Mickelson & Company, LLC
Mickelson & Company, LLC
Mickelson & Company, LLC
Mickelson & Company, LLC
.

                   

   Mark Mickelson & Company
   101 N. Main Ave.
   Suite 217
   Sioux Falls, SD 57104
   Phone: 605-977-4873
   Fax: 605-335-4982
   Email@mickco.com
Mickelson & Company assists City of Sioux Falls in Sale of Landfill Carbon Credits to TerraPass
 
October 8, 2008
Sioux Falls, SD
 
Through the services of Mickelson & Company, LLC, the city of Sioux Falls sold its "verified emission reductions" from 2007 and the first two months of 2008 to TerraPass, a San Francisco-based company that trades in carbon offsets.
 
Consumers and corporations spent an estimated $54 million on carbon credits in 2007, according to the New York Times. The money goes toward green projects such as planting forests in Mississippi, investing in wind farms or helping dairy farmers and landfills capture and destroy methane.
 
"You don't often equate landfills with sustainability or being environmentally conscious or the other buzzwords out there," said Kevin Smith, Sioux Falls assistant director of public works. "But we're taking a harmful greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere - we wanted to do it. And to get money back for it, it is an added bonus."

There is a chance that the city could generate more future carbon credits from the landfill by selling the gas to another green-energy supplier - a Poet ethanol plant, Smith and Craig said. In April, Mayor Dave Munson signed a 10-year deal with Poet Chief Executive Officer Jeff Broin to supply methane to help power Poet's plant in Chancellor.
 

The city pledged to build the $4.3 million, 11-mile-long pipeline in exchange for Poet's purchase of the gas, said Mark Cotter, city public works director. The pipeline, which should go online in early 2009, would cost the city about $300,000 to operate but would generate about $1.8 million in revenue annually.

"And things like that, we can advocate other landfills to make the investment," Craig said. "And more projects can be supported by carbon offsets." TerraPass has invested in landfill gas-capture projects near Norridgewock, Maine, Lebanon, Pa., and Springdale, Ark., Craig said. "We do mission-driven business," she said.

Mickelson & Company Launches New Line of Business
 
April 26, 2008
Sioux Falls, SD
 
Anticipated federal law regulating greenhouse gas emissions is expected to propel the environmental incentives market in the United States. Mickelson & Company has hired a Director of Environmental and Energy Markets, Ryan T. Pidde. Mr. Pidde was formerly an economic development representative for the State of South Dakota focusing on the energy industry and is a graduate of the University of South Dakota Business School and a native of Freeman, SD.
 
As a part of this new line of business, Mickelson & Company has begun offering carbon credit aggregation services to eligible agricultural operators (conservation tillage farmers and ranchers who follow approved conservation rangeland management practices) in South Dakota and neighboring states. In addition, Mickelson & Company is advising municipalities and industrial companies on revenue opportunities associated with certain environmentally friendly changes in practices.
 

Mickelson & Company is also a recent member of the Chicago Climate Exchange.

2007 Railroad Track Improvements aided by 45G Tax Credit Assignments 

December 31, 2007

Sioux Falls, SD

Our clients’ railroads serve important communities and industries in over thirty states and critical track improvements funded as a result of these transactions totaled over $90 million in 2007.

Mickelson & Company's advisory work on 45G tax credit assignments began in the fall of 2005 with one client consisting of two Class II railroads.

In 2007, Mickelson & Company advised twenty-seven different organizations consisting of over eighty different Class II or III railroads on the assignment of their track maintenance (45G) federal tax credits.  These tax credits totaled over $45 million dollars in the aggregate and the individual assignment transactions ranged in size from $300,000 to over $10 million.  Mickelson & Company's role included the identification of eligible taxpayers (shippers and rail-related suppliers), advice on the potential economics of an assignment transaction, and appropriate assignment documentation. 

Mickelson Brokers 45G Tax Credit for Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railroad

October 2007
Sioux Falls, SD and Bangor, ME

Mickelson and Company has successfully brokered a 45G Tax Credit for the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, Inc headquartered in Bangor, ME. The $4.5 million improvement plan covering 645 miles of U.S. track was completed in 2007.

A 45G Tax Credit is legislation that allows short line railroads to transfer credits against the total amount of federal taxes owed by their shippers, contractors and suppliers under certain circumstances and is based upon the investment made in track maintenance and qualifying upgrades to roadbeds, bridges and other related railroad structures.

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, began operation in January of 2003 and owns over 745 route miles of track in Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick and employs approximately 350 people. The MMA operates approximately 25 trains daily with a fleet of 32 GE and EMD locomotives.

For more information on the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway see www.mmarail.com

Mickelson and Company Brokers 45G Tax Credit for Pan Am Railways 

May 2007
Sioux Falls, SD and North Billerica, MA

Mickelson and Company has successfully brokered a 45G Tax Credit for Pan Am Railways in North Billerica, MA. The $9 million improvement plan of 1,280 miles of track is slated to begin in 2007.

A 45G Tax Credit is legislation that allows short line railroads to transfer credits against the total amount of federal taxes owed by their shippers, contractors and suppliers under certain circumstances and is based upon the investment made in track maintenance and qualifying upgrades to roadbeds, bridges and other related railroad structures.   

Pan Am Railways is mid-sized freight-hauling railroad covering regions in the New England Region of the United States.  

LINKS:
45GTax Credit on Site
PAN AM http://www.guilfordrail.com/

Real Estate Development--Jansmick Land Investments, LLC

May 2007
Sioux Falls, SD


Mickelson & Company continues to advise Jansmick on the development and sale of nearly 200 acres of commercial and industrial land in the northwestern section of Sioux Falls. This part of the city is one of the fastest-growing locations for new industry and our advisory role has ensured fair market prices.