Burgum: Sale of Coal Creek to Rainbow Energy clears final regulatory hurdle with transmission line transfer

Statement

Gov. Doug Burgum released the following statement today after the sale of Coal Creek Station to Rainbow Energy Center LLC cleared its final regulatory hurdle. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission today unanimously approved the transfer of Coal Creek Station's high-voltage direct current transmission line from Great River Energy (GRE) to Nexus Line LLC, a subsidiary of Rainbow Energy Center LLC. Rainbow Energy Center and Nexus Line are both affiliates of Bismarck-based Rainbow Energy Marketing Corp.

"This approval is a momentous step toward Rainbow Energy taking ownership of Coal Creek Station and providing a long-term future for the power plant, its workers and the communities supported by the hundreds of jobs at Coal Creek and the nearby Falkirk Mine," Burgum said. "It also offers North Dakota the opportunity to further prove that we can be a national and world leader in carbon capture, storage and utilization through our continued focus on innovation over regulation. Preserving the baseload generation that Coal Creek provides is critical to U.S. energy security and maintaining a strong regional power grid, and we're grateful to the industry, the state Legislature and our congressional delegation for their collaboration on ensuring a viable future for North Dakota's abundant lignite coal."

Burgum and Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford began working with GRE to facilitate a sale of Coal Creek Station to a third party operator even before GRE announced in May 2020 its plans to close the 1,151-megawatt generating plant in Underwood during the second half of 2022. Burgum announced on March 25, 2021, that GRE was in exclusive negotiations to sell Coal Creek Station and GRE's high-voltage, direct current transmission system that extends between central North Dakota and Minnesota. The pending sale to Rainbow Energy Center and Nexus Line was announced June 30.

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