Legalectric

UPDATE: Corps grants easement to Dakota Access LLC

You may have read tRump’s Memorandum pushing the Army Corps of Engineers to ram through the Dakota Access pipeline:

Trump_Memorandum Dakota Access

From the Stanley Gazette:

Breaking News: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ready to Grant Easement for DAPL

And from the DC District Federal Court, here are the filings:

Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline – Memorandum – Document No. 207-02032

The Army rolled, and here are the documents stating intent to issue the DAPL easement across Lake Oahe, and the Notice of Termination of the Environmental Impact Statement:

ACoE_Notice Regarding Recently Issued Documents

Ex_1_Notice to Congress

Ex_2_Compliance with Presidential Memorandum

Ex_3_To Federal Register_Notice of Termination

How is this anything but “arbitrary and capricious” action on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers?

YES!  On the move.  BNSF has permit to trigger avalanches to mitigate risk of more in this HUGE snowstorm — over 5 feet of snow dumped on Montana.  What a mess!  Amtrak says service should start Friday… we shall see!

Amtrak passengers finally on the move after being stranded along Hi-Line due to avalanche

Historic winter storm drops more than 5 feet of snow in parts of Montana

Earlier:

BNSF to re-open Montana route following avalanche

Two Amtrak trains stranded in Montana due to avalanche on Marias …

Passengers irritated still stranded on Amtrak in Montana

Bad news for regular people trying to get by, the protective measures to keep us safe from “Wall Street” grifters are being rolled back:

FRIDAY UPDATE:  Court Order Halting tRump Immigration Action — Washington A.G.

From Geekwire – Press Conference on courthouse steps

Written ruling “soon.”  Looking forward to that Order — covers the parts they challenged, the Constitutionally of parts 3 and 5, per AG’s Office.

On Monday, Washington State’s Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, filed a Complaint in federal court challenging the constitutionality of tRump’s Executive Order 13769, and a Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order to stop enforcement of this Order.  Several jurisdictions have filed for, and received, restraining orders regarding particulars of that Executive Order, but this Washington State filing was the first generally challenging the Constitutionality of the Executive Order.

Thank you, Washington State, for posting these pleadings:

Motion for Temporary Restraining Order as Filed

Complaint as Filed

And  just a bit ago, Minnesota’s Attorney General Lori Swanson joined our state with Washington State in suing Trump.

Read the Complaint, it’s a delight, particularly because it quotes from tRump’s campaign page where he lays out his intent to stop Muslim immigration — and it’s still posted on his site as of earlier today — what an idiot:

AG Lori Swanson (with Taffy, above) had this statement today:

Attorney General Lori Swanson Joins Lawsuit Over Federal Executive Order

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson has joined a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges that the January 27, 2017 Executive Order that imposes blanket entry restrictions to the United States for people from certain countries is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Swanson said: “It does not pass constitutional muster, is inconsistent with our history as a nation, and undermines our national security.” She added: “America can keep its people safe without sacrificing bedrock constitutional principles.”

The Attorney General joined the lawsuit filed earlier this week by Washington State, which is supported by major corporations concerned about the impact of the travel ban on the economy and their employees. The lawsuit alleges that the Executive Order violates the equal protection, establishment, and due process clauses of the United States Constitution and the federal Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which prohibits discrimination in the issuance of visas on the basis of nationality, race, or place of birth or residence.

The lawsuit alleges that the Order is overbroad in imposing a blanket travel ban on people from certain countries “and sweeps within its ambit infant children, the disabled, long-time U.S residents, those fleeing terrorism, and those who assisted in the United States in conflicts overseas” who do not pose a security risk.

The lawsuit describes the impact of the travel ban on people with a lawful right to be in the United States, such as parents and their children, students with valid student visas, and scientists and other employees with valid work visas, who either cannot leave or return to the United States under the Order and some who have been separated from family. The lawsuit also describes the chilling effect of the Order on recruitment for employers and academic institutions.

Four different federal judges have temporarily halted certain detentions under the Executive Order.

Some have said that the Renewable Development Fund is sacred.  WRONG.  The Renewable Development Fund is profane, not sacred, all the way from its origins to its uses.  It’s now under scrutiny at Minnesota legislature, and institutional memory is nowhere to be found in this discussion.  See HF 235 and SF 214.

The Renewable Development Fund (RDF) came into being in the 1994 Prairie Island bill, and was to be a per cask compensation fund for the Prairie Island Indian Community for storage of nuclear waste next door and extension of Prairie Island nuclear plant life.  That compensation was turned into the RDF in a late night deal by “environmental” groups lobbying, of which Bill Grant (now Deputy Commissioner, Dept. of Commerce, formerly and then Izaak Walton League) was an integral part, Michael Noble (ME3, now “Fresh Energy”), and George Crocker (North American Water Office) too.  Prairie Island Indian Community was supposed to get priority in grants, but that never happened.  The RDF was administered by 3 from Xcel, plus Bill Grant, and one other “environmental” rep.  The composition of the group giving out the grants has changed, and there is now someone from PI on it, but that’s recent. (Full Disclosure: I represented Florence Twp. fighting the “in Goodhue County” alternate site mandate for nuclear waste and the Township worked very mindful of, and often in tandem with, PIIC, where it fiercely refused to acquiesce to Xcel and say “STICK IT THERE” to PIIC.  The working relationship continues and PIIC is now largest private  landowner in Florence Twp.).

1994 Prairie Island bill — Ch. 641, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=1994&type=0&doctype=Chapter&id=641).

The RDF was a material term of the 2003 Prairie Island bill, where as part of the deal millions of RDF money was to go to the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project.  Bill Grant was primary again, and when the Mesaba Project was stricken in one House session, a red-faced Tom Micheletti came flying down the hall yelling at Grant “We had a deal, we had a deal!” That deal was later added back in, and Micheletti’s Excelsior Energy coal gasification plant, Mesaba Project, was added to the factors to keep PI open.  “Environmental groups” got massive grants to promote coal gasification.  Micheletti got $10-12 million from RDF for Mesaba (and lots more from IRRB and DOE) and other regulator perks in the 2003 law, like exemption from CoN, and a mandated PPA with Xcel.  (Full Disclosure: I represented MNcoalgasplant.com against Mesaba Project, and with CAMP and help from Xcel, we got the details of coal gasification, that project was killed, and the info killed others nationwide, but Mesaba still has a site permit in Taconite from PUC valid until 2019!)

2003 Prairie Island bill – Ch. 11, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=2003&type=1&doctype=Chapter&id=11) 

On Monday, January 23, the Red Wing City Council voted to accept a $2 million grant from RDF to install a garbage grinder, a project they’ve been lobbying for for years, where they’ll take in garbage from the whole county, grind it up, and burn it in Xcel’s garbage burner here, its air permit expired in 2009!  GARBAGE!!!  DOH!  GARBAGE is not clean, it’s toxic!  The purpose of all this is to keep the incinerators open and burning.  (Full Disclosure:  I have been representing clients being screwed by Xcel’s plan for “ash mining” in their incinerator ash landfill in Red Wing, part of which includes a plan to build a Red Wing laydown yard and crusher on a site half of which is designated Water Tower Burial Mounds — yeah, really. That’s been exposed:

My partner, Alan Muller, is an incineration expert and has worked with groups to stop RockTenn; Midtown Burner in Phillips, Rockford City and Township; HERC uprate, etc.  See the Tyler Hills Neighbors Comments: Comment Extension for Lab USA EAW & Xcel & Lab USA Solid Waste)

The RDF has been a slush fund for deals enabling nuclear, promoting coal gasification, and greasing the skids for scams of great financial and environmental magnitude and impact.  It should be shut down and turned over to Prairie Island Indian Community as originally intended.