Jenna Yeakle, Sierra Club Organizing Representative in Duluth, jenna.yeakle@sierraclub.org
Jessica Tritsch, Senior Beyond Coal Campaign Representative, jessica.tritsch@sierraclub.org
DULUTH, MN. -- In a new paper released this morning, analysis by Sierra Club shows that Minnesota Power would save customers millions of dollars by retiring the Clay Boswell coal plant and replacing that power with a clean energy portfolio that includes wind, solar, storage, energy efficiency, and demand response technologies.
Read Retiring the Boswell Coal Plant: The Case for Clean Energy in the Northland here.
The report comes at the time when Minnesota Power is preparing their Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and highlights an opportunity for Minnesota Power to both focus on reducing climate harming emissions and reducing costs for ratepayers, two critical components of the upcoming IRP. In addition, the MN PUC has asked Minnesota Power to include evaluation of early Boswell retirement in its IRP.
Today’s report compares the ongoing costs of continuing to operate the Boswell coal plant with the costs of a clean energy portfolio and the economic conclusion is clear: Boswell is unnecessarily dirty and expensive.
In using state and regional energy prices, the report highlights that Minnesota Power could support a community transition away from coal in part by prioritizing new investments - especially solar and energy efficiency - in Cohasset and Itasca County.
“The cost of coal is too high for the Northland to bear,” said Jenna Yeakle, Sierra Club Organizing Representative in Duluth. “Coal damages our health and our climate, and it’s unnecessarily costing Minnesotans hundreds of millions of dollars. Minnesota Power markets themselves as thinking ‘Energy Forward.’ Planning to retire the Boswell coal plant and invest in clean energy would help Minnesota Power live up to its promise. As our communities are impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and a rapidly evolving climate crisis -- all of which are exacerbating by the fossil fuel industry’s greed -- our utilities have a responsibility to be prioritizing public health, alleviating financial burden and supporting community transition to a clean energy economy that works for everyone.”
"Minnesota Power should recognize that coal-fired power generators are not cost-competitive in today’s energy marketplace,” said Bill Schnell, community leader with the Itasca Clean Energy Team in Grand Rapids, MN. “Plus, they add to the greenhouse gas burden and resulting climate instability that we are already seeing and that our children and grandchildren will inherit. Other utilities around the country are retiring their coal plants for these reasons, and Minnesota Power should join them. Minnesota Power must begin planning now for a just transition to renewable energy, so that affected workers and communities are not left high and dry."
The report is a comparison between costs of Boswell and one potential clean energy portfolio; it is not a resource plan proposal.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.