Hodnik Tells Shareholders: ALLETE More Balanced, Sustainable and Agile
May 12 2015 - 1:45PM
Business Wire
ALLETE Inc. (NYSE:ALE) is more balanced, sustainable and agile
than ever before, company investors heard today at the Duluth-based
energy company’s 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
Approximately 800 people gathered this morning at Duluth’s
Entertainment Convention Center to re-elect ten directors, consider
compensation-related resolutions and ratify the appointment of
ALLETE’s accounting firm. They also heard from ALLETE Chairman,
President and CEO Al Hodnik.
He noted that ALLETE in 2014 increased net income 10 percent and
operating revenue 12 percent compared to the year before. ALLETE’s
total assets climbed to $4.4 billion and capital expenditures for
2014 were the highest ever at $600 million. Hodnik noted that
ALLETE stock reached all-time highs in 2014, its dividend climbed
3.1 percent and Minnesota Power’s peak electric load also set a
record.
Referring to a better-balanced company, Hodnik pointed to
completion of Minnesota Power’s Bison 4 wind project in North
Dakota and ALLETE Clean Energy’s growth as examples of how the
company’s renewable energy portfolio is expanding, and supplanting
fossil fuel. He also cited the conversion of the Laskin Energy
Center from coal to natural gas and the major environmental
retrofit at the company’s largest coal-fired generator, Boswell
Unit 4, which will reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent and also
reduce other emissions.
Hodnik talked of the agility symbolized by the rapid growth of
ALLETE Clean Energy, which has expanded into southern Minnesota,
Iowa, Oregon, North Dakota and Pennsylvania since its 2011
inception. He also explained ALLETE’s acquisition earlier this year
of U.S. Water Services, a St. Michael, Minnesota-based company with
customers across the U.S. specializing in water sustainability.
“U.S. Water is a very good fit with ALLETE’s strategy,” Hodnik
said. “They’re all about providing sustainable solutions, in the
areas of water treatment, efficiency, conservation and overall
water reuse. Water and energy are tightly linked. Underlying the
need for this business is the increasing scarcity of clean water.
Conservation of water will only become more prominent.”
The ALLETE CEO told shareholders that Minnesota Power has been
thoughtfully executing its EnergyForward resource strategy
by diversifying its generation sources to a more even balance
between renewable energy and fossil fuel.
“We are proud of what has been achieved to date,” he said.
“Some, however -- with a sole focus on environmental stewardship --
wish we would move still faster.” He said Minnesota Power must
focus on reliability and overall affordability along with
stewardship.
“We recognize that electricity is but a single input into the
production costs of our taconite and paper customers, but it is a
very large input,” Hodnik said. Given the reality of challenges
facing these industries and uncertainty about whether Minnesota
will receive full credit from the EPA for environmental actions
already taken, it is best for our state, and by extension Minnesota
Power, to slow down a bit, he said.
“Let’s make sure that all Minnesota Power customers are able to
digest rising energy costs from what has already been undertaken
through 2015,” he said. “On the one hand, there is need for further
progress on climate change as outlined by President Obama and Gov.
Dayton,” he said. “On the other side of this equation is the need
for our highly competitive mineral and forest product industries to
remain an economic force within our region.” Hodnik said he liked
the way a local editorial put it: “Let’s heed the yellow light
before going green.”
ALLETE shareholders, voting by proxy, elected to new terms
current directors Sidney W. Emery, Jr., George G. Goldfarb, James
S. Haines, Jr., Alan R. Hodnik, James J. Hoolihan, Heidi E.
Jimmerson, Madeleine W. Ludlow, Douglas C. Neve and Leonard C.
Rodman. The Don Shippar Community Service Award, given annually,
was presented to Jeff Forsberg, safety director at BNI Coal.
“This corporation couldn’t sustain anything without you
investing in shares of ALLETE stock,” Hodnik said in conclusion.
“It is your support, your investment, which motivates our
long-range planning, inspires our innovation and energizes our
business strategy.”
ALLETE is an energy company headquartered in Duluth, Minn. In
addition to its electric utilities, Minnesota Power and Superior
Water, Light and Power of Wisconsin, ALLETE owns BNI Coal in
Center, N.D., ALLETE Clean Energy, based in Duluth, U.S. Water
Services headquartered in St. Michael, Minn., and has an 8 percent
equity interest in the American Transmission Co. More information
about ALLETE is available at www.allete.com.
The statements contained in this release and statements that
ALLETE may make orally in connection with this release that are not
historical facts, are forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and
investors are directed to the risks discussed in documents filed by
ALLETE with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
ALLETE / Minnesota PowerAmy Rutledge, 218-723-7400Manager -
Corporate Communicationsarutledge@mnpower.com
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