Rep. Kowalko about the Newark Power Plant
July 15th, 2014
This press conference in Delaware celebrating their victory in stopping a 280 or so MW power plant flying in under the cover of a “data center” that needed maybe 1/10 of that. The University of Delaware terminated its lease agreement.
Rep. John Kowalko of Newark, Delaware — he was on this, leading the charge, and got a lot of flak for it, but persistence paid off. Kowalko is one of the few state Reps. around who represents his people with gusto!
Press Conference Part I – Rep. Kowalko is on starting ~ 10:50
He’s also on again in Part II at 1:39, announcing a 1.2 MW solar project at the University of Delaware:
Decorah eagle electrocuted
July 14th, 2014
“Double Trouble” taken by Marie McNamara, rural Goodhue, MN
Recently one of the Decorah eagle fledglings was electrocuted, and its body was found after ITC noticed a fault on the line and went to check it out.
Here are various USFWS Comments on the CapX 2020 transmission line:
From Iowa Public Radio:
And in USA Today:
Internet famous eagle in Iowa electrocuted, dies
Power poles are attractive to raptors as high perching spots, and eagles are the most commonly electrocuted birds — 4,300 between 1960 and 1995, according to a federal study cited in a 2005 report by biologist Albert Manville. Electrocution was the fourth-leading cause of death among bald eagles, behind accidental trauma, poisoning and shooting.
… Two eagles from the Decorah nest were electrocuted in 2012.
From the Decorah Newspapers:
Richfield hit by “Prolife Action Ministries”
July 12th, 2014
A friend found this on her door in Richfield today. Called the number, 651-771-1500, and asked that they not flyer her house (is there a “Do not lit drop” list?), and got a ration of hateful verbal abuse.
I went to the site, “Planned Parenthood Exposed,” and it’s pretty rabid. EEEEEUW.
How’s this, according to them, Planned Parenthood would “aid and abet the sex-trafficking of minor girls” (linked below):
Or this (linked):
It’s an operation of “Prolife Action Ministries” — and today, lit drops claiming “Planned Parenthood is Preying Upon Your Community.”
It’s too bad my brother isn’t in the neighborhood anymore — I’m sure he and Oggy would like to have a chat with them!
Here’s a blurb on their site that has me scratching my head? If you can figure it out, let me know how it’s possible to “dramatically increased the number of babies killed by abortion in 2013” “in spite of the number of abortions being performed in Minnesota dropping to its lowest level since before 1975.” Am I missing something here? I’d think they’d be happy that the number of abortions are dropping…
Planned Parenthood Dramatically increases abortions
Minnesota Abortions at Lowest Level since Before 1975
Newark Data Center gas plant dead…
July 10th, 2014
Three cheers for Rep. John Kowalko, who was on the front lines taking the heat about his opposition to the “Data Center” natural gas plant proposed for Newark.
This from Alan Muller, Green Delaware:
“ Gas attack: U of Delaware kills $1 billion data center/power plant.”
“The Data Center” was a scam so blatant, so absurd, that it should never have gotten any traction at all.
That it did is a sad commentary on the intellectual and ethical emptiness of Delaware’s “Chamber of Commerce” business community, and, of course, the administration of Gov. Jack Markell. The so called “Delaware Economic Development Office,”especially, demonstrates a consistent and predictable idiocy backed up by secrecy and dishonesty.
Per usual in Delaware, the scam was assembled by various parties, including the Markell Administration, the University of Delaware, and the City of Newark, before the public was given notice. Then, it was rolled out as a done deal. Thankfully, it apparently has been undone. (Note that the objection is mostly to the power plant, not to a data center as such.)
Aside from the obvious lie of saying a 278 megawatt gas-burning power plant was “auxiliary” to a data center, consider the un wisdom, or the symbolism, of a large new fossil-fuel power plant in a state so vulnerable to the effects of climate change that much of it will soon enough be under water. Delaware has the lowest mean elevation of any state at 60 ft above sea level. (Florida and Louisiana are next at 100 ft.) The mean elevation of Kent County is only 36 feet. Current measured sea level rise is around 3.4 mm per year and speeding up–it varies from place to place–and almost every new official prediction of sea level rise is higher than the last one. See “ Waters rising … Delaware going away?”
It is long past time to be shutting down the the existing combustion power plants that drive climate change and sea level rise, far less a time to be building new ones. (The total generating capacity in Delaware is on the order of 3300 megawatts.)
In the face of this, Markell has allowed investment in wind, solar, and energy efficiency to mostly come to a stop–suiting the interests of Delmarva Power–while embracing various schemes for burning more natural gas. (All considered, it appears that the climate change impact of natural gas is at least as high as coal, because of the unburned methane emissions.)
Residents of the City of Newark, and faculty and students of the University of Delaware came to life to oppose a scam in which the City and the Administration of the U of D were deeply involved. In recent decades is has been rare to see signs of political life in Newark, but self-interest does have an energizing effect. See Newark Residents Against the Power Plant.
The Delaware Chapter of the Sierra Club (especially Amy Roe) and the Delaware Audubon Society contributed.
But the real hero of this fight, in my opinion, is Rep. John Kowalko of Newark. Kowalko relentlessly sought accurate information from various parties so he could represent the true interests of his constituents. It doesn’t take a lot of courage for professors or environmentalists to oppose a power plant, but Kowalko, a longtime union man, took a lot of heat from any-job-at-any-cost Delaware union officials.
Kowalko, as usually does, behaved with gumption, integrity, and right-on values. Consider the oath of office that Delaware’s Constitution prescribes for public officials:
I, (name) , do proudly swear (or affirm) to carry out the responsibilities of the office of (name of office) to the best of my ability, freely acknowledging that the powers of this office flow from the people I am privileged to represent. I further swear (or affirm) always to place the public interests above any special or personal interests, and to respect the right of future generations to share the rich historic and natural heritage of Delaware. In doing so I will always uphold and defend the Constitutions of my Country and my State, so help me God.
How many legislators take their oath seriously? John Kowalko is one who clearly does. (I don’t know what role has been played by Senators representing the area.)
Compare the “Data Center” fight with the fight of people around Millsboro against a giant Korean chicken-killing plant, another Markell project just as absurd and undesirable. See “ Just how disgusting can the Markell administration get? Is there any bottom?” That area is represented by Gerald W. Hocker and John C. Atkins, two of the most special-interest-serving legislators in Delaware. (Atkins has been in the news recently, and Green Delaware has featured him before.)
Friday and Saturday are forecast to be Code Yellow bad air days in Delaware. Saturday is also Code Yellow for particles. Some discussion of the meaning of this is here.
Alan Muller
Muller and Kowalko just prior to arrest at Legislative Hall years ago
Stealth rulemaking — PUC’s Minn. R. Ch. 7829
July 10th, 2014
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is to take up the proposal for revisions to Minn. R. Ch. 7829, which is the PUC’s practice and procedure chapter. I call it their stealth rulemaking docket.
A little birdie told me that the Commission will publish a Notice of Intent to Adopt based on the draft filed on July 9, and delegated to Commissioner Lipschultz the authority to make necessary, non-substantive edits for cleanup and consultation with the Revisor, before publication in the state register.
It will be coming back up for public comment probably in the next month or so once the draft is published.
Here’s the draft filed July 9:
Here’s what was filed on July 2 (link may not work, eDockets is funky, “eFiling Image Repository is unavailable. We’re sorry, your search cannot be completed at this time. If you feel you have reached this message in error, please Contact Efiling.Admin@state.mn.us“):
The new filing didn’t appear in e-dockets until this morning, as I understand it, because of technical problems with e-dockets over the last 24 hours or so.
I’ve been concerned about this chapter for a long while, and submitted a Petition for Rulemaking some time ago:
Here are the rules:
Here’s the notice and proposed changes:
It’s been an odd rulemaking. They published the initial notice of “potential” rulemaking, or some such, but who got it? Not moi… and I learned of it only just before it was to go before the PUC. Here are a couple of posts:
PUC’s Stealth 7829 Rulemaking Docket
June 4th, 2013
PUC requests Comments on 7829 rules
August 8th, 2013
Minn. R. 7829 marches on…
September 9th, 2013