Legalectric

Yes, I’ve been SWAMPED, too many of these guys hanging around…

Finally, here they are, Letters to the Editor from the Grand Rapids Herald Review, and it’s worth the time — these are examples of why I’m compelled to work on these issues — THE PEOPLE’S VOICE. I’ve just been having that discussion in another context, about the power of blogs, and blogging is just an extension of what we’ve all been doing for centuries, millenia.. . forever… speaking out — that’s our job!

From today’s Grand Rapids Herald Review:

Wind power is more logical solution

Herald-Review

Editor:

I am compelled to write after reading the letter from Kristen Anderson in the Herald-Review, Wednesday, June 14.

Ever since the showing of TV ads touting the production of “clean electricity” from coal, and then there were news stories promoting the funding for the project plus the many letters to the editor regarding the “coal gasification” project, I thought about the eminent pollution possibilities. Kristen certainly did some important research for all of us.
The next thought and question is: Should these Mesaba plants 1 and 2 be built despite popular votes against them? If built, where does the waste go? More particulates and gases into the air? At a time in this century, when scientists tell us that our air is contaminated, do we need to add more contaminants?

Since Minnesota has a Renewable Energy Resources Fund, plus Federal Department of Energy and Iron Range Resources millions of dollars, why are we contemplating using the major portion of it for a project that will be used for converting a non-renewable resource into a lot of pollutants, and then electricity. Senseless! Whose hand is in the public’s pocket?

Look at the situation in Hibbing where there is a 10-acre site with an estimated 2 million cubic yards of coal tar containing a wide variety of contaminants. Do we really want that? Wind power is a more logical solution for our world.

Oh, but then, we wouldn’t have the jobs here. According to the statistics that I have read from Kristenâ??s letter and others, those that would be permanent would be the highly technical jobs.

Has anyone ever noticed the wind propeller on Highway 169 South, near the Elk River landfill? It is providing electricity for something. There are sites in Itasca County and elsewhere, which could do the same. Of course, there are the nay sayers. I say, use the Renewable Energy Resource Fund for just that and not for coal. Parts of our county still are recipients of fall-out from the Clay-Boswell plant in spite of their higher stacks.

Dorothy M. Olds
Grand Rapids

Numbers, by Karl Manning

She referred to Kristen’s letter, Kristen Anderson of Trout Lake Township. Here’s her letter from last Wednesday, June 14, 2006, and keep an eye out for Ed’s LTE!

Adding up the numbers

Herald-Review

Editor:

The coal gasification project proposed on the Scenic Highway is a huge, seemingly overwhelming issue to understand. Using information from Excelsior Energy informational meetings, Excelsiorâ??s reports, and public records, it is helpful to view Excelsior Energy â??by the numbersâ?:
600 – Number of permanent jobs originally proposed in 2003 for plant 1 and 2 (Mesaba 1 and 2)
150 – Permanent jobs proposed in 2004 for Mesaba 1
107 – Permanent jobs proposed in 2005 for Mesaba 1
0 – Number of jobs guaranteed by Excelsior Energy
? – Number of actual jobs for 2011(completion date of Mesaba 1)
447 – Tons of sulfur dioxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
1,227 – Tons of nitrous oxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
991 – Tons of Carbon Monoxide to be released each year by Mesaba 1
17.9 – Pounds of Mercury to be released each year by Mesaba 1
174 – Tons of particulate matter (PM2.5) to be released annually by Mesaba 1
6 – Number of phases (plants) planned by Excelsior Energy
18,303 – Estimated work loss days per year due to illness caused by Mesaba 1
10+ – Extra miles of train cars going through Grand Rapids each week
345,000 – Voltage of Transmission lines from Mesaba 1 and 2 to Twin Cities
70 – Increased risk percentage of childhood leukemia within 200 yards of high voltage transmission lines
140 – Height (in feet) of transmission line poles for Excelsior Energyâ??s project
0 – Excelsior equity in Mesaba 1 project
9.5 – Million dollars from IRR for Excelsior Energyâ??s project
10 – Million dollars from state Renewable Energy Resource Fund
36 – Million dollars from federal Department of Energy
800 – Million dollars in federal loan guarantees
12 – Million dollars in state bonding for Itasca County infrastructure
0 – Watts produced thus far by Excelsior Energy
0 – Power plants built thus far by Excelsior Energy
9 – Excelsior Energy â??Our Teamâ? employees
15 – Number of lobbyists working for Excelsior Energy
0 – Acres of green space in original legislation
1,000 – Acres of green space required for Scenic Highway site
0 – Demonstrated need for additional energy in northern Minnesota (in watts)
65 – Percentage of votes opposed to Mesaba project in recent Herald-Review Quick Poll

Kristen Anderson
Bovey

Stolen from here

And this one from last weekend’s paper (I can’t figure out if it’s a Saturday or Sunday paper, I think it’s been changing up there…):

Coal project is no fairy tale says reader

Editor:

The Dirty Coal Choo-Chooâ??a bedtime story.

Once upon a time the wise elders of a northern Minnesota community thought, â??Gee, we like railroad trains and we have railroad tracks running right through townâ??how can we get more trains to come through town? Our subjects need to hear the rumble of trains over the tracks, and the blaring of train horns at all hours of the day. And how fun it is to sit and wait for trains to pass and count railroad cars.â?

The wise elders were contacted by powerful people with lots of money and political connections. The powerful people said, â??We can build a power plant that uses lots of dirty coal. And the best way to bring that dirty, yucky coal from far away Wyoming is by stinky diesel locomotives that chug right through your wonderful northern town.â? And the wise elders were thrilled and bowed to the powerful people and said, â??We will help pay for railroad tracks for your dirty coal trains so that our subjects can be happy and see much dirty coal.â?

So the powerful people told the wise elders, â??If you will support our environmentally unfriendly project we will help make your subjects happy.â? The wise elders were assured that each week five trains, each with 115 cars of dirty coal would travel east through town to the powerful peopleâ??s polluting, monster, power plant and each week five empty trains would travel west through town to return to the dirty coal fields to retrieve more dirty coal to fill the dirty coal cars. And the powerful people told the wise elders that each train with dirty coal would be almost one mile long so that the wise eldersâ?? lucky subjects would be able to see 20 miles of trains with dirty coal each week. The powerful people said, â??Oh how happy your subjects will be and you wise elders will be treated like royalty.â?
And the powerful people said, â??Wise elders, if your subjects are really good and obedient people, we will build another polluting, monster, power plant that uses dirty coal and you will have twice as many dirty coal trains for the subjects to watch.â?

The wise elders were ecstatic as they thought of the joy they would bring to their obedient subjects. The wise elders thought â??our names will live forever! And maybe the powerful people will even name a car that carries dirty coal after each of us. Such an honor!â?

Fairy tale? Nightmare? There is no â??they lived happily ever after.â? Dirty coal trains are but the tip of the iceberg. Learn more about the dirty coal gasification project and you will find that our wise elders are selling out to the powerful people and planning to degrade the quality of our lives and the environment of northern Minnesota.

John Zasada
Grand Rapids

The Pages of Shades: Fairy Tales

Emperor Micheletti exposed!!! The whole world is watching, and a lot of people know… In today’s Grand Rapids Herald Review Bob Beech speaks the obvious truth that must be said:

Reader likens Excelsior project to ‘Emperor’ fable

Editor:

In the fable, â??The Emperorâ??s New Suit,â? by Hans Christian Andersen, remember how the emperor commissioned a wonderful new wardrobe which took lots of hard work, time and money to create?

I quote here from the fable; â??One day two swindlers came to this city; they made people believe that they were weavers, and declared they could manufacture the finest cloth to be imagined. Their colors and patterns, they said, were not only exceptionally beautiful, but the clothes made of their material possessed the wonderful quality of being invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. â??That must be wonderful cloth,â??thought the emperor. â??If I were to be dressed in a suit made of this cloth I should be able to find out which men in my empire were unfit for their places, and I could distinguish the clever from the stupid. I must have this cloth woven for me without delay.â?? And he gave a large sum of money to the swindlers, in advance, that they should set to work without any loss of time. And remember, when he finally appeared in public in his new outfit, how everyone pretended to admire the fancy clothes — even thoâ?? he was totally naked?

And remember the end of the story? Again I quote the fable; â??The emperor marched in the procession under the beautiful canopy, and all who saw him in the street and out of the windows exclaimed: â??Indeed, the emperorâ??s new suit is incomparable! What a long train he has! How well it fits him!â?? Nobody wished to let others know he saw nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office or too stupid. Never emperorâ??s clothes were more admired.

â??But he has nothing on at all,â?? said a little child at last. â??Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child,â?? said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. â??But he has nothing on at all,â?? cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, â??Now I must bear up to the end.â?? And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried the train which did not exist.â?

Well, the reason for fables like that is staring us in the face right now. Itâ??s called the Mesaba Energy Project. We need to expose their naked grab for our money before we get caught holding the bag for what needs to be their risks, not ours –the people of Trout Lake and Iron Range townships. They propose to use our land and our money to build the stateâ??s most expensive experiment ever producing electricity which will not be used locally and for which our people will see absolutely no improvement in their quality of life or lowering of taxes.

Bob Beech
Bovey

A recent “poll” in the Grand Rapids Herald Review showd 64% opposed Excelsior’s Mesaba plant. The percentages at the Taconite meeting on May 16th showed even higher percentages against the plant. The questions were very informed ones, where the questioner had obviously been doing homework. “The people” are figuring it out, and that’s because they’re asking:

What is the ‘truth?’

Last Updated: Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 01:34:55 PM

Editor:

A week ago there was a preliminary hearing of the Public Utilities Commission regarding the Mesaba Energy Project being proposed by Excelsior Energy. This was the first meeting in the process to approve a â??power purchase agreement.â? The proposed project does not have a buyer for the electricity they will produce. Before the project can go forward this agreement must be in place. At the Mesaba Energy informational meeting in Taconite last Wednesday, the spokesman for the project basically said that â??not a shovel of earth would be turnedâ? without a power purchase agreement.

â??Itâ??s a done deal is whatâ??s heard around town!â? The message from this preliminary hearing was loud and clear–itâ??s far from a done deal! In fact there seemed to be a lot of opposition among the â??energy peopleâ? at the hearing. The soonest a decision can be made regarding this stage of the project is six months, but most parties involved were asking that the decision not be made until August 2007.

There were a lot of lawyers involved. The lawyers were representing Excelsior Energy, Xcel Energy, Minnesota State Power, Great Northern Power and a few other organizations. Excelsior Energy does not seem to want affected private landowners to be involved in the discussions relative to this critical step in the process. Their lawyers filed a petition to not allow people directly affected by this project a â??seat at the tableâ?â??they argued that the State Department of Commerce could adequately represent them. The judge in charge of the proceedings ruled that the private landowner group could be involved in the power purchase agreement discussion. Thank goodness! One has to ask whether Excelsior Energy wants to be a â??good neighborâ? to those affected or simply to â??steam rollerâ? private landowners by exercising their â??right of eminent domain.â?

But what struck me about these early discussions was what seemed to be a number of versions of what the â??truthâ? about this project might actually be. The truthfulness on trial here is that of Excelsior Energy. Are they telling the truth or not? Do they really have a plan to make this project work?

During the proceedings, Excelsiorâ??s lawyer held up a 3-inch thick document and said that it was â??the planâ? for the Mesaba Project. The Xcel Energy lawyer immediately pointed out that the document contained many blank pages and little of the detail necessary to adequately evaluate the technical aspects of the project that are necessary to determine the cost and environmental impact of the project, and the ultimate cost of the electricity to rate payers. People that are following this project have been continually frustrated by what seems to be changing plans and changing answers to old questions. What is the truth about all aspects of this multi-billion dollar project? The deliberations of the Public Utilities Commission will hopefully bring them out and determine the rightful fate of this projectâ??that is, â??not a shovel of dirt turned.â?

John Zasada
Grand Rapids

Range projects favored in bonding

This session ended by giving two more perks to Mesaba, the utility personal property tax exemption and bonding, but the good news is that they didn’t get nearly what they’ve demanded in bonding and they are required to get host government approval and negotiate a Host Fee Agreement.

Here’s the bonding language for HF 2959 as it made it through Conference Committee, House and Senate, and now on to the Gov:

Subd. 14. Itasca County – infrastructure 12,000,000

For a grant to Itasca County for public infrastructure needed to support a steel plant in Itasca County or an innovative energy project in Itasca County under Minnesota Statutes, section 216B.1694, that uses clean energy technology as defined in Minnesota Statutes, section 216B.1693, or both. Grant money may be used by Itasca County to acquire right-of-way and mitigate loss of wetlands and runoff of storm water, to predesign, design, construct, and equip roads and rail lines, and, in cooperation with municipal public utilities, to predesign, design, construct, and equip natural gas pipelines, electric infrastructure, water supply systems, and wastewater collection and treatment systems.

Up to $4,000,000 of this appropriation may be spent before the full financing for either project has been closed.

The Mesaba personal property tax exemption went through a few days earlier in HF 785, and scroll down to 28.i.

As if Itasca County isn’t going through enough, last week it was announced that the MSI and Mesaba projects require a rail line and the county will have to decide if they are going to fund it, to the tune of $45 million, and not just pay for it but be their own railroad company, operate it, buy or lease cars, the whole shebang, and they have 30-60 days to come to a decision! Can you believe this?

Charlotte Neigh was at that meeting and took copious notes. From these, she wrote a Letter to the Editor, and it’s in the Grand Rapids Herald Review, though they changed the title from “Should county risk debt for Mesaba Project?” to the one below… sigh…

Is there too much risk?

SHOULD COUNTY RISK DEBT FOR MESABA PROJECT?

Herald-Review

Last Updated: Friday, May 19th, 2006 04:43:28 PM

Editor:

On May 16th Itasca Countyâ??s consultant for coordinating infrastructure for the Minnesota Steel and Mesaba Energy projects told the commissioners that they must decide whether the county wants to be in the railroad business. This relates to the shortline railroad comprising 20 miles of track and an interchange yard for train cars, connecting to both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and the Canadian National lines, and servicing both projects including bringing in coal for Mesaba and taking out steel for MSI.

This railroad infrastructure has been estimated to cost $40,450,455; the question is how to pay for it. The consultant pointed out that the county could borrow at a better interest rate than the projects can and so should consider whether it wants to bond for the needed funds and then seek to recover this debt through long-term (perhaps 20 years) agreements with each project for repayment to the county.

The Department of Energy has stated that “the financial risk associated with this technology demonstration (Mesaba Energy Project) is, in general, too high for the private sector to assume in the absence of strong incentives.” If the risk of this project is so high, should Itasca County and its taxpayers be relying on it to repay tens of millions of dollars expended to provide rail service for it?

The consultant stated that the objectives have been: to provide the lowest cost service to both projects with minimum or no, or acceptable risk to the county, and to get something back for the county’s efforts. He told the commissioners that they need to balance the risk and the benefit and the impact and decide whether it is wise to proceed. The schedule calls for a decision within 30-60 days. Taxpayers concerned about risky debt for Itasca County should let their commissioners know where wisdom lies.

Charlotte Neigh
Trout Lake Township