Minnesota Power, an ALLETE company, provides electricity to 144,000 customers in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. Blandin Paper, a subsidiary of UPM-Kymmene of Helsinki, Finland, produces lightweight-coated magazine and catalogprinting papers.
"This change in our plans will allow our respective companies time to continue studying the feasibility for the facility," says Eric Norberg, vice president of strategic initiatives for Minnesota Power. He adds the design of the project is "complex and costly," and more time was needed to find ways of making the project "economically viable."
The original certificate of need application was filed in September 2001 but, at the company's request in February, the decision to move forward was postponed until May 2002. The earliest the project would now proceed is November. Construction of thisstate-of-the-art energy facility was announced in August 2001.
The delay will also help the project win support from citizens of the local community, says Joe Maher, senior vice president and general manager of Blandin Paper. The delay will give the newly created Grand Rapids/Itasca County Citizens Advisory Task Force more time necessary to help city and county leaders if development at this proposed site is acceptable.
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