More than two weeks have passed since our last iron nugget entry. Here is a story from the Friday, 4/23/04 Mesabi Daily News, reporting on the chair of Minnesota House tax committee:
[Rep.] Abrams distributed an article to floor members that showed how Minnesota’s $16 million investment in Mesabi Nugget technology was heading to Indiana.Meanwhile, two ther representatives:Abrams told the representatives, I don’t care where you are from, “when you read this stuff and see how we were had, we are all Iron Rangers. One thing that is not in the bill is something dealing with the escalator.”
He added, “(The article) said we have been dealt from the bottom of the deck. It isn’t right and I felt very compelled to speak out on this issue and bring the plant back to MN where it belongs.’’
With emotions and passions running high, House members seemed to agree that they wanted Minnesota’s technology and natural resources to stay in the state. Abrams said he would not think about a tax rebate until there was stronger commitment from mining companies to open the first plant here. Range legislators said that Abram’s words meant a lot.
Abrams said mining companies have approached him about the high rate of taxes in Minnesota. But, he said, “I don’t want to hear about the taxes ... until they have a firm date (for opening a plant).”
are in the process of introducing legislation in environmental committees to shorten permitting processes in Hoyt Lakes, since the site has already underwent permitting. The companion bills have been scheduled for hearings next week.A widely-published AP story from Saturday reports:Dill said Abrams’ comments on the plant moving to Indiana should help garner support for his environmental legislation in the House, since members would understand why the expedited process is needed.
ST. PAUL - Minnesota has made a last-minute push to bring a next-generation taconite-processing plant to the site of the dormant Hoyt Lakes plant on the Iron Range instead of a site in Indiana.As for the environmental issues, the story continues:Mesabi Nugget, a consortium formed in 2001 partly with state money, had planned to open its first production plant in Indiana by 2005 because of Minnesota's more-stringent environmental review process.
Minnesota provided $16 million in low-interest loans to Mesabi Nugget, about half of the $30 million in financing originally required to operate the successful pilot plant in Silver Bay.
"We're in discussions about the financial requirements for a plant in Minnesota vs. Indiana," Commissioner Sandy Layman of Iron Range Resources said Friday.
The agency uses taconite taxes to seed redevelopment in northeastern Minnesota. "We're being told that Steel Dynamics of Indiana, a Mesabi investor, would be a major investor in an Indiana plant but less so in Minnesota. So our requirement would be filling the gap with some debt." * * *
Mesabi Nugget had decided to build the first commercial-scale plant in Auburn, Ind., closer to the steel-making furnaces of Steel Dynamics.
That decision has enraged several Iron Range lawmakers.
In a speech on the floor of the state House on Friday, a chief taconite industry advocate at the Legislature said he would no longer work for industry production-tax changes.
Rep. Ron Abrams, R-Minnetonka, sent a warning to the taconite industry and, specifically, to the partners in Mesabi Nugget.
During debate on an omnibus tax bill, Abrams, chairman of the House Tax Committee, said he was angered that it appeared the iron-nugget-production facility would be built in Indiana and not Minnesota.
Indiana, like Minnesota, has a six-month plant-licensing process, but not the more extensive 16-month environmental review on top of that.[Update 4/29/04] Another story today in the Duluth News Tribune. Several significant items:Cheryl Corrigan, executive director of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, said this week that Minnesota has offered to waive the environmental review period if Mesabi Nugget agrees to permanently retire the antiquated taconite smelter at the dormant Hoyt Lakes plant and refit the facility with next-generation pollution controls.
Mesabi Nugget is expected to make a decision in May. Corrigan said the state would not waive the environmental review at Silver Bay, citing its proximity to Lake Superior. Silver Bay is the preferred site for Mesabi Nugget.
"It gets more expensive if we have to build the plant inland from Silver Bay," Lehtinen said.
Lehtinen said a final decision on Hoyt Lakes is contingent on financing among the Mesabi Nugget partners, expeditious environmental permitting, and further due diligence over whether long-term market conditions are favorable and demand adequate for a plant.
The Minnesota Senate's Environmental Policy Committee gave its approval to a bill that would exempt a full-scale iron nugget production plant from environmental review if its developers build it at the former LTV Mining Co. in Hoyt Lakes. * * *The Bakk-Dill measure, passed on voice vote in the Senate committee Wednesday, allows existing environmental permits for the closed LTV taconite plant to be used instead of requiring developers to obtain new air and water pollution permits specific to the iron nugget process. The legislation also requires that the facility's existing taconite furnaces be permanently closed. Any attempt to bring them back on line would require a complete environmental review process.
The legislation also requires developers to use the "best available technology" for air pollution prevention. Without the bill, the plant could still be permitted but developers might not be held to those standards or required to close the dirty burning taconite furnaces, said Sandy Layman, commissioner of Iron Range Resources. "This is actually an environmentally friendly proposal because it reduces overall air impacts from the project," she said.
A Minnesota Pollution Control Agency official said it was likely the rotary hearth furnace that would be used to fire the iron nuggets would produce far fewer air pollutants, especially mercury, than the older taconite furnaces. The old taconite furnaces annually pumped an average of 82 pounds of mercury into the air, according to Ann Foss, the agency's major facilities section manager. While air pollution data from an iron nugget pilot plant at Silver Bay was still being analyzed, Foss said she was confident the mercury pollution coming from a full-scale iron nugget facility would be less than what was produced by the old LTV plant.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 26, 2004 07:31 AM