Following Air Permit Withdrawal, Coalition Calls on NTEC Plans to Be Canceled Permanently

Madison, WISCONSIN – Dairyland Power and Minnesota Power, co-owners of NTEC, have withdrawn their air permit for the 625 MW methane gas plant planned to be built in Superior, Wisconsin. All major stationary sources of air pollution like NTEC require a permit-to-construct under the Clean Air Act. Sierra Club challenged the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) permit for NTEC on numerous grounds. The air permit withdrawal triggers an immediate revocation of the Wisconsin DNR’s permit-to-construct, meaning it will become illegal to construct NTEC. 

If NTEC’s co-owners decide they want to proceed to construct the facility despite local opposition, its climate impacts, and enormous cost, they will have to file a new air permit application.

“Dairyland Power’s withdrawal of the air permit for NTEC is the right step forward to protect air quality in Superior and the surrounding communities, and we hope that Dairyland will instead move forward only with clean energy instead of NTEC. The bottom line is that NTEC is already outdated before it has even been built. There is no need for a new dirty, costly gas plant in Wisconsin,” said Elizabeth Ward, Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter Director.

“NTEC was never a good idea,” said Evan Mulholland, Healthy Communities Program Director at MCEA. “NTEC would be bad for the climate, too expensive, unnecessary for grid reliability, harmful to public health, and it was proposed in the wrong location. MCEA encourages Minnesota Power, Dairyland Power Cooperative and Basin Electric Power Cooperative to abandon their plans to build and operate NTEC.”

“Wisconsin is currently last in the Midwest in terms of clean energy production. Utilities must prioritize clean energy generation, storage, and grid enhancement technologies over new fossil fuel investments. Future clean energy investments are better for our health, communities, and environment,” said Dr. Brittany Keyes, Healthy Climate Wisconsin's clean air coordinator.

“We’ve been fighting this plant since it was first proposed back in 2019. It was a bad investment then, and it’s a bad investment now. That fact becomes more glaring with each passing day. We all know that if this gas plant becomes a reality, it will move Wisconsin backward at a time when we desperately need to make progress in the fight against climate change and air pollution. We encourage the utilities to walk away from this harmful, outdated project and instead continue to invest in clean solar and wind,” said Brett Korte, Clean Wisconsin attorney.

A lot has changed since Dairyland Power first proposed NTEC, including:

• Dairyland was awarded nearly $573 million through the Biden Administration’s New ERA program for clean energy installations, which will cut greenhouse gas pollution by 3 million tons annually– the equivalent of taking 729,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road every year.
• President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the most significant action on clean energy and climate change in US history, making clean energy more affordable and accessible.
• The Superior City Council denied approvals for streets and zoning changes of NTEC.
• Over 9,000 comments were submitted to the USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) asking the RUS to deny the loan for NTEC. 
• In 2020, Governor Evers’ Task Force on Climate Change recommended we “avoid all new fossil fuel infrastructure,” including new natural gas plants.
• Research found NTEC would be a stranded asset by 2032.
• Growing public concerns that NTEC would threaten the neighboring Indigenous burial ground, which has already been disturbed by industry.
• A recent study found that methane gas plants, or natural gas plants, are far and away the least reliable energy source in severe weather.

Before moving forward with NTEC, Dairyland will need to reapply for and receive a new air permit, obtain a subsidy from the federal government, and secure a federal wetlands permit. 

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