Minnesota
Officials celebrate northern Minnesota power line that could one day help make ‘green’ steel
State and federal officials gathered at a electric utility substation in northeastern Minnesota Wednesday to celebrate the funding and approval of a $940 million transmission line project that’s designed to help power a carbon-free future for the Arrowhead region.
Duluth-based Minnesota Power plans to upgrade and expand an aging high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that runs 465 miles from Center, N.D., to Hermantown to enable it to transport up to 1,500 megawatts of electricity, including renewable power from wind-rich North Dakota.
Minnesota Power’s transmission line is one of only a handful of existing HVDC lines in the country. These lines transmit electricity more efficiently over long distances than alternating current, or AC lines.
“Direct current is the best way to move lots of electricity far,” explained Pete Wyckoff, deputy commissioner of energy resources at the Minnesota Department of Commerce. “And we need more of these, particularly to places that need a lot of electricity.”
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The project received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in August. It’s funded in part with a $50 million grant from the bipartisan infrastructure law. It also received $25 million from the state of Minnesota, including a $15 million appropriation from the legislature.
“We’ve never made a direct appropriation to a utility company, but we did it because we knew that we had to address climate change,” said State Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown.
The project includes replacing converter stations at both ends of the line with new buildings and electrical infrastructure, allowing the utility to nearly double the amount of energy the line delivers. The stations convert the HVDC power to AC so it can flow onto the existing electric grid.
The upgraded line will also be able to move electricity in both directions, said Minnesota Power chief operating officer Josh Skelton.
The utility currently produces 60 percent of its electricity from carbon free resources, said Bethany Owen, CEO of Allete, the parent company of Minnesota Power.
The state’s utilities are required to produce 100 percent of their power from carbon free sources by 2040. Minnesota Power expects this project to be in service between 2028 and 2030.
Utilities and state and federal agencies are scrambling to build more electric transmission capacity in Minnesota and across the region, to transport renewable energy from where it’s produced — often in rural areas — to where it’s consumed.
While there’s not a huge population base in northeastern Minnesota, the region’s heavy industry uses enormous amounts of electric power, especially the six taconite mines and processing plants that dot the Iron Range.
The taconite ore mined in Minnesota is shipped to mills around the Great Lakes where it’s made into steel.
But officials believe this new transmission line, with its ability to transport huge amounts of renewable electricity, could pave the way to a future where more of that taconite ore is processed into steel and other products here in Minnesota.
“We can use electricity to make things like green hydrogen to react with Minnesota’s oxidized iron to make high value iron products,” said Wyckoff. Maybe even “green steel,” he continued. “That is the vision.”
Minnesota
Minnesota investigators say child care centers captured in viral video were operating as expected
Minnesota
Game Recap: Kings 5, Wild 4 (S/O) | Minnesota Wild
Matt Boldy scored late in the third to tie it and ultimately send the game to overtime, helping the Wild (25-10-8) extend their point streak to six games (3-0-3). Brock Faber had a goal and an assist, Jake Middleton and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored, and Jesper Wallstedt made 34 saves.
It was the second game of a back-to-back for Minnesota, which is coming off a 5-2 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. The Wild and Kings will play again in Los Angeles on Monday.
“It was far from perfect of a game from us,” Faber said. “I thought we could have played better. With that quick turnaround, we’ll take the point. Now we need two in the next.”
Kempe put the Kings up 1-0 at 6:08 of the first period, scoring on a wrist shot from close range off Anze Kopitar’s cross-slot pass from below the goal line.
Middleton tied it up 1-1 at 8:28, getting his first goal of the season in 36 games on a snap shot from the left circle set up by Mats Zuccarello.
“I think he thought I was Kirill (Kaprizov) in the slot there, so it was nice to get one,” Middleton joked. “I normally have a few goals before I take 35 games off from scoring, so this one was getting a little stressful but we got it out of the way.”
Perry gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead at 16:57 of the second period when Byfield’s shot struck him in the wrist and redirected in for the power-play goal.
Eriksson Ek tied it 2-2 at 18:23 on the power play, taking Quinn Hughes’ stretch pass at the offensive blue line for a short breakaway, fending off defenseman Joel Edmundson and scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Byfield put Los Angeles back in front 3-2 at 4:54 of the third period. He shot the puck caroming off the boards back into the crease, where Wallstedt lost it in his skates and it was eventually knocked in by a Wild stick during the ensuing scramble in front.
“Shouldn’t be, that was terrible,” Byfield joked when asked if he knew it was his goal. “No, it’s good. I think it’s two now that were liked that, so I’ll take them how they come.”
Minnesota
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on the defensive as fraud allegations mount after viral video uncovered Somali aid scheme
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back against the ever-growing fraud allegations levied against him in the disastrous aftermath of a viral video where an independent journalist cracked open a crucial part of the alleged Somali aid scheme.
A spokesperson for Walz, a Democrat who frequently provokes President Trump’s ire, addressed a bombshell video posted by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley.
“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed,” the spokesperson told Fox News.
The spokesperson added that Walz has “hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”
In the 43-minute video published on Friday, Shirley and a Minnesotan named David travel around Minneapolis and visit multiple childcare and learning centers allegedly owned by Somali immigrants.
Many were either shuttered entirely, despite signage indicating they were open, or helmed by staff who refused to participate in the video.
One of the buildings they visited displayed a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing Center.” The ‘learning’ center is supposed to account for at least 99 children and funneled roughly $4 million in state funds, according to the video.
Shirley appeared on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show” on Sunday evening and boasted about his findings. He joked that the alleged scheme was “so obvious” that a “kindergartener could figure out there is fraud going on.”
“Fraud is fraud, and we work too hard simply just to be paying taxes and enabling fraud to be happening,” Shirley said.
“There better be change. People are demanding it. The investigation have been launched just from that video alone. So there better be change, like I said we work way too hard to be paying taxes and not knowing where our money’s going,” he added.
Many officials have echoed Shirley’s calls for change, with FBI Director Kash Patel even announcing that the agency surged extra personnel to investigate the resources doled out to Minnesota. He said this is one of the first steps in a wide-reaching effort to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Federal investigators say half of the $18 billion granted to Minnesota since 2018 could have been stolen by fraudulent schemes — amounting to up to $9 billion in theft.
As of Saturday evening, 86 people have been charged in relation to these fraud scams, with 59 convicted so far.
Most of those accused of fraud come from Minnesota’s Somali community.
Shirley’s mega-viral video cracked 100 million views Sunday night.
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