Iron Range energy project low on money | StarTribune.com

Excelsior Energy, once hailed as an innovative project that would bring jobs to Minnesota's Iron Range while cleanly tapping America's abundant coal supply, is in danger of running out of cash if it can't attract more investments from the public or private sector.

The Duluth News Tribune reported in a two-part series this week that the unbuilt project morphed from a $2.1 billion clean-coal technology power plant when proposed in 2001 into a conventional natural gas-fired plant. The paper said Excelsior has burned through nearly $20 million of funds from Minnesota sources, and will soon exhaust more than $22 million in federal money.

"At the end of the day, this is a project that has not hired one full-time worker on the Iron Range. Only lawyers, lobbyists and professional meeting attenders have gotten jobs," said Rep. Tom Anzelc, D-Balsam Township, the only Iron Range legislator to oppose the project.