Megan Wittman, megan.wittman@sierraclub.org
La Crosse, WI – Yesterday was the final day the USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) accepted further comments on a revised environmental assessment on the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC), a proposed fossil gas plant to be located in Superior, Wisconsin. Dairyland Power, the primary utility proposing NTEC, previously applied to the RUS for a loan to cover their portion of the $700 million fossil gas plant and it has gone through multiple rounds of review.
The RUS is simultaneously accepting applications for a $9.7 billion program, Empowering Rural America, or New ERA, aimed at aiding rural electric coops such as Dairyland in their transition to clean energy. Applications for the program will be accepted until Friday, September 15.
Frontline Indigenous members of the Fond du Lac, Bad River, and Red Cliff Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa – the three tribes in 1842 and 1854 treaty territories that would be most impacted by NTEC – and members of other regional tribes submitted a letter asking the RUS to deny the loan to Dairyland Power Cooperative. Over 8,000 comments were submitted last week by people across Turtle Island in support of the letter, which details NTEC’s numerous significant threats to Indigenous rights and sovereignty.
Environmental organizations against NTEC released the following comments:
“Fossil fuels are not the path forward. This summer we experienced widespread, record-breaking heat waves, extreme droughts, dangerous wildfire smoke, and other crises caused by climate change. With President Biden’s New ERA program through the IRA, Dairyland Power and other rural electric cooperatives have more incentive than ever to go after clean energy. The New ERA program is a game-changing opportunity for Dairyland Power to pursue clean energy. With the Rural Utilities Service awarding almost $10 billion in funds for clean energy, it would be unreasonable to subsidize a new fracked gas plant while this program is available,” said Elizabeth Ward, Chapter Director of Sierra Club - Wisconsin.
“We know the great harm that will come from this powerplant – adding 3 million tons of carbon pollution into Wisconsin’s environment each year. The federal government cannot turn away from the reality of our climate crisis by providing money for this plant,” said Clean Wisconsin attorney Katie Nekola.
“Minnesota Power and Dairyland Power Cooperative have been pushing this ill-conceived and harmful proposal for almost ten years. We’ve been fighting it every step of the way, because constructing a new 625MW fossil gas-fired power plant is entirely inconsistent with the decarbonization path needed to preserve a safe climate for all life on Earth. And now, with a new delay in operation until 2028, Minnesota Power, Dairyland, and the Rural Utility Service should take a step back, cancel this plant, and invest instead in more clean energy, storage, and efficiency,” said Evan Mulholland, Healthy Communities Director and Attorney at Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
“As doctors, nurses and public health professionals in Wisconsin, we call on the Rural Utility Service to deny Dairyland’s loan application for the Nemadji Trail Energy Center. According to over 200 medical journals, the climate crisis is the most dire threat to human health in the 21st century. Negative health impacts from burning fossil fuels include increased respiratory and cardiovascular disease, injury and premature deaths from extreme weather events, water borne illnesses and other infectious diseases, and threats to mental wellbeing. Investing in another gas plant will greatly harm Wisconsinites’ health and climate, and it makes no sense given the fact that the USDA is currently offering renewable energy project funding for co-ops like Dairyland,” said Abby Novinska Lois, Executive Director of Healthy Climate Wisconsin.
“There is no version of physical reality on Mother Earth in which building a new 40-year fossil gas plant serves the public interest. There is no demonstrated need this project can meet. A gas bridge is a bridge to more fires, floods and death, not a bridge to safety or health for ourselves or any living being. NTEC is a case study in environmental injustice and a prime example of a bad loan at the end of the fossil-fuel era. As the EPA stated in 2022, NTEC’s greenhouse gas emissions would cause an estimated $2 billion in climate damages through 2040. USDA, deny this absurd loan and invest in salvaging a livable planet with justice-centered sustainable energy, grounded in Indigenous consent and environmental truth,” said Cheryl Barnds, Honor the Earth Coalition Coordinator.
Indigenous letter signatories against NTEC released the following comments:
“Ten years along, the NTEC proposal process continues to dismiss our treaties, scrap Free, Prior and Informed Consent, downplay the recently-returned resting places of Anishinaabe people, minimize the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, ignore disproportionate harms to downwind Tribal areas, target an area already overburdened with dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure and legacy pollution, and refuse a full environmental impact study. Life on Earth cannot afford a large new gas-fired power plant just off the coast of Gitchi Gami, so much of our planet's priceless surface freshwater. As our shared climate rapidly destabilizes, it is ludicrous for the RUS to entertain using federal dollars to build NTEC while loaning billions of dollars for clean energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act. The last thing our city and our grandkids need is a larger legacy of huge debt and toxic industry. We urge USDA to deny this loan.”
– Rene Ann Goodrich, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribal Elder, Native Lives Matter Great Lakes, MMIW Department of Justice Task Force Member Wisconsin, Indigenous Women's Treaty Alliance Member
"As women, we are the teachers and caretakers of our people. Our people are already inundated with historical and ongoing traumas. We are trying to raise our families and reclaim our language and cultural ways. Our lives are being interrupted and inundated with project after project being proposed. How many times must we say the same things, point out these sacred spaces, these places where the wild rice used to grow and now doesn't? Our people deserve to heal and live a life, not live to fight every project that ignores our place and rights to these lands and waters. As Anishinaabeg people, we have been instructed to take great care in making decisions that ensure the life of the next seven generations on Mother Earth, Nimaamaakii. To approve NTEC would be to choose to cause destruction and further loss to future generations of all life in the Great Lakes region and beyond. Do no more harm. Build no more infrastructure of this kind near the last and greatest, fresh water supply the world has left. Miigwech."
– Victoria McMillen, Migizikwe, Migizi Eagle Clan, 1st Descendant Nagajiiwanaang Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, wife and mother to band members, Advocate, Cultural Preservation Consultant and Educator, Waadookawaad Amikwag Volunteer
“Water is life. Water is our relative. Water is an essential and inseparable part of our lifeways. When we advocate on behalf of water’s existence and on behalf of the rights of nature, we as Indigenous people do so as human beings who share this earth and all its gifts. The Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the planet's surface freshwater. Water scarcity and water security issues are rising in tandem with climate chaos and pollution damage. The priceless Lake Superior region, essential for fish and wildlife habitats, historic and cultural resources, as well as recreation, is no place for fossil fuel infrastructure, old or new. Working together we can protect our shared water, care for our communities and all life on Earth.”
– Jannan J. Cornstalk, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Water is Life Festival Director, Petoskey, Indigenous Women's Treaty Alliance Member
“This was never the place, and now is obviously not the time, to build new fossil fuel infrastructure of any kind. The climate crisis is already taking heavy tolls on lands, waters, and traditional lifeways for Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region and around the world.”
– Gaagigeyaashiik Dawn Goodwin, White Earth Tribal Member, Indigenous Environmental Network Representative, Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging (R.I.S.E.) Coalition Co-Founder, Indigenous Women's Treaty Alliance Member
###
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of 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.