MILLINOCKET, Maine — Municipal leaders will meet with the president and CEO of Cate Street Capital in a closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss the company’s plans for producing torrefied wood at its Katahdin Avenue paper mill site, company officials said Thursday.
“It is simply a meet and greet — a chance for John Halle and the Town Council and the town manager to talk about the big picture plans for Thermogen,” Cate Street spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne said Thursday. “John has not yet had a chance to meet with the Town Council and the town manager.
“John likes to do that. He wants to ensure that they have a personal connection to himself and the team members,” Tranchemontagne added.
A Cate Street subsidiary, Thermogen Industries describes itself on its website, thermogenind.com, as “a multi-faceted manufacturing company that utilizes cutting edge technology to produce bio-based products for energy generation and commercial applications.”
Thermogen announced on Dec. 1 that it had secured, for $20 million, exclusive rights from Scotland-based Rotawave Biocoal to manufacture a type of machine — called the Targeted Intelligent Energy System, or TIES — that makes biocoal, or torrefied wood, intended to replace coal burned at electricity plants.
Thermogen, Tranchemontagne said Thursday, plans to install five TIES machines in Millinocket starting in November or early 2013. Creating jobs for 22-25 workers directly and dozens of truckers, loggers and other support providers indirectly, the first $35 million TIES machine would supply United Kingdom utilities with biocoal, company officials have said.
Millinocket would be the site of the first of four or five biocoal mills eventually nationwide.
Town and federal officials, including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, have said that Cate Street’s investment in the region, which includes the restart of the East Millinocket mill and the eventual restart of the Millinocket mill, represents the best economic news the region has had in years.
The company is in the midst of negotiating long-term contracts to supply torrefied wood to British coal-fired plants, Tranchemontagne said Thursday, and has applied to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for permitting for its first machine. Construction of that machine is due to begin in the spring.
“I don’t think there will be anything new to say,” Tranchemontagne said of Monday’s meeting. “Things are just in progress.”
The company’s plans for the Millinocket paper mill are less clear.
Company officials have said they would restart the mill when market conditions permitted but that this wouldn’t likely occur without a natural gas pipeline, as proposed by Gov. Paul LePage, that would be installed from the Old Town area and run through Lincoln into Millinocket about two years from now.
Lots of technobabble and a meet and greet. Only two years away? M.P.B.C. carried a story quoting the Governor’s deputy council Mike Cianchette as stating the administration views the toxic land fill as an “asset”. Good news everywhere you look, but this good news may need to be viewed through special lens.
Very interesting squirrely, please explain…..
If Cate Street is still making paper in four years, they will be losing money on it. Acess to over 10 Million acres of forest to manufacture torrified wood pellets + a deepwater port 128 miles in Eastport + the largest wood pellet market in the world (Western Europe) = $$$$ for Cate Street.
The market is the United Kingdom. I wonder if they will be “carrying coals to Newcastle”?
You load 20 million dollars into an exclusive right from Scotland. Then you import gas from Canada to an intelligent energy system. Then we send the forest to be burned in British electricity plants, And what do we get? Another day older and deeper in depth.
That’s ” debt” my friend. No room for a national park either !
With a national park here, there will be no room for anything except tacky trinkets and minwage jobs.
I agree 100%. Just yanking Charlie’s chain !
Real deep of you to pick up on spelling. This spelling was an intentional play on words.This depth refers to the underwater definition. Myspellchecker gave me meanings that apply to the economy here in Millinocket. I am not against anything that helps deversify our economy.
Tora..Tora…Tora
I really thought there would be more than 23 jobs created. Far cry from the 1500 that used to employed in that mill. Something is wrong with this picture.
I agree. This brings back memories from the 60s when a man named Freddie Vahlsing came up to The County and talked about opening a sugar beet plant and making all kinds of jobs. He talked about pie in the sky, and used taxpayer dough to do it. After all was said and done, he ran the plant for a year or 2, then skipped the state with the money from the state-backed loans he got.
A million for billionaires, jail for the welfare cheat, and the street for old poor people.
You can ask Nick Sambides but i think you will find that its 23 jobs per unit, 5 units, 115 jobs.
I think it is 4 or 5 people per machine.
What the way everyone in Millinocket is talking these guys was going to employee everyone who lost their job at the mill. Its a drop in the bucket, its appears to be political baloney. The town manager, the council, and everyone else are jumping up and down for 23 jobs. Seems stupid to me.
Subject: [bdn] Re: Torrefied wood manufacturer to meet Millinocket leaders
Nope the article says 22 to 25 employees. Nothing to be proud of as far as the employment it will produce. A nice grocery store would employee more.
Subject: [bdn] Re: Torrefied wood manufacturer to meet Millinocket leaders
A nice grocery store for people with EBT cards?
What wrong with some park jobs along with some paper making jobs and terrified wood jobs. Lets diversify our economy so if one goes down we are able fall back on alternatives.
Thats why I said 4 or 5 per machine. I am pretty positive in the past they said it would employ 4 or 5 jobs per machine. These are not real big and complicated machines.
The correct information is 22-25 per unit.
Thanks,
Scott
there is always something wrong with anything you say its been said before 22 to 25 jobs per machine.
The article says 22 to 25 jobs. It says nothing about per machine. I certainly hope it is per machine. In any event it is a drop in the bucket. Hope you get a job Northernpride.
Subject: [bdn] Re: Torrefied wood manufacturer to meet Millinocket leaders
While I’m all in favor of the bio-coal plant, the fact that it is dependent of contract’s still being negotiated makes me a bit leery. To date Cate St. has invested a huge amount of cash into the plant’s, intending to bring them back on-line, but is still ‘In progress’. Progress is wonderful, provided it actually occurs. Telling me that it’s occuring is a whole different matter. Same for the gas pipeline that LePage keeps talking about. Doesn’t it seem a bit coincidental that his timeline for the pipeline is in synch with the next election cycle ? Anyone else get that ‘raining on the leg’ feeling ? As the man from Missouri said “Show me”. ‘Nuff said.
Kind of similar to the One delaying the Keystone pipeline until after His reelection bid.
The implications of this article make this whole scheme seem more and more like a towering pop-up.
Ha Ha Ha, keep them coming… Oh and how is the EGO thing coming?
Time to go squirrel hunting .
Whatever you do, don’t involve LePig. Any possible jobs will evaporate before your eyes.
Wrong again Governor Lepage is the reason the Katahdin Region is seeing success!
If it was not for Lepage, they would be scrapping as we type.
Looks like Cate Street is moving ahead, and its in no small way due to the efforts of our Governor and many in Augusta that made this happen.
Thank You
The article is very clearly written, 22 to 25 jobs for the 5 machines. Wow that should boost our economy.
Lgreen48, think of it like this, 22-25 jobs per machine or 22-25 all together. The fact is the machines will attract a natural gas line to the Lincoln and Millinocket area, the gas line will attract more industry, and more industry will attract more jobs!! This is great news for the Katahdin area unless of course you are a pro park person.
I totally agree with that. Natural gas is the key for our area. All I am saying is that we should diversify the job availability in our area. Paper making is a tough business and a very difficult commodity to sell. I believe a NP would help, along with the paper making and torrified wood production as a fuel.
Please do your research on NP’s! If a NP was to happen in the area, in the end there would be no industry, no real jobs and no people. The Katahdin area already has Baxter!! Don’t believe what you read from the pro park people they will say and do anything to achieve their goal. I look at it like this, the Katahdin area is where I live and worked all my life, this is where we live! “Most” of the pro park people are not from the area. How is it that these brazen people insist on telling us what we want and need? If things don’t go their way they dump on your town, your people, your schools and insult everything they can get their hands on! If you would like to see a nuclear power plant in southern Maine or NH and things were not going your way, would you actually insult the people, the schools, and their way of life? If so then you are one of these brazen people. I do not despise these people for wanting a NP in the Katahdin area but I do despise the ones that push their agenda by insulting the people that actually LIVE THERE!!!!! These are ignorant people!!
So true we know its not about 59,000 acres but about the 3.2 million acre park that will destroy all manufacturing jobs and our way of life !
I agree with you, NG is going to do wonders for this area and will attract more business. I cant wait to hook it up to my business. They claim it is 40 to 50 % cheaper than oil. But I think we should have a full blown Economic study done in regards to the NP also.
If a study happens then the outcome has already been determined!
Not by many, if a true independent study was done to show what the economic impact would be, there are allot of people that would be against it if it was negative. including myself. Like i said before we are not all tree hugging whack jobs, some see the opportunities that it may and would provide. We should get all the facts.
OK go get a “Independent” study done.
“By acquiring the rights to TIES, Rotawave Biocoal’s microwave-based biocoal production system, Thermogen has solidified plans to install five or six TIES machines in Millinocket starting in November 2012. Creating jobs for 22 to 25 workers directly and dozens of truckers, loggers and other support providers indirectly, the first $35 million TIES machine would supply United Kingdom utilities with biocoal, Cyr said.”
People cry when it rain’s then cry when the sun comes out,A park isn’t going to provide crap for jobs and the fact is we need REAL jobs that come further north then Augusta.The special interest groups don’t like northern Maine people finding work, because that would mean our kids stay home and start thier lives here, rather then out of state.The bull about welfare bum area’s like northern Maine,who’s fault is that?Provide some jobs that people can survive on, might just help that problem also make drug testing a requirement to recieve help.We all or many of us are drug tested to get or keep our jobs why not drug testing for those who don’t work for it.Myself I’m happy to see any jobs come up here wether it’s 1 job or 800 jobs you won’t here me complainning about this.
By the way TY Cate Street for taking an interest in the people up here you will have to excuse us if we are reserved, considering what that scum from canada pulled with those mill’s and their holding’s you can’t blame us.
Lastly how about when that guy sold the hydro dams up their off to his relative’s who charge more to keep those mill’s down?Seems to me since those permit’s to operate those hydro dams, are controlled by the state that our leader’s have the power to make things more difficult for em.Why Hasn’t any of them taken a stand on this considering how shady it all was.They did it solely to kill their competition from millinocket area I think the Free Trade Act needs another TY for screwing over more American’s then helping them.By the way what corperation came up with the idea and what congressman supported it
Personally I wonder how much he got paid for putting it on the table?
Thank you Scott! I thought that was the correct numbers.