Susquehanna-Roseland transmission defiling New Jersey
September 5th, 2013
Photo by Bruce A. Scruton/New Jersey Herald
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this has to be reported. There will be more bad news about transmission on the NoCapX 2020 site about that big web of transmission lines in Minnesota. Here, now, it’s about the Susquehanna-Roseland transmission through Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
People in the Midwest do not have a clue how beautiful New Jersey is. We think of Newark (actually, I liked Newark, spent time there for the hearing before Board of Public Utilities), we think of Elizabeth, Bayonne, we think of concrete, boarded up buildings, extreme poverty, desloation, and maybe Atlantic City which has problems of its own, and while that’s all a part of New Jersey, we need to be aware of not just Newark but of Newton… of Sparta, of Stillwater, New Jersey, which is quite similar to Stillwater, Minnesota. Get acquainted with the rolling hills, farm fields, the pines and granite of northwestern New Jersey.
Special thanks to Dave Slaperud of Stop the Lines and Scott Olson and his Route B Info list for keeping the world informed.
What’s the Susquehanna-Roseland line? Once more with feeling, that sinking feeling…
This post by Bill Wolfe has some beautiful and disturbing photos, the beautiful New Jersey countryside they’re tearing up as we speak:
Lisa Chammings, of Stillwater, New Jersey, has a hayfield that they’re ripping up, despite promises that she could mow the hay underneath. It’s been raining, everything’s wet, no way to get hay, and, well, see that NJ Herald photo above? That’s her hay field that they’re in!
The transmission towers will be about twice as high, it’s going to be a TRI-BUNDLED 500 kV transmission line. WOW.
The Delaware Water Gap is under siege right now, and will no longer look like this:
Here’s what they’re doing there, running a line between Pennsylvania and New Jersey:
National Park Service sold us all out for $60 million, and is allowing the transmission line to go through. Thanks. Let’s hear it for the public interest.
The Susquehanna-Roseland transmission line is one that President Obama ordered fast-tracked, as if it wasn’t moving along fast enough:
Obama “fast tracks” transmission?!?!?!
Obama’s Transmission BS in the News
What does Obama’s Xmsn push mean?
Ken Tilson died yesterday…
September 2nd, 2013
Photo fair use from St. Paul Pioneer Press
Ken Tilsen died yesterday. I’ll not forget his helpful reviews, comments and support when I represented Florence Township and we sued Northern States Power, the Public Utilities Commission, Environmental Quality Board, and Goodhue County for their roles and failure to follow the law when they tried to site nuclear waste in the township in Goodhue County.
Larry Long posted this link to his archives at the Historical Society — this would be most enlightening:
KENNETH E. TILSEN: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
ROAD TIME!! Not-So-Great Northern Xmsn
August 31st, 2013
Click for a larger view!
Notices were sent of “open house” meetings for the Not-So-Great Northern Transmission Line but guess who didn’t get one! And I’ve spent some time looking at their site, and I can’t find a meeting schedule anywhere. But thanks to two little birdies, we’re in luck!
HEY NOT-SO-GREAT TRANSMISSION:
PUBLISH YOUR OPEN HOUSE SCHEDULE ON YOUR SITE!
I know, what people care about is the map, but it’s hard to see the map, and that’s all we’ve got.
The application has not yet been filed, but it’s working its way toward the Public Utilities Commission. There’s a docket, so you can check to see what all has been filed. Go HERE TO SEARCH DOCKETS and then search for docket number 12-1163.
Now is the time to get involved, at the Certificate of Need stage, because NOW is when they determine “IF” a line is needed, and if it’s deemed “needed,” then it WILL go somewhere and it’s a very difficult struggle. The Certificate of Need stage is a bit more esoteric but it’s where the action is, and in this line in particular, they don’t have much to show as a “need.” It’s a want (as are most, if not all, transmission lines).
Meetings are the second and third week in September. Check out one near you and come on down for coffee and treats to settle your stomach while they explain their plans.
Inspecting Bakken oil in rail cars
August 30th, 2013
BOOM!
Now things are making more sense. A Bloomberg article, via the STrib, written by a Greiling, puts it all together. When the rail cars blew up and took out the heart of Lac-Megantic, I couldn’t understand how crude oil had exploded so horrifically. It turns out that the contents of the cars being shipped out of Bakken had been under investigation for at least three months prior to that explosion, and as the article below notes, “Most grades of crude would not be that volatile.” DOH!
The investigation began in March, and the explosion was July 6, 2013. Thus far, the railroad crew has been blamed for not properly setting the brakes, but it seems there’s more to the story. There have been murmurs of whether the brakes that had been repaired previously had been repaired properly or if they were overheated and triggered the explosion. But if what was inside the car wasn’t crude, and was more volatile, it’s an entirely different animal.
Let’s see the FOIA responses to questions about what triggered the investigation!
This is an issue for us both here and there, Red Wing and Port Penn, Delaware. These Bakken cars go through Red Wing, the heart of Red Wing, as they did in Lac-Megantic — that’s the rail station right smack dab in the middle. If things went BOOM! in the night, there goes Red Wing Shoe, the St. James Hotel, the ADM oil plant, downtown Red Wing good bye!
And on to Delaware… in Delaware City, just up the road from Port Penn, it’s same thing. The refinery there was reopened, thanks to Gov. Jack Markell, the brown governor, and Bakken rail cars are sitting around and going through to the Delaware City refinery. They built a big spur near Hwy. 1 for staging the cars (so new it’s on the map but not on google earth!) and are taking in Bakken oil, even adding a new unloading facility.
PBF Energy Completes Delaware City Rail Terminal for Bakken Oil
The oil going to Delaware City is loaded at the same “New Town” Bakken oil loading facility that’s under investigation and where inspections are being conducted, the same one where the Lac-Megantic cars were loaded. They stage the cars off to the west of the refinery, it looks like a horse track, and then they run the cars through the middle of the refinery, in the middle of this map, and way to the eastern end:
It seems to me that Delaware City has more security/terrorist issues that just the three nuclear reactors across the river in Salem. And it seems that the risks of pollution and harm to the people nearby is heightened beyond the already horribly polluted air and water due to this hornets’ nest of industry. They’re already having to bring water in for people. What are they thinking to reopen this refinery?
Movin’ from Montana soon…
August 29th, 2013
For those of you interested in filing a complaint against Judge G. Todd Baugh in Montana, here’s the Complaint form and the Judicial Standards and Judicial Ethics (those rules are important because you need to cite the ones he violated):
Complaint Form for Judicial Standards Commission
If these links don’t work, here’s the link to their JUDICIAL COMPLAINT PAGE.
This guy is so off the wall that I hope thousands file solid well written complaints that they’ll have to deal with.
Montana judge apologizes for comments in teen rape case, protesters call for his resignation