Earlier this week, we posted Bills to restore Citizens Board of the MPCA working their way through Minnesota legislature.
Since then, MinnPost's Walker Orenstein took a much more in-depth look at the effort in Critical of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, some DFLers want to revive citizens board idea:
After 48 years, the Citizens’ Board that once oversaw permits for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency died in a relative flash. It was a legislative deal in 2015 between DFL and Republican lawmakers that spelled the end, a move that came after the board voted to require a large dairy farm go through more extensive environmental review.
“Dark of night, there had been no hearings,” said Jim Riddle, who owns a Winona-area fruit farm and was a board member at the time. “Just out of the blue as a retaliation.”
Now, eight years after the Citizens’ Board was eliminated, some DFLers hope their majorities in the House and Senate will be enough to revive it. Progressive groups that are sometimes critical of the MPCA, like the Land Stewardship Project, which opposed the dairy farm plan, are behind the effort. . . .
Orenstein included these criticisms by Republicans:
. . . Republicans have already been frustrated by the downfall of several industrial projects in recent years — from a shrimp farm in Luverne to a wood factory in Cohasset — that they blame at least in part on slow government permitting. The idea of an unelected, governor-appointed board was also an issue for GOP lawmakers. . . .
Not that the Citizens Board was still operating when those industrial projects fell down. But there's more about the first.
A friend--a retired labor activist in Luverne--took exception to the use of Tru Shrimp as an example. From Facebook:
The full comment:
There is a lot to digest in this article about the Citizens Board but what I am really disappointed in is that some GOP legislators are still allowed to spew the narrative that TruShrimp fled to South Dakota because of environmental regulations.
From MinnPost -"Republicans have already been frustrated by the downfall of several industrial projects in recent years — from a shrimp farm in Luverne to a wood factory in Cohasset — that they blame at least in part on slow government permitting."Anyone with basic reading comprehension should come to the conclusion that TruShrimp was (and still is) having difficulty raising money for their concept. Apparently the monied interests (banks, wall street, hedge funds, etc.) are not rushing to invest but TruShrimp was able to have a few beers with the former Governor of South Dakota, get some cash and say they were moving to South Dakota. They have yet to build anything in South Dakota after ghosting Luverne several years ago. Since that time Premium Minnesota Pork, a company with actual money in their bank account came to Luverne AND paid almost half of the 14 million dollar price tag for improvements to the city's water treatment facility. [Emphasis added by Bluestem Prairie].More about TruShrimp in the comments.
Moerke cites a January 23, 2022 post by Cory Allen Heidelberger in Dakota Free Press, Tru Shrimp Seeks IPO; Company Has $41M Deficit, Will Be Out of Cash by Fall.
Three years after its much-ballyhooed bail on Minnesota for the promise of easier corporate welfare in South Dakota, Minnesota shrimp farming corporation Tru Shrimp still hasn’t started building its shrimp vats in Madison, South Dakota. Evidently unable to raise enough money from private local investors, Tru Shrimp filed papers Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an initial public offering of stock under the NasDAQ ticker symbol BTRU. But this SEC prospectus reports huge debt and a looming collapse this year that one meager IPO may not avert.
Tru Shrimp’s January 18 S-1 filing shows that, despite South Dakota’s much-ballyhooed “strongest economy in America,” Tru Shrimp’s owners still haven’t moved homes or headquarters from Minnesota to South Dakota, and they are still getting their fancy financial lawyering done by Twin Cities lawyers instead of trying to Discover the Unexpected genius barristers on Main Street Madison. The prospectus does not indicate how many shares Tru Shrimp plans to offer or at what price Tru Shrimp will offer them. But they don’t anticipate selling a lot of stock: on page 16, the prospectus says this initial public offering won’t cover the $75 million to $80 million that may be needed to build the Madison Bay Harbor. Tru Shrimp only anticipates selling enough stock to “finalize engineering of Madison Bay harbor and fund our operating expenses for the next 12 months.”
The company states that it has so far “focused nearly exclusively on research and development and now intend[s] to commercialize our technology platform.” The prospectus says that the research and development stage has consumed “approximately $70 million of cash”, with $11 million spent on the Balaton Bay Reef pilot production facility. Tru Shrimp says it made its first commercial sale of shrimp to a Minneapolis distributor in September 2019. Tru Shrimp idled production due to the coronavirus pandemic and did not resume production until last summer. . . .
Read the rest at Dakota Free Press.
So how's that going?
A February 2022 press release on the company's website noted The trū Shrimp Companies, Inc. Postpones Initial Public Offering.
But there's more. According to a filing at the Security and Exchange Commission, the company withdrew its application in December:
December 9, 2022
VIA EDGAR TRANSMISSION
Division of Corporation Finance
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
100 F Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20549-6010
Attn:
Mr. Daniel Crawford
Mr. Jeffrey Gabor
Re:
The trū Shrimp Companies, Inc.
Registration Statement on Form S-1 (Registration No. 333-262218)
Application for Withdrawal
Ladies and gentlemen:
Pursuant to Rule 477 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), The trū Shrimp Companies, Inc. (the “Company”) hereby requests that the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) consent to the withdrawal, effective as of the date hereof or at the earliest practicable date hereafter, of the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 (Registration No. 333-262218), together with all exhibits and amendments thereto (collectively, the “Registration Statement”). The Registration Statement was originally filed with the Commission on January 18, 2022.
Due to prevailing market conditions, the Company has determined not to utilize the Registration Statement for an initial public offering at this time. The Registration Statement has not been declared effective by the Commission, and no securities were sold or will be sold under the Registration Statement. Therefore, withdrawal of the Registration Statement is consistent with the public interest and the protection of investors, as contemplated by paragraph (a) of Rule 477 under the Securities Act.
The Company also requests that, in accordance with Rule 457(p) under the Securities Act, all fees paid to the Commission in connection with the filing of the Registration Statement be credited for future use.
Additionally, the Company requests that the Commission consent to the withdrawal of the Company’s registration statement on Form 8-A (Registration No. 001-41270), filed with the Commission on February 7, 2022, with such application to be approved effective as of the date hereof or at the earliest practicable date hereafter. In accordance with Rule 12d1-2 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the Form 8-A has not become effective.
Please provide a copy of the order granting withdrawal of the Registration Statement to the undersigned via email at [email protected], with a copy to Joseph J. Schauer of Fredrikson & Byron, P.A. via email at [email protected]
Very truly yours,
THE TRū SHRIMP COMPANIES, INC.
On the "Careers" page on Tru Shrimp's website, Bluestem read:
All of our current positions are located at our corporate headquarters, The trū Shrimp Innovation Center in Balaton, MN.
We recently announced plans to construct our first shrimp production facility, a Harbor, in Madison, SD.
At this time, we are NOT accepting applications for the Madison, SD Harbor location.
At one time, news media here in South Dakota reported such things as the Argus Leader's 2019's Tru Shrimp plans delayed in Madison, but company says it remains committed:
A Minnesota-based shrimp manufacturer has delayed plans to build its first production facility in Madison after accepting millions of dollars in economic development funding from South Dakota officials.
Tru Shrimp remains committed to building in the South Dakota town, but has no immediate plans to begin work on the project. Company leaders are hesitant to set a new timeline for construction, said Jamie Brink-Thordson, Tru Shrimp’s director of sales and marketing.
Tru Shrimp executives initially expected to begin construction in June, but are taking the conservative approach when it comes to financing the project.
“The biggest thing that has kept us from starting, candidly, is our capital raising is in progress,” Brink-Thordson said. “This is the first of its kind.”
State and local officials committed $6.5 million in taxpayer dollars for a low-interest loan for the Tru Shrimp project this winter, including $5.5 million directly from the governor’s Future Fund. Weeks after the Future Fund money was approved, Tru Shrimp announced it was building in Madison and moving away from previous plans to build its first plant in Luverne, Minnesota. . .
Oh.
Perhaps the opponents of the revival of the Citizen Board might look for another example of Evil Environmental Regulation Blighting Minnesota than this tardy company.
After all, Minnesota jobs have been created at the Luverne site. In October, Kamita Kuvar reported for the Star Tribune, Rock County has Minnesota's lowest unemployment. What's its secret?
Related posts
- Bills to restore Citizens Board of the MPCA working their way through Minnesota legislature
- trū Shrimp fans get salty about specific conductance; here's why you should care
- Bill to restore MPCA Citizens Board gets 2nd House hearing 3/7; commissioner Bishop neutral
- Guy who works for dairy at heart of elimination of MPCA Citizen Board appointed to new fake board
- MN Senate Environment & Energy Committee to hold hearing on purpose of environmental review
- Fehr factor vs citizen power: so a real discussion happened in a Minnesota House committee
- Co-founder of Senate Rural Task Force (est. 2014) attacks MPCA Citizen Board (est. 1967
- MN12A: Does Backer want to strip citizens of ability to ask MPCA for environmental studies?
Photo: An edible shrimp. Brittanica.
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