Otter Tail Corp

Otter Tail Corporation operates a vertically integrated electric utility, Otter Tail Power Company, which serves approximately 150,000 customers in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The company’s generation fleet is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. As of its most recent reporting, approximately 60% of its owned capacity is coal-fired, including its ownership stake in the Big Stone and Coyote Station plants, with most of the remaining capacity coming from natural gas and oil.

The company has been a direct participant in fossil fuel infrastructure development and advocacy. It was a partner in the proposed Big Stone II coal-fired power plant project in South Dakota, which was subject to extensive regulatory and legal challenges from environmental groups over its climate and environmental impacts before being canceled. Otter Tail has also historically cited federal climate policy uncertainty as a material business risk while continuing to operate and maintain its fossil fuel-based generation assets without a public, time-bound plan for their phase-out.

While Otter Tail has made incremental investments in wind energy, these additions have not substantively altered the carbon-intensive base of its generation portfolio. The company’s core utility business model remains tied to the ongoing combustion of fossil fuels for electricity production.

Otter Tail Corporation, through its Otter Tail Power Company subsidiary, operates coal-fired power plants that have generated documented environmental contamination. The company’s Big Stone Plant in South Dakota and Hoot Lake Plant in Minnesota (now retired) have been associated with coal ash disposal concerns. Coal combustion residuals from these facilities contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and mercury, which pose risks of groundwater and soil contamination.

In a separate incident, Green Plains Otter Tail, LLC—an ethanol production facility located in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, and sharing the Otter Tail name—was the site of a significant industrial explosion in 2018. The subsequent product liability lawsuit, *Green Plains Otter Tail, LLC v. Pro-Environmental, Inc.*, centered on allegations of defective equipment and inadequate safety warnings. While this facility is not owned by Otter Tail Corporation, the association underscores the type of industrial hazard present in the region bearing its name. For its directly owned operations, Otter Tail Power has faced regulatory scrutiny, including in North Dakota where project approvals have been challenged for failing to adequately evaluate environmental compatibility and alternatives as required by state law.