Legalectric

At times I miss my old flatbed scanner … newfangled tech ate my copy!

Two HUGE solar projects (~2,500 acres – Grant County; ~3,500 acres – Badger Hollow) that I’ve worked on are delayed, first force majeure right after COVID began and imports ended:

Solar Force Majeure in WI – Coronavirus – February 26th, 2020

Then Force Majeure notice cancelled:

Cancellation of Force Majeure – March 11th, 2020

Then again, more delays announced by developer:Grant County solar – 9804-CE-100:

Second Extension of Time to Begin Construction

And Badger Hollow solar, also delayed:

Badger Hollow II O.P. 6 Q1 2022 Construction Report

A few days ago, there was this in the Federal Register:

Declaration of Emergency and Authorization for Temporary Extensions of Time and Duty-Free Importation of Solar Cells and Modules From Southeast Asia

What is the impact of this on these stalled out solar projects? Inquiring minds want to know!

Do the repeated delays, repeated extensions, alter the financial picture for these two projects, and others as well? Inquiring minds want to know!

Does this Presidential Proclamation alter odds of delivery, speed of delivery, of solar panels that they’re waiting for? Inquiring minds want to know!

Why? Because of his filing on December 7, 2020, of Case No. 220155, State of Texas
v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State of Georgia, State of Michigan, and State of Wisconsin in
the United States Supreme Court.

Bottom line:

From the pleading:

The lawsuit for which Paxton is being disciplined, his actions and omissions found to be professional misconduct, is the very suit that some of “our” state legislators wrote to have Minnesota included!

SHAME on MN Legislators wanting MN added to TX suit

This is not news — yet little has been done. Those requesting Minnesota be added to the bogus Texas lawsuit have no authority whatsoever to make such a request, and each of them have no business being in office. Disciplinary action is long over due — they should be booted out of the Minnesota legislature.

The Lava Ridge wind project is likely the country’s largest wind project thus far, with turbines twice the size of those in Minnesota. Here’s the “Magic Valley” developer page: https://www.magicvalleyenergy.com/

And the BLM page for the project:

LAVA RIDGE WIND PROJECT

Cut & paste of some basic facts for the project:

The proposed project includes up to 400 wind turbines, up to seven new substations, approximately 198 miles of 34.5 kilovolt (kV) collector lines, 34 miles of 230 kV transmission lines, 18 miles of 500 kV transmission lines, 381 miles of access roads, 47 miles of temporary crane paths, a battery energy storage system, three operations and maintenance facilities, five permanent met towers and construction-related staging yards. The project proposal has identified a range of possible turbine sizes that would have a generating capacity of 2 to 6 megawatts (MW) per turbine and would have heights ranging from 460 to 740 feet tall. MVE has proposed to locate all components of the project within a series of corridors. These corridors are approximately 1/2 mile wide and cover approximately 76,000 acres, of which 73,000 acres are located on public lands managed by BLM and 3,000 acres are State Lands managed by the Idaho Department of Lands.  The project infrastructure proposed within the corridors is estimated to have a 10,000-acre footprint (emphasis added).

BLM National NEPA Register — Lava Ridge Wind Project

The “Friends of Minidoka” are actively challenging this project, more info here, the link is dated, a cut & paste blurb from BLM:

Bureau of Land Management Extends Public Scoping for the Lava Ridge Wind Project

The prerecorded presentation and scoping posters are available on the project website at https://go.usa.gov/xFKxg.

Contact info for BLM, please contact Kasey Prestwich, Lava Ridge Wind Project EIS Project Manager, Phone: 208-732-7204, E-mail: kprestwich@blm.gov.  

• Lava Ridge Wind Project Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Scoping Report

From that Scoping Report, here’s another, better map:

I’d expect the EIS will take at least a few more months, and perhaps not be released until next year. I’ve asked and will report in if I get a response. And here ’tis, expected that “Draft EIS will be published in September 2022 and a Notice of Availability for the Final EIS will be published in April 2023.”

Just in today (I’d requested to be on developers project list) – there’s a meeting on Saturday,11a-1p at College of Southern Idaho, Taylor Building, Rm. 276: