High electricity prices could force metal producers out of Europe — bad omen for Minnesota

Rising electricity prices could force metal producers in Europe to pack their bags. Reuters reports:

Governments across Europe are coming under pressure to help curb soaring energy costs for companies and households caused by a global surge in wholesale gas prices, as economies emerge slowly from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Rising electricity prices have already led to curtailments and could lead to further relocation of our sector outside Europe if not addressed,” said the letter from Eurometaux addressed to Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.

“We are also concerned that if electricity remains too expensive, it will disincentivise industrial electrification as a decarbonisation route, undermining the EU’s Green Deal objectives.”

Non-ferrous metals such as aluminium, copper, nickel and silicon are more electricity-intensive to produce than any other material, said Eurometaux.

Center of the American Experiment has been sounding these alarm bells for years, arguing that high electricity prices will hamper Minnesota’s iron ore industry and make it harder for our nascent copper-nickel mining industry to compete in a global marketplace.

Of course, many times, that’s exactly what groups that advocate for more wind and solar on the grid want.

Minnesota’s mining industry provides thousands of high-paying jobs in an area of the state that truly needs them. American Experiment’s research has found that copper-nickel mining could create up to 14,000 more if we don’t screw it up by making it too expensive to mine in Minnesota.