Notice – PUC wants wind rulemaking comments!
August 2nd, 2018
WHEW! Got over the hurdle! Goodhue Wind Truth’s Petition for Rulemaking for Wind Siting, Minn. R. Ch. 7854, has been accepted by the Public Utilities Commission. But even better, Notice came out today of a Comment Period:
Here’s the full notice:
Notice of Comment Period – 20188-145500-01
Now’s the time to get this rulemaking moving, it’s only 23 years overdue!
Last night at Red Wing Charter Commission
August 1st, 2018
The Red Wing Charter Commission met last night, first the meeting, where they voted to add moi to the Charter Commission, and then for a round of thoughts on Ethics.
Here’s the presentation from Pam Whitmore, League of Minnesota Cities:
Ethics and Local Government
More on this later, gotta focus on tomorrow’s PUC meeting!
Oh, and check out the PUC’s conflict of interest rule:
7845.0400 CONFLICT OF INTEREST; IMPROPRIETY.
Subpart 1. General behavior.
A commissioner or employee shall respect and comply with the law and shall behave in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the commission’s decision making process.
Subp. 2. Actions prohibited.
Commissioners and employees shall avoid any action that might result in or create a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety, including:
A. using public office for private gain;
B. giving preferential treatment to an interested person or entity;
C. impeding the efficiency or economy of commission decision making;
D. losing independence or impartiality of action;
E. making a commission decision outside official channels; and
F. affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of the commission.
PUC tomorrow – Ch. 7849 and 7850 Rulemaking!
August 1st, 2018
Tomorrow morning, at long last, the 6 year long rulemaking for Minn. Rules Ch. 7849 and 7850 is before the Public Utilities Commission.
Rules and rulemaking are important — rules are the guide to how administrative sausage is made. A little history… Way back when in 2011, I’d filed “Overland Petition for Rulemaking-7850” back in March, 2011. Did it trigger, inspire, the opening of this Minn. Rules Ch. 7849 and 7850 docket in December, 2012? Who knows…
I’ve also filed a Petition to OAH, Petition for Rulemaking Ch. 1400-1405 & PPSAComments, also March, 2011. Shortly after that, ALJ Lipman published some proposed rule change with NOTICE and proposed rules (ACK!), and I filed this Overland Comments-OAH Rulemaking Oct. 31,2012 Can you tell the proposed rules were dreadful? There’s no excuse… those proposals disappeared, and I sure hope they don’t resurface. Ive also filed Overland_MPCA_Petition for Rulemaking re: Wind Noise, Minn. R. Ch. 7030. and got this in return:
Really…
Anyway, back to tomorrow’s rulemaking for Minn. Rules Ch. 7849 and 7850.
You can watch the Live Webcast!
The draft rules going before the Commission are here:
Staff Briefing Papers, Chart of Changes, and Draft Rules_20187-145121-01
Yeah, it’s 210 pages long. The Staff Briefing Papers contain an explanation of issues raised and changes proposed or not taken up; the charts for 7849 and 7850 are an “easy” way to review the issues and changes, and the specific 7849 and 7850 rules with strikeouts and underlinings follow.
To review the full docket, go to eDockets and search for docket 12-1246 — in the box below the “Search” button, “12” and in the box below the “Clear” button, “1246.” Note how extensive it is. It’s been six years. My guess is that everyone who was an active participant in this put in at least 150 hours. Consider that. It’s about time we get this moving, and on to the next rulemaking, WIND, Minn. R. Ch. 7854.
Oh, and yet another Petition filed on Monday to grease the skids:
Just filed – Petition for Wind Siting Rulemaking
Onward!
Just filed – Petition for Wind Siting Rulemaking
July 30th, 2018
Yes, I just filed Goodhue Wind Truth’s Petition for Rulemaking #2, or is it #3… Read Attachment B, the “Statement of Need and Reasonableness” (SONAR), for an eye-opening look on why we’re where we’re at.
Got a wide broadcast using the PPSA Annual Hearing service list. Hope that gets the word out.
We’ve been assigned a docket number at PUC: E999/R-18-518.
Dodge County Wind info presentation
July 29th, 2018
Dodge County Concerned Citizens asked me to do an information presentation on NextEra’s Dodge County Wind project, which was recently applied for at the Public Utilities Commission. Here’s my presentation:
Turbine and Transmission Neighbors?
Completeness comments are due August 10, 2018, with reply comments due August 17, 2018.
20187-144854-01_PUC Notice_Completeness Comments_ALL dockets
How to file?
Here’s a form you could use for guidance — yes, its a test, and an essay test at that. Your original words are what count, because you know your community best, what impacts on the ground might be. You can best identify the material issues.
It was interesting that Beth Soholt, is concerned enough to show up on a Saturday morning! She’s the ED of wind industry association Wind on the Wires (f/k/a program of Izaak Walton League Midwest until Bill Grant was appointed Deputy Commissioner – Energy – Dept. of Commerce) But her being there was not much of a surprise, because NextEra’s Julie Voeck is Chair of the WOW Board. And don’t forget that PUC Commissioner Matt Schuerger’s “Energy Systems Consulting Services” was a primary recipient of Waltons/WOW consulting funds. As we say in transmission, “It’s all connected.”
Can’t find a Dodge County Wind, LLC website (it is a Delaware LLC registered with Minnesota Secretary of State), and NextEra has nothing on its website about the LLC, nor about the Dodge County project, that I can find, ALL Press Releases are about MONEY, not a one about “Dodge County.” There is a separate transmission page with “project info” but no project specific info there either.
This project was really difficult to dig through, because there are THREE dockets: Certificate of Need (17-306); Wind Siting (17-307); and Transmission Routing (17-308). WHEW! This would be overwhelming to anyone, and to try to explain what’s proposed, the process (UGH!), and issues, that’s a couple of books… whether fiction or non-fiction remains to be determined.
Post Bulletin – Proposed Dodge County wind farm raises questions
KTTC – Dodge County Concerned Citizens holds informational meeting on proposed wind turbine project
KIMT – Wind project proposed in Dodge County
This project has been brewing for a while, because there’s a Certificate of Need requirement of a Notice Plan before anything is applied for, and then notice goes out as laid out in the Notice Plan.
I’m on the general service list for all projects, pretty much everything, so I have an idea what’s new and exciting at the PUC, but it’s pretty hard to track it all. For this project, the initial “notice” filings for 17-306 (Certificate of Need) & 17-308 (345kV transmission line) were in April, 2017, and the transmission route app and wind site permit app were not filed until 6/29. The wind site permit is most significant in terms of cost and geographic spread, and nothing was filed until June 29, 2018, less than a month ago. The wind site permit filings contain an affidavit of mailing of notice but NO ADDRESSES, and the transmission affidavit of mailing of notice DOES have addresses. Why are no addresses included?
Three dockets, all those filings, at least 1,000 pages, and I confess haven’t read all of it! What jumps out at me is that this is another scattered site project, with a large footprint. It’s a 170MW project, not unusual in that way, but the turbines proposed are 2.5 MW turbines. That’s BIG! The reported hub height is 291 feet, and from ground to tip of blade, 485.5 feet. That’s BIG!
How to look at the dockets:
So now, quick because Completeness Comments are due, it’s time for people to take a look at this project, what’s proposed for the wind project, the big honkin’ transmission line, and whether all this is needed.
Oh, and about that big honkin’ transmission line, here’s a cut and paste from their application:
Characterizing this bundled 345kV line as “generation inter-tie?” Oh, please…
