PPSA Hearing is OVER

December 10th, 2024

An hour in utility futility! The Power Plant Siting Act annual hearing is over. Comment period? Here’s how:

The most important thing I see is that as of this legislative session, THE POWER PLANT SITING ACT NO LONGER EXISTS! Minn. Stat. Ch. 216E was the Power Plant Siting Act:

But now? It’s all been repealed and renumbered, and RENAMED under a different chapter:

And permitting statutes were repealed, amended, and then renumbered and sent over to a new “Chapter 216I.” Click that link to check it out.

What does it mean for siting and permitting if the Power Plant Siting Act is repealed? Kinda don’t want to think about it.

Annual Hearing Tuesday – PPSA

December 7th, 2024

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

The Power Plant Siting Act annual hearing, a la Minn. Stat. 216I.15, is the time to let the Public Utilities Commission know what works and what does not work in the Commission’s siting of power plants, transmission, wind, solar, and even pipelines!

Here’s the problem — all they have to do per the statute is “advise the public of the permits issued by the commission in the past year.” What happens after that, well, it goes to the PUC but that’s about it. It is a good time to vent, and get on the record all the horrible things that have happened over the year, and the historical trends, such as elimination of the Advisory Task Force.

Here’s the decades old law providing for Advisory Task Forces:

And this session, after the Public Utilities Commission and their OAH ALJs were denying, denying, denying after so many Advisory Task Force Petitions over so many years — simply repealed, eliminated:

It’s GONE! And eliminating the reference of Task Forces as an aspect of public participation:

Ja, we “Public Participants” get the PUC’s message loud and clear:

Public participation via the Public Utilities Commission? Remember the Report of the Office of the Legislative Auditor?

Public Utilities Commission’s Public Participation Processes – OLA-Report

Fat lot of good that did. Instead of improving public participation, we hear the Commission Chair saying, “What can we do to make this faster for you?” and “What can we do to speed this permitting up?” and that whole “streamlining” effort, which is really STEAMROLLING. Fast tracking permitting, denial of interventions, failure to have project proponents witnesses at hearings for questioning…

PUC Strategic Plan

Here are the reports from the last 20 years — often they hold it on my birthday, but not this year. You can see that year after year, it’s the same issues:

2000 Summary of Proceedings

2000 Report EQB

2001 Summary of Proceedings

2001 Report EQB

2002 Summary of Proceedings

2002 Report to EQB

2003 Summary of Proceedings

2003 Report to EQB

2004 Summary of Proceedings

2004 Report to EQB

2005 Report to PUC

2006 Report to PUC – Docket 06-1733

2007 Report to PUC – Docket 07-1579

2008 Report to PUC – Docket 08-1426

2009 Report to PUC – Docket 09-1351

2010 Report to PUC – Docket 10-222

2011 Report to PUC – Docket 11-324

2012 Report to PUC – Docket 12-360

2013 Report to PUC – Docket 13-965

2014 Summary Report– Docket 14-887

2015 Summary Report – Docket 15-785

2016 Summary Report – Docket 16-18

2017 Summary Report – Docket 17-18

2018 Summary Report – Docket 18-18

2019 Summary Report_Docket 19-18

Summary Report – Docket 20-18

2021 Summary Report – Docket 21-18

2022-Summary-Report_Docket 22-18

And last year’s Report from the 2023 hearing, held on December 20, 2023:

There’s a trend… And here we go, on Tuesday, another year of banging heads against the wall.

PPSA Annual Hearing this a.m.

December 20th, 2023

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!! It’s the Annual Power Plant Siting Act Hearing, where we get to tell an Administrative Law Judge how we think our state’s system for Power Plant Siting works and doesn’t work. In these days of extreme regulatory capture, it’s hard not to just barf at the thought. But here we go again.

The map above was turned in at the 2006 PPSA Annual Hearing. It is an OLD transmission map, from 2005, long before Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII) became an issue, so don’t even think of claiming this is CEII info! The highlighted lines are rough approximations of the transmission lines proposed for CapX 2020 (PUC Docket CN-06-1115). The green squares are cute little coal plants, existing or planned, with megawatts ID’d. Every picture tells a story.

My comments, Round 1 highlights — full packet below:

When they’re talking about planned & proposed transmission what are they talking about? It’s a big, long list.

Here’s the Commerce handout:

Compare the list provided by Commerce, page 4, and note which ones are missing — that is which that have been assigned a PUC docket number, but aren’t in the list: 1( Brookings-Lyon Co. & Helena-Hampton (CN-23-200 & TL-08-1474); Wilmarth-North Rochester-Tremval a/k/a Mankato-Mississippi (CN-22-532 & TL-23-388); Big Stone So.-Alexandria-Big Oaks (CN-22-538 & TL-233-454). Here’s their list:

Here’s a rough map of what’s been and is proposed, from the 2001 SW MN 345kV line, to CapX 2020, to MISO MVP Portfolio, to the current MISO “Tranche 1” in Minnesota:

HOW MUCH TRANSMISSION CAN WE POSSIBLY NEED?

HOW MUCH TRANSMISSION SHOULD WE PAY FOR?

Here’s the Commission’s 4 color glossy powerpoint (and yes, Comment period ends January 12, 2024).

And here are my INITIAL Comments:

THIS is the most important part CapX 2020 transmission was predicated on a 2.49% annual peak demand increase, which we knew then was bullshit, and utilities said, “Oh, that’s just a blip.” Right… we new better, and we have the proof it’s not a “blip.” The peak demand numbers in the chart and graph are taken from Xcel’s SEC 10K filings. Xcel in 2009 claimed 9,632.6 for 2009, though SEC filings said 8,615. NOTE: Demand is essentially FLAT over time:

So why are they wanting all this transmission, transmission that we pay for, that landowners forfeit land for easements, WHY?

Let’s focus on this and ruminate a bit…

Just filed, the ALJ’s report to the Public Utilities Commission from the Power Plant Siting Act Annual Hearing.

Here’s the presentation from the hearing:

And I’ve not kept up with the annual report filings, so here they all are:

2000 Summary of Proceedings

2000 Report EQB

2001 Summary of Proceedings

2001 Report EQB

2002 Summary of Proceedings

2002 Report to EQB

2003 Summary of Proceedings

2003 Report to EQB

2004 Summary of Proceedings

2004 Report to EQB

2005 Report to PUC

2006 Report to PUC – Docket 06-1733

2007 Report to PUC – Docket 07-1579

2008 Report to PUC – Docket 08-1426

2009 Report to PUC – Docket 09-1351

2010 Report to PUC – Docket 10-222

2011 Report to PUC – Docket 11-324

2012 Report to PUC – Docket 12-360

2013 Report to PUC – Docket 13-965

2014 Summary Report– Docket 14-887

2015 Summary Report – Docket 15-785

2016 Summary Report – Docket 16-18

2017 Summary Report – Docket 17-18

2018 Summary Report – Docket 18-18

2019 Summary Report_Docket 19-18

20202-160679-01 Summary Report – Docket 20-18

SPREAD THE WORD:

6:00 P.M.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2022

At the PUC’s annual Power Plant Siting Act (PPSA) hearing on the 9th, it was impossible to get into the webex meeting, so ultimately I signed in via the phone, and as far as I could tell, I was the only one present. I did note for the record that it was impossible to get in, and afterward, the next day(?), I called Bret Eknes to complain, and he did admit there were problems and that it would be rescheduled. GOOD!

Today the notice came out:

CLICK ON THE NOTICE FOR LINK AND DETAILS OF HOW TO CONNECT.

Once more with feeling:

BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!