The proposed site of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC), (Photo courtesy of Jenny Van Sickle)

A proposed $700 million methane gas plant in Superior hit a new road bump, with the plant’s owners now moving to withdraw requests for an air permit for the facility. If the withdrawal is approved and finalized by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), then the proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC) would be required to go through an entirely new permitting and review process. 

The development has forced companies with a stake in NTEC’s construction to re-evaluate the project. “Due to the extended timeline of the federal permit process, the Nemadji Trail Energy Center partners have requested that the [Wisconsin DNR] revoke the facility’s air permit,” said Dairyland Power Cooperative spokesperson Katie Thomson. “This is a timing issue. The window of time to construct and commission the facility allowed in the air permit is no longer achievable. Therefore, NTEC has requested the [Wisconsin DNR] revoke the project’s air permit; the project partners will determine when to re-apply based on project planning and permitting.”

Thomson added that NTEC’s owners will continue to work to ensure the project is in compliance with environmental regulations. “Recently, NTEC received its 15th regulatory agency approval, with a positive Federal Consistency Certification from the [Wisconsin Department of Administration]. We look forward to continuing to work in good faith as the approval process continues.”

Since NTEC’s owners are withdrawing their air permit application, a hearing with public testimony scheduled for Dec. 2 will likely be canceled. Ron Binzley, a permitting manager in the DNR’s Bureau of Air Management, said that processing such a request “would not take long, a matter of days at most.” Binzley said in an email to Wisconsin Examiner that if NTEC’s construction permit were also revoked, then the gas plant would not be able to break ground without first submitting a new construction permit application, and receiving that permit from the DNR. 

In a correspondence to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) shared with Wisconsin Examiner, City of Superior Councilwoman Jenny Van Sickle criticized how NTEC’s owners pursued for the gas plant. Van Sickle wrote that NTEC’s developers “have repeatedly failed to disclose accurate timelines, expirations, and ignored regulators warnings; the Applicants cannot claim their filings are entered in good faith; the scope of their issues are vast and vary across local, state, and Tribal governments and are at odds with federal compliance.” She went on to write, “NTEC’s developers have failed to act where matters were easily within their control, and their overwhelming regulatory problems cannot be addressed by a single or concrete remedy. For example, the developers have not secured site control, an acid rain permit, nor federal approvals, funding, or permits.”

While NTEC’s supporters point to the plant as a way to generate energy-industry jobs, its opponents point to a diverse array of problems with the proposed facility. The plant would be constructed along a bend of the Nemadji River, 300 feet from the shoreline. That portion of the river is host to wetlands and floodplain forests, with the river itself flowing from Lake Superior. The potentially affected habitats are degraded and the Nemadji River has been listed as impaired. The DNR and city of Superior have worked to restore shoreline dunes, nesting habitats, waterways, and wild rice fields. 

The rice fields particularly are important to Indigenous culture in the region, and sacred ancestral sites are located near where NTEC would operate. Tribal communities, including the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, known in their own language as the Gaa-Miskwaabikaang, said some U.S.  government entities which reviewed NTEC local impact “failed to meaningfully engage” with the tribe. Additionally, as a methane gas plant, NTEC’s operation is viewed by environmentalists as  out of touch with climate policies laid out by Gov. Tony Evers. 

The plant’s fate will be in limbo until its owners decide whether to pursue new permits. NTEC’s spokesperson said that the project partners “will determine next steps based on project planning and permitting.”