Sparking Change:
Diversifying our Regional Economy
From January 2024 to December 2024, a group of partners convened to participate in the Sparking Change: Diversifying Our Regional Economy process, which seeks to identify community impacts, aspirations, and pathways forward for economic diversification and resilience in response to the planned transition away from coal at Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minnesota and the new availability of federal and state resources for energy transition communities.
A Just Transition
Learning
Jan – Apr
Learn about Energy Transition, challenges and opportunities
Creating
May – Aug
Creating our action plan through facilitated workshop sessions.
1st Community Townhall Series
Drafting
Sept – Oct
Draft Action Plan/Report
2nd Community Townhall Series
Feedback & Finalize
Nov
Work on finalizing plan and present draft at Summit.
Action Plan
Dec 2024 – 2025+
Develop project plans, committees, grant writing, etc.
The steering committee, task force, businesses, and community members from across the greater northern Minnesota region gathered to develop high-level strategies and specific actions that will advance the Sparking Change vision.
Sparking Change
Steering Committee
Itasca County
City of Cohasset
Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation
Itasca Economic Development Corporation
Minnesota Power
The goals of this report and action plan are to:
“A thriving community invested in our future sustainable energy shift”
Participants in this process hold diverse and sometimes divergent opinions about regional priorities, but they share a commitment to diversifying and strengthening the region’s economy.
Advocacy for a just economic transition for the City of Cohasset, Itasca County, and the greater northern Minnesota region remains a priority.
Task Force
MN Power
IRP Process
Resource planning is a process that energy utilities undertake to select the appropriate energy resources necessary to meet customers’ energy needs over a given period of time. Resource planning is often described as the process by which utilities select the size, type, and timing of the resources that will make up their future energy supply.
IRPs are forward-looking documents that lay out the mix of energy resources that a utility intends to use. They are an important planning tool for Minnesota Power to evaluate a range of power sector investments to meet electricity demand projections and continue providing reliable and affordable electricity to its customers.
Electric utility resource planning is overseen by the Minnesota PUC through a public-facing process. The PUC requires utilities to file an IRP once every two years. The Minnesota PUC is an independent regulatory agency responsible for the oversight and regulation of public utilities, including electric, natural gas, and telecommunications services. The commission's mission is to ensure that residents of Minnesota have access to safe, adequate, and efficient utility services at fair and reasonable rates.
Tax Base Impacts
43% City of Cohasset
6% Itasca County
8% School District
Workforce Impacts
Total Workforce
Types of Work
Power Grid
Rate
Reliability
Minnesota Power’s 2021 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) identified that the company plans to cease coal operations at Unit 3 by the end of 2029 and at Unit 4 by 2035. These changes have implications for employees, communities across the region, and the regional electrical grid.
Sparking Change Report
Complete January 30th, 2025
The scope of this Sparking Change process, report, and action plan has been to mobilize what the community can do to innovate and diversify our economic future and access dollars that are uniquely available to communities experiencing similar energy transitions.
Certain questions about Boswell are outside the scope of this plan and will be decided in utility planning and regulatory processes. Minnesota Power is modeling options for new power generation that continue to utilize Boswell’s many assets, infrastructure, and people in their current IRP Process to be submitted to the MN Public Utilities Commission by March 3, 2025.
Why We Are Here
The Sparking Change Report & Event was generously funded by a grant from the Just Transition Fund and a U.S. Department of Energy Capacity Building for Repurposing Energy Assets grant.
Strengths, Opportunities, and Assets
Despite the economic difficulties faced by its longtime anchor industries, the region has still managed economic growth over the past decade.
Who We Were
Who We Are
Population:
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Reservation:
11,000
Arrowhead Region: 329,598
Itasca County: 45,365
City of Cohasset: 2,683
Challenge - Climate
Climate and Environmental Health
HOUSING
CHILDCARE
JOBS & FAMILY SUSTAINING WAGES
The 2024 Comprehensive Housing Study for Itasca County identified that the county has roughly 19,000 housing units. Assuming that potential economic development projects come to fruition in the next five years, the study projected that an additional 1,300 units of housing will be needed to meet demand.
Challenges
Access to childcare and housing is directly linked to jobs and family-sustaining wages.
Participants created a framework for continued economic growth and success, identifying six high-level strategies.
Each strategy contains several specific actions with associated partners and timelines. These strategies provide a starting point acknowledging past work and a commitment to a shared path forward.
Future: Who Will We Be
Sparking Change Strategies
Strategies
S1. Develop Entrepreneur and Business Opportunities
S2. Mobilize Community Engagement
S3. Leverage Partnerships and Advocacy
S4. Promote Economic and Community Development
S5. Advance Sustainability Initiatives
S6. Provide Workforce Support
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”
- Abraham Maslow
Sparking Change Strategies
The Power of Community
Foster community innovation, diversification, and relationships that continue to stimulate the local economy.
Impact: This strategy aims to foster existing and new business innovation, acumen, and networks to diversify economic development opportunities and strengthen local commerce.
Develop Entrepreneur and Business Opportunities
Desired Outcomes:
1. An increase in regional participation in entrepreneurship programs.
2. A thriving and utilized entrepreneur support ecosystem.
3. An increase in the number and diversity of businesses.
4. New value-added products are being produced from traditional assets
(water, wood, iron ore).
5. An expansion in downtown business association support and participation.
6. Enhanced tourism attraction
Momentum
Community Case Study:
Future Leaders and Entrepreneurs Exchange
Venango County, Pennsylvania is fostering the next generation of energized and skilled leaders as a means to drive economic revitalization and growth. In an effort to diversify the local economy, which was once an industrial oil and gas hub, Venango County has focused its efforts on developing and cultivating entrepreneurship. For example, the county’s Chamber of Commerce organizes the Future Leaders and Entrepreneurs Exchange, or FLEX, group which offers a venue for young professionals to build community connections and meaningfully engage in the local economic landscape, all while accessing professional development opportunities and a peer network of like-minded young leaders. The current FLEX cohort is focused on developing a SWOT analysis to better understand the county's young professional profiles, as part of a larger marketing campaign to meet the needs of Venango County entrepreneurs…
Raise awareness and energy within the community about the Sparking Change initiative and other economic diversification efforts in the region.
Impact: For the broader community to understand the energy transition and its impacts on the community and to feel empowered to support the plan, there needs to be additional community engagement. This strategy will encourage community leaders to become engaged with the Sparking Change initiative.
Mobilize Community Engagement
Desired Outcomes:
1. A strong and successful marketing campaign leads to broad community understanding of the significance of energy transition.
2. A clear message is created for energy transition and there is a point person for people to contact.
3. The Sparking Change task force becomes a trusted messenger to the public on energy transition and economic diversification topics and events.
4. Volunteer committees support and socialize communication of the action plan to the community.
5. Surveys of the community show an increase in the understanding of energy transition.
6. Broad array of community members are engaged around this action plan to develop innovative ways to successfully implement action.
Momentum
Strengthen partnerships focused on collective advocacy in the legislative and regulatory space to support economic diversification.
Impact: Local, state, and federal regulatory and permitting processes play an important role in economic development projects — they inform what the projects look like, who can voice their input, how long the approval process takes, how to mitigate environmental impacts, and more. Participants in the Sparking Change process have different perspectives on the type of permitting reform needed. Some seek a timelier process, some call for more transparency and certainty, and some seek stronger measures to ensure environmental protection and ample time for community input…
Leverage Partnerships & Advocacy
Desired Outcomes:
1. Local organizations have a coordinated advocacy approach led by a coordinating team.
2. A shared policy agenda.
3. Agenda aligned with other coal communities.
4. Clarity on possible energy sources for Boswell.
5. Sufficient, cost-competitive energy generation to meet community needs.
Momentum
Funding Opportunities
Sustained commitment to coordinated economic and community development across the region.
Impact: Itasca County will be able to make more progress on infrastructure, housing, childcare, workforce development, and attracting new industries if there is more coordination between government, nonprofit, and other partners, as well as a strong relationship with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
A funding navigator would help identify relevant opportunities and coordinate between partners, while additional funding for the Economic Development Authorities (EDAs) would provide sustainable economic development into the future. All new projects should have sustainable funding models, and partners should share successful models across the region. Research and coordinated marketing strategies will be necessary to attract new industries, including clean tech.
Promote Economic & Community Development
Promote Economic & Community Development
Desired Outcomes:
• Strong partnerships between Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and non-Tribal entities.
• Multiple organizations align to successfully pursue a large funding opportunity (e.g., childcare, workforce, etc.).
• Coordinated effort to build infrastructure.
• New development and opportunities are sustainable.
• Nonprofit entities are strong and sustainable.
• Funds are matched to organizations’ needs.
• Small business support efforts have sustainable funding.
• More clean tech industries are established in Itasca County.
• A complete list of developable sites that are site-ready or plan to be site-ready.
• Community understands economic diversification needs related to businesses, housing, childcare, etc.
Momentum
Engage the community and utilities in leveraging the benefits of the clean energy transition.
Impact: The clean energy transition isn’t just limited to utilities. Local governments, businesses, community organizations, and individuals can participate and benefit—especially with many new state and federal opportunities. Actions in this strategy are focused on supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy and advocating for carbon-free power generation by the utility.
Advance Sustainability Initiatives
Desired Outcomes:
1. Expanded power generation options at Boswell and within the community.
2. Households of all income levels can leverage incentives to afford clean energy options.
3. Increased community awareness around the need for a sustainable transition.
Momentum
Support, grow and retain the workforce in Itasca County through career pathways and training programs, new businesses and industries, and increased housing and childcare options.
Impact: This strategy is focused on supporting Boswell Energy Center workers, providing support to retain the existing Itasca County workforce, and attracting new workers to support new businesses and industries. Actions are focused on developing strong career pathways and training programs, increasing housing options for all types of workers, and increasing childcare options to support the current and future workforce.
Provide Workforce Support
Desired Outcomes:
1. Fulfilling employment options for Boswell Energy Center employees.
2. Abundance of skilled workforce.
3. Increased utilization of workforce training grants and programs.
4. Increased housing options that meet workforce needs (e.g., single-family starter homes, affordable multifamily housing, justice-involved individuals, senior living options, shared living options).
5. Increased number of accessible childcare spots (i.e., options that are nearby, affordable, and available at the necessary time of day).innovative ways to successfully implement action.
Momentum
Community Case Study:
Xcel Energy’s Workforce Transition Plan
The Sherburne County Generating Station (“Sherco”) was once the largest electric generating facility in the State of Minnesota. With a nameplate generating capacity of 2,400 MW, Sherco powered 1.5 million homes and employed hundreds of workers. The power plant, which consists of three units, has begun the process of retirement. Unit 2 was retired on December 31, 2023, and Units 1 and 3 are planned for retirement in 2026 and 2030. Recognizing the significant impact plant retirement will have on its workers, Xcel Energy has committed to a thorough workforce transition plan. This plan will rely heavily on conversation with current employees to identify successful pathways for transition, which could include supporting employees in upskilling, reskilling, or relocating employees within the company…
Regional Collaboration
Economic & Community Development Partners
Workforce Development Grants & Opportunities
DOE Rural and Remote Grant
Other Unique Opportunities
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success”
- Andrew Carnegie
THANK YOU