Legalectric

Association of Freeborn County Landowners filed letters notifying the Public Utilities Commission of prohibited construction ongoing at the Freeborn Wind site, first last Wednesday, and then on Friday, about fiber optic preparation, equipment storage, and stakes:

And Dept of Commerce EERA response:

Friday’s letter was about installation of fiber optic, when supposedly they had been allowed to grade and put in the foundation of substation and O&M building. Here’s the Compliance Filing about that:

From that filing:

Does this look like “project substation and O&M building site preparation (grading in a row crop agricultural field on land owned by Xcel Energy) and pouring of the concrete pad” to you?

Look at the response we got regarding that fiberoptic construction:

And from that DoC-EERA letter:

Complaint process… hmmmm… how did that work for Bernie and Cheryl Hagen? It took, how many complaints, over, what, SEVEN years before resolution through buy-out and settlement? And about the complaints about the MinnCan pipeline construction…

The complaint process was an issue in the Freeborn Wind contested-case, from AFCL’s Initial Brief quoting none other than Rich Davis:

Yes, that’s the testimony of Rich Davis, Commerce-EERA, the same one who wrote both the letters above. Commerce did not revise the complaint process,. Xcel Energy unilaterally provided its “Complaint Process” on December 6, 2019, just prior to the Commission’s December 19, 2019 meeting about the permit amendment:

There was no opportunity to comment on the “Compliance Filing.” The “Complaint Process” as proposed by Xcel Energy was just tacked on to the Permit, Attachment A, and that was the end of it. Review of the complaint process? Nope, didn’t happen. No change, a cut and paste, this time with an Xcel Energy person as the contact. It’s as dysfunctional as ever.

You want to see complaints made under the permit “complaint process?” OK, we can do that. But be assured that they WILL be PUBLIC, and not hidden, as they were for so long for the Bent Tree project, and others too.

Results came in a couple days ago. NEGATIVE! For now… but the sinus crap is lingering on, and on, and on… that is SO frustrating.

Rx: Continued isolation, RARE trips out for essential stuff, and wait it out.

Times like this, I’m glad to work from home, though I miss the trips to meet with clients!

UPDATE: MO and AL now have STAY AT HOME ORDERS!

Agitating project for today in quarantine — contact all the pink and grey states on this map. Message? “LOCKDOWN NOW! You’re putting your state’s people at risk, and increasing infection, sickness, and deaths. Just do it — issue stay-at-home order NOW!”

What the hell is wrong with these states? And this is one reason why we need honest and ethical leadership at federal level.

Fauci: I don’t understand why all states are not under stay-at-home orders

Well, it’s called federal lack of leadership. Most states have stay-at-home orders, I was on Gov. Walz to do that, and we should have done it before Wisconsin, but at least he did do it. Now, on to these others, some of which have local stay-at-home but no STATEWIDE stay at home. Missouri and Alabama now have STAY HOME Orders. Come on, Governors, just do it:

Contact Arkansas Governor

Contact Iowa Governor

Contact Nebraska Governor

Contact North Dakota Governor

Contact Oklahoma Governor

Contact South Carolina Governor

Contact South Dakota Governor

Contact Utah Governor

Contact Wyoming Governor

Got some catching up to do — I’ve been sick for almost a month now, felt like the sinus crap I get now and then and I did NOT want it to get “Goodhue Wind can’t talk” bad. I started isolating after a meeting March 5 because Alan was sick, I got it March 8, went to Mayo the end of that week, diagnosed as sinus and treated, and was told to screed for COVID the following Monday, when they were starting drive up testing, and was screened out because my symptoms were the opposite of COVID, but when I called in because I was hacking more, they wanted me to come in to test for COVID. OK, I can do that. Drive-up testing, yes, make it a meal… follow the security guy to the ambulance bay, swab up the nose, and wait 48 hours, maybe less, and NEGATIVE. Now, about this sinus crap…

In short, I’m not working much, brain is on vacation. But a lot has come in since we filed on March 18, 2020:

AFCL appeals PUC denial of EAW Petition

I’d filed a Motion for Consolidation and for a Stay on March 29, 2020 because we were STILL waiting on the Commission’s Order and Record of Decision, which the Commission had not filed, 5 weeks later, after their February 6, 2020 meeting (VIEW WEBCAST HERE! ):

So of course two days later, the Public Utilities Commission finally filed not only the Order denying AFCL’s Petition for EAW, but also granting Xcel Energy its Permit Amendment! April Fools? Nooooo, March 31, 2020…

Then on to April Fools Day, time for AFCL’s monthly status update to the Appellate Court:

Then the Respondents’ Statements of the Case came in:

Next was Xcel Energy’s response to our Motion:

And then the Court Order, dismissing the case until we go through the PUC process of Reconsideration and their (likely) denial of our Reconsideration request, then file appeal again, filing fee from this applicable to that. Good, because we HAD to appeal because for an EAW the appeal clock is triggered by the date the Notice of Decision was published, 30 days after that, it’s got to be filed. Didn’t want to lose opportunity by not filing. So now our appeal is locked in, and we’re back to PUC to “exhaust our administrative remedies.”

Yeah, exhausted, and onward we go.

An earlier Legalectric post:

PUC’s Freeborn Wind Order Amending Xcel Site Permit and Denying AFCL’s EAW Petition

It’s out, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s Order both rejecting Association of Freeborn County Landowners’ Petition for Environmental Assessment Worksheet and approving the Xcel Energy site permit amendment.

The Commission meeting amending Xcel Energy’s permit as requested was back on December 19, 2019, and the Commission’s deliberation and “decision” rejecting the AFCL Petition for an EAW was February 6, 2020:

VIEW WEBCAST HERE!

Per the EQB rules (Minn. R. 4410.1100, Subp. 6), the Commission was supposed to issue an Order and Record of Decision WAY BACK, but didn’t. We appealed their “decision.”

AFCL appeals PUC denial of EAW Petition

This new order (20203-161639-01_Order-Site Permit Amendment and Denial of AFCL Petition for EAW) has many statements, some pretty wild ones, but I don’t see what ought to be there.

It’s time to get out the magnifying glass for a careful read. AFCL, this means all of us!!!