Legalectric

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Years ago, five years ago now, Rep. Bill Hilty, chair of the House Energy Committee, and practitioner of the “Hilty Jilty” when he didn’t want me to testify, started out the legislative session not with testimony of agency heads about their view of what was needed, but with a presentation, a several meetings long LONG presentation, that things were different, and we needed to be clear about the distinction between “growth” and “prosperity.” Hilty also promoted a series of meetings across the state about “Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty.”  It was a great concept, really looking at what we mean with all this talk of “expansion.”  This was back in 2008… during the crash.  He was on top of this, but it never went further than those meetings.

Yeah, that’s a good idea to be addressing these issues… whatever happened?  How were we distracted?

The concept isn’t as dead as the discussion, and today, a Commentary in the STrib:

Head in sand, you can’t tell that the air is foul

… with a focus of “Grow-or-die is the only way forward.”  They’re trying to prop up the notion that up, up, up is where we have to go.  It’s so contrary to obvious experience.  Have we learned nothing?

I’ve been reading this book that looks at the origin of that “grow or die” concept, how growth became accepted as necessary, with little concern or awareness of the impacts of that growth.  Here I thought back in 2008 that Rep. Hilty was going to bring some sanity to the legislature and shift the focus to “prosperity” and not “growth,” recognizing the difference, but nooooooooo… it didn’t take hold.  Now here we are, the crash wasn’t a little temporary blip, it’s the “new normal,” and we’re spinning our wheels.  Thus this little treasure found in someone’s free pile at a garage sale is just what the doctor ordered!

The Great Delusion:  A Mad Inventor, Death in the Tropics, and the Utopian Origins of Economic Growth, by Steven Stoll.

It’s a cute little book, and takes a bit too long going in circles telling the story, but it’s a good read, a reassuring read, tracing the notion of “economic growth” as a necessity, and the belief that the world is ours to take and strip of its resources forever, all the way back to Hegel and focusing on the utopian John Adolphus Etzler, whose “fantasy has become our reality and that we continue to live by some of the same economic assumptions that he embraced,” … “that the transfer of matter from the earth’s environments into the economy is not bounded by any limitation of those environments and that energy for powering our cars and iPods will always exist,” conflating growth with progress, doing what Hilty attempted back in 2008, to get us off the “growth” kick into something more sustainable.

The obsolete world view, per Stoll:

From that time forward, economic growth became conflated with American influence abroad and the capacity of politicians to maintain affluence at home…

The result was an oddly plausible utopia: cheap energy and a land regime that traced indelible patterns across the continent by removing American Indians and eradicating wildlife, leading to a soaring human population that would soon live by consuming manufactured products, all financed by joint-stock companies and protected by a government that encouraged growth.

… (and citing and quoting Thomas Ewbank):

“Who can inform us where the terminus is to be?” he asked.  “No one; for there is nothing in ourselves, nor in the earth’s resources, to point out there the last step is to land us … It is a rational belief that there are no limits to [man’s] advancement, as there appear to be one to the agents of it nor to his power over them.”  Coal got him even more excited: “A first element of progress for all time, it is preposterous to suppose the supplies of coal can ever be exhausted or even become scarce.”  Preposterous, he said, because it formed continually in “the depths of our oceans,” faster than people can burn it. … “The proposition is, that unlimited amounts of force are to be drawn out of inert matter.”

Oh my… Yup, that pretty much sums up this mess we’re in.  We cannot go on…  What are we going to do about it?  In a very concrete example, I’m thinking about Xcel Energy’s forecasts on which the CapX 2020 transmission buildout is based, 2.49% annually, and it’s nothing close, far enough off that those forecasters should be fired, at best.  The 2013 demand for Xcel Energy is now forecast at about -1.2%.  That’s a 3.62% decrease from the earlier forecast.  Jobs, jobs, jobs, grow, grow, grow, we cannot keep doing this forever, we cannot keep up this “Great Delusion,” and folks, worse, we’re clearly NOT doing it.

Let’s start focusing on prosperity.  Because if we can’t get a handle on that, and refocus our efforts, we’re going to keep headed south.  We’ve had how many years of a rude awakening?

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING NOTICE

FOR THE PROPOSED 2014 RECONSTRUCTION OF

WEST AVENUE – West 7th Street to Maple Street

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2013 @ 7 P.M.

CITY HALL – 315 4TH STREET WEST

RED WING, MINNESOTA

Meeting Notice

PLAN – West Ave Proposed St Reconstruction – CC 10-14-2013

City of Red Wing wants to tear up our road and rebuild it.  After they’re done with that one, they’ll move on to the next.  I can feel the assessments approaching.  But true, the street needs work.  West Ave. is a pretty busy street, and people do go too fast, particularly near the top of the bluff which has such limited visibility either way.  I’d like a speed sensor, and if they’re going too fast, fling a little pea gravel at them!  It’s the main drag to a school, and kids are walking past here all the time (need to put up a Little Free Library on the corner, and a bench for the woman who waits for her ride every day).

At that Ped Xing sign on the right there was a wreck not too long ago where a red SUV t-boned a dump truck pulling a trailer, the truck turned to avoid the crash and ended up partly in the front yard of the house on the right (truck may have been going too fast, but the SUV had to have pulled out of the driveway into its path, no other way says this accident reconstruction expert.  After that, it had to be pulled out from under of the back of the dump truck.  Everyone walked away, could have been a lot worse.)

They’re looking at narrowing the part near our house from 40 to 32 feet, which is good, that should slow people down, though I can see problems because even with the street wide as it is, people heading south near our house, up the hill, tend to cross over the line, and if it’s narrower, there will be no where for the northbound people to go when the crest that hill and find someone in their lane, well, no where but up onto the new sidewalk on the east side.  And that brings up another interesting factor.  First I’d heard they were going to rebuild the big retaining wall across the street:

See that van up there?  I keep waiting for it to go over the edge…  The driveway is behind it, parallel to the street for maybe 30 feet, there are two perpendicular driveways behind the van going east a bit to those properties’ garages, and then further off to the right the driveway goes down to the street just below the crest of the bluff.  Imagine getting out of there on a busy morning, or getting up there in the winter!  Under that brush growing, there’s a retaining wall 15-20 feet tall, and that’s what I’d heard they were going to rebuild.  Now I hear not.  So gotta go and find out, that would be a serious expense.  Anyway, here they’re going to narrow it, and put a sidewalk on the other side of the street.  There’s a reasonable argument it’s necessary for the kids going to school.  Oh, and see that tree right behind the “Save the Bluffs” sign?  That one is scarred from people crashing into it, if you go straight up the hill, well, you go straight into the tree, and they do.  BUT DON’T YOU EVEN THINK OF TAKING THAT TREE OUT!!!  I want it for the shade, and if they don’t hit the tree, they’ll hit the house, so NO!  We lost our other boulevard tree in the big snowstorm, so no, no, no, no, don’t even think about it!

Meeting, next Monday.  Be there or be square!

;kadf

These are the docs from the PUC, meeting notes and drafts of Minn. R. Ch. 7849 and 7850:

October 2 Synopsis

October 16 Draft 7849

October 18 Draft 7850 (NEW!!)

And today, from the Wind Coalition (wind developer lobby), somebody must have lots of time on her hands, or be getting paid big bucks — there’s a lot here:

Change-Pro Redline – 7482864-v3-

MN Wind Coalition Revisions to 7894.0400…-c

Change-Pro Redline – 7542116-v3-Minnesota Wind Coalition IPP

Application Requirements 7849.0255 and 7542116-v4-

Minnesota Wind Coalition IPP Applicatio-c-c

What’s new?  Well, Xcel Energy has announced its 3Q results and the 2013 demand just keeps going down!

From Seeking Alpha, the 3Q call transcript (emphasis added):

Kit Konolige – BGC Partners, Inc., Research Division

On the — your sales growth outlook, I believe you said that you are expecting 0% to 0.5% in 2013. Can you discuss the breakdown by states on that and maybe any color about commercial versus industrial versus residential? And also give us a view of the longer term sales outlook that you’re seeing at this point?

Teresa S. Madden – Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President

Well, sure, Kit. Let’s start with the 2013 by the states. Minnesota, we’re still projecting a decline of about 1.2%. In NSP-Wisconsin, just a slight decline. And then the other 2 jurisdiction, PSCo slightly up and SPS at about 1.2% range. But all of it netting to within the — up to 0.5%. When we look to the future, we’re looking at about, as we indicated in our guidance up to 0.5%, those are narrowing, not such a great degree in terms of the decline in NSP-Minnesota. In terms of the various classes of customers, it does vary by jurisdiction. I will say that C&I, we see the most growth in Texas with the oil and gas industry boom.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT.

Let me repeat that tidbit:

Minnesota, we’re still projecting a decline of about 1.2%. In NSP-Wisconsin, just a slight decline.

And as we know too well, the CapX 2020 transmission project taking over Minnesota is based on their wishful-thinking projections of a 2.49% annual increase.

From Xcel Energy’s own investor page (click to enlarge):

Here’s the full 10-Q (above from p. 50):

XCEL 9.30.13 10-Q

Someone remind me — why are we paying to build this CapX 2020 transmission project?

Attorney calls animal hoarding sentence a victory

by Ken Haggerty

Red Wing attorney Carol Overland (also a board member of the Goodhue County Humane Society) calls a recent Goodhue County Court decision in a Red Wing animal hoarding case a victory for animals, the Humane Society and hopefully the hoarder.

In a decision released by Judge Kevin Mark on October 17, the sentence agreement for the woman charged in the case included a first in Goodhue County: an order for a psychological evaluation and compliance with the recommendation after the evaluation.

Overland said the Humane Society had requested that the top priority in sentencing be psychological evaluation and not reimbursement of the $3,367 in costs the Humane Society incurred in helping evaluate and resolve the animal hoarding situation at a residence on West Avenue in Red Wing.

Overland said that hoarders start up all over again after animals are removed from their homes. She said hoarding is now listed as an official psychological disorder and that treatment is available.

In this case, there were seven dogs and 19 cats who were neglected, lacking enough food and water and lacking veterinary care. Many animals were in acute need of veterinary care due to loose teeth, abscesses, bloated bellies, and broken tails. The home was often selling puppies.

Three teenage children and three adults were living in the home that was in foreclosure and had holes in the floor, exposed wires in the ceiling and reeked of urine and animal feces. A garage, a carport and the basement were also filled with junk. Social services was involved in the case and child endangerment charges were filed.

The woman said people dropped off animals for her to take care of and she couldn’t let them go. She said they could not afford the Humane Society’s $75 surrender fee.

In the plea agreement, the woman was given one year probation for animal waste and license violations. In addition to the order for psychological evaluation/treatment on the hoarding issues, she must not acquire new animals or have contact with current owners of seized pets. Child endangerment and animal cruelty charges were dismissed.