspak

Renewable energy could get a boost on the Northern Plains after the utilities behind the controversial Big Stone II coal-fired power plant dropped the project this week.

The proposed plant near Milbank, S.D., would have generated 500-580 megawatts. It had been backed by Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., Missouri River Energy Services, Heartland Consumers Power District, Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency and Otter Tail Power Co., but Otter Tail pulled out in September citing cost and an uncertain regulatory climate.

The remaining four utilities announced on Monday that, because of the lack of a fifth, the $1.6 billion project had to be scrapped. Four utilities, they say, is not enough to make efficient use of the power generated.

Michelle Rosier, senior regional organizing manager at the Sierra Club’s Minnesota chapter, says the success of the campaign to stop the coal plant is another step toward making wind power competitive.

The murky future of South Dakota’s Big Stone II coal plant is getting even murkier.

In Minnesota, two administrative law judges have ruled against the building of the power lines that Big Stone II needs to run, overturning a recommendation they made last year.

Why? Because the five power companies trying to build it couldn’t justify the need for hundreds of new megawatts of the dirty fuel.

Not when the judges considered the rising costs -- the four million tons of CO2 pollution each year plus rate hikes for Minnesota customers after a federal price on carbon kicks in that forces coal polluters to pay.

The better bet for the state, say the judges? Renewable energy. Mainly wind, and efficiency measures.

Huge.