Oil and gas projects fast-tracked, while Minnesota Power plans to quit fossil fuels
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Hundreds of energy projects may have their permits fast-tracked by the Trump administration, including Enbridge’s tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac and a roughly $1 billion gas plant in Superior. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designated the projects as eligible to receive emergency permits after President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency. The Army Corps is already revising its list of eligible projects, a spokesperson said last week. Environmental groups are arguing that expediting these and other controversial projects would put the interests of energy companies over the public interest.
Minnesota Power has laid out its plan for quitting fossil fuels by the state’s 2040 target. The northeastern Minnesota electric utility intends to generate 90% of its energy using renewable sources by 2035. It intends to lean on natural gas in the intervening years to fill the gap left by shuttering coal plants, including converting a coal-fired unit to gas and building more gas capacity. And it plans to invest heavily in wind energy as 2035 approaches.
Amazon must prove it needs 250 diesel backup generators at a proposed data center in Minnesota, state utility regulators said. Taken together, the generators would have a generation capacity of about 600 megawatts, similar to the capacity of Xcel Energy’s Monticello nuclear plant. Minnesota law requires power plants that are able to produce more than 50 megawatts to prove that the electricity is necessary and can’t be made more cleanly. Amazon argued that the law didn’t apply to its backup generators; regulators weren’t convinced.
At the Michigan nuclear power plant slated for recommissioning, owner Holtec International is eyeing another first: adding small modular reactors that have been manufactured and built in the United States. Holtec is partnering with Hyundai Engineering & Construction to co-locate a pair of 300-megawatt small modular reactors with the 800-megawatt Palisades plant. It has been studying the Palisades property for more than a year — and has spent upwards of $50 million — to decide where to locate the small modular reactors.
But after federal regulators released a draft environmental review determining that restarting the Palisades plant would have no significant environmental impact, some local activist groups and homeowners living near the plant want more thorough scrutiny. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that the impacts wouldn’t differ much from when the plant was previously operating. Neighbors aren’t all buying it.
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Featured image: A powerplant with smokestacks belches smoke into the air. (Photo Credit: GLN)
