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DULUTH 鈥� The Cohasset City Council accepted but took no in-person public comments during a brief meeting Tuesday evening.

The updated environmental assessment worksheet, or EAW, for the came after

With the EAW deemed 鈥渁dequate鈥� by the city of Cohasset, state agencies must now consider permits for the plant.

During the approximately 17-minute meeting, held in the City Hall鈥檚 community center to accommodate dozens of supporters and opponents, Cohasset mayor Greg Hagy said he and the council would receive only the written comments submitted over a 30-day public-comment period in January and February.

鈥淲e know that there may be folks here tonight interested in speaking for or against the EAW project, but we will not be accepting public comments tonight. 鈥� We decided in the beginning to only consider comments submitted to the city in writing,鈥� Hagy said.

As the council took roll call, opponents of the plant interrupted, demanding they have time to speak.

鈥淲hy didn鈥檛 you let the people come here to speak?鈥� said Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, an Indigenous-led environmental organization. 鈥淚t was a public hearing.鈥�

In a news release Monday, Honor the Earth said they had previously been told by the city that public comments would be allowed, only for the city to then change its mind 鈥渋n direct contravention of the purpose of Minnesota鈥檚 Open Meetings Law,鈥� the group said.

The still lists Monday鈥檚 meeting as an 鈥渙pen public hearing.鈥�

Earlier in the afternoon, company officials and supporters of the project held a 鈥淗uber Huddle鈥� at Timberlake Lodge in Grand Rapids.

Brian Hanson, president and CEO of APEX, a Duluth economic development agency, said the project will help the community weather the phase-out of Minnesota Power鈥檚 Boswell Energy Center coal-fired units.

The project would bring 158 jobs to the region and the 800,000-square-foot facility is planned for 400 acres next to Boswell, which represents a significant amount of the area鈥檚 employment and tax base.

鈥淭here is a burning platform here and Huber Engineered Wood represents a really great opportunity to help replace that platform,鈥� Hanson said in a telephone interview.

A project of Huber鈥檚 size would normally trigger a more stringent environmental impact statement, but the Minnesota Legislature .

In written comments, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe said the project should get the full environmental impact statement, which is more stringent than an EAW.

The band, with its reservation just one mile away, also said it was left out of necessary tribal consultation in the lead-up to the plant's announcement in June 2021.

The project has the backing of a number of trade groups representing loggers, timber producers and truckers.

鈥淭he production capacity of the Huber mill will restore a part of the lost mill capacity Minnesota has suffered in the last 13 years and ensure Minnesota can utilize the over 10 million acres of over rotation (mature) aspen and the large volume of growing aspen (most recently harvested in the 1980s) coming to rotation in the next 5-10 years,鈥� Mike Forsman, executive director of the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota, wrote in comments. 鈥淭he additional volume is sustainable and necessary for maintaining healthy forests, wildfire reduction, wildlife habitat and the environment.鈥�

But a competitor in the industry is opposed.

West Fraser, which has an OSB plant in Solway, near Bemidji, reiterated its concerns there wouldn鈥檛 be enough timber, namely aspen, in the state to support another mill.

In the updated EAW, Mike Kilgore, chair of the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota, said aspen鈥檚 鈥渁nnual sustainable harvest鈥� was 2.36 million cords per year and only 1.43 million cords were harvested in 2018. Huber would use about 300,000 cords of aspen per year, leaving plenty for Huber, Kilgore said.

But in written comments on the EAW, West Fraser included letters from professional forester Robert Wright, of Ohio, and forest biometrician Stephen Fairweather, of Washington, who both listed numerous issues with the EAW.

Roberts pointed out that while Kilgore relied on a 2019 report from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the report itself relies heavily on environmental impact statements from 1994 and 2006, which were 鈥渢oo dated to reliably analyze the potential impacts鈥� of the project, he said.

The company also again questioned why the City of Cohasset was the EAW鈥檚 responsible governing unit, or RGU, instead of the DNR or Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which would have more expertise.

鈥淭he City disagrees,鈥� the city wrote in a response to the comments. 鈥淭he City was properly assigned to the RGU by rule. To clarify, the EQB regulations provide that if a proposed project fall into more than one mandatory EAW category, then the RGU is the entity with greatest responsibility for supervising or approving the Proposed Project.鈥�

The project must still obtain permits from state regulators, but it has eyed opening as soon as 2024.

Legal challenges from Honor the Earth and others are expected, however.