The vote by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was unanimous. From the Minnesota Star Tribune,
Private equity giant will control northern Minnesota’s biggest power company.
The vote took place on the third day of hearings, spread out over the past two weeks. The Star Tribune reports,
The vote was the last regulatory hurdle for the sale, which will take the publicly-traded company private. It was already approved by the federal government and the state of Wisconsin. Minnesota Power serves 150,000 customers.
The Duluth-based electric utility was owned by a Duluth-based holding company, Allete.
Allete argued the deal was needed to raise cash to comply with Minnesota’s carbon-free law. The company says it will spend more than $4 billion over the next five years, primarily on transmission lines, solar, wind and large-scale batteries as the company seeks to shutter a large coal plant in Cohasset.
At some point, the PUC will issue a written order approving the deal and I’ll have more to say once I’ve reviewed the document.