Owners cancel $1 billion Nemadji Trail gas plant in Superior, Wisconsin after years of delays

The letter, filed with the Public Service Commission by Daniel McCourtney of Allete, asks the commission to acknowledge that the owners give up all rights under the approvals, WPR reported. McCourtney wrote that no construction had taken place on the plant or its generation tie line. Allete, parent of Duluth-based Minnesota Power, told WDIO that it and Dairyland decided not to proceed with the project as proposed and that any new project would go through permitting again.

The PSC granted the certificates in 2020. Lawsuits from Indigenous and environmental groups followed, along with local opposition and permit delays. The Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge brought by Clean Wisconsin and Sierra Club. The city of Superior denied local approvals. In December, Minnesota Power told regulators that the plant's permits for air emissions, wetlands and construction had lapsed during the delays, and it ended its agreement to buy the plant's power.

Backers had promised 350 construction jobs, 25 permanent jobs and $1 million a year in tax revenue, according to a project handout cited by WPR. About 200 ancestors of the Lake Superior Chippewa's Fond du Lac Band are buried in a cemetery in Superior near the site.

Other gas work in the state is moving. Regulators recently approved two Invenergy plants in southern Wisconsin, which We Energies wants to buy, and We Energies won approval last year for two plants, in Oak Creek and in Paris. Utilities are planning for a projected 40% rise in state power demand by 2032, driven by data centers, WPR reported.