Xcel funds going to infrastructure, economic development

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
This past June, the City of Benson received its last payment from Xcel Energy meant to offset the loss of Benson Power, formerly known as Fibrominn. With the $3 million payment, the city has now received $20 million for its economic development efforts.
Those efforts are supposed to be focused on replacing the more than $830,000 in lost local real estate taxes, the 45 direct jobs at the plant and estimated 100 jobs that were associated with supporting its operations, and the lost economic vitality the plant brought to the community.
Back in the early 2000s, as the plant was being constructed, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development estimated Benson Power would generate $8 to $10 million in economic impact for the area.
Benson Power used turkey litter and wood chips as its primary sources of fuel to power the production of 55 megawatts of power. Biomass green energy was the supposed to be the latest and best source of power to replace plants that burned coal, contributing to global warming.
Few could have anticipated the revolutionary changes that would soon come from the discovery of plentiful supplies of natural gas, and the improvements to the efficiencies of wind and solar power....
 
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