Legalectric

Today Comments were due on Minnesota Power’s Great Northern Transmission Line.  I’m sorry, but I just can’t bring myself to call a transmission line “Great” and that’s just how it is…  Anyway, Minnesota Power is getting ready to file a Certificate of Need application, this is the lead up, what they have to do to provide notice to people when they actually file.  So here’s their draft plan:

Minnesota Power’s Notice Plan for Great Northern Transmission Line

Comments on that plan were due today.  Here’s what I filed:

Overland’s Notice Plan Comments, November 19, 2012

Here’s what Commerce filed earlier today:

MOES Comment – GNTL Notice Plan

Haven’t gotten word on any others.

To keep an eye on what’s going on in this docket, go HERE and search for docket 12-1163.

A little sidebar here — while looking for a logo, some things popped out — did you know that Minnesota Power sponsors, with the Lignite Energy Council, a “Teachers Seminar” on coal?  It’s the only teacher workshop listed, though there are multiple listings under “School Programs” and “Educational Materials.”

Lignite Education Seminar

OH MY!  Check their “Electricity 101” pdf:

Electricity 101

p. 7:

1929—Stock market crash revealed that many holding companies were over-leveraged

–As a result, federal and state governments strengthened utility regulation.

There are some interesting charts and graphs in Electricity 101 that are interesting and that I’d like to see updated.  Hear that, MP!?!?!

Last night, “Red Wing 20/20” had a “Community Forum” about frac sand mining.  Red Wing 20/20 is an entity formed by the Red Wing Port Authority, and from its Red Wing page:

Red Wing 2020’s goal is to develop a community vision to improve residents’ quality of life and promote economic growth.

“Promote economic growth.”  That’s a phrase I don’t like because it usually means “promote economic growth” no matter what the impacts are.

The program was introduced by Pam Gorman, she’s the chair of Red Wing 20/20, and that gets my red flags up given she’s Xcel Energy,.  Mayor Dennis Eagan played a part as well, members of Red Wing 20/20 are appointed by the Mayor, and he’s a lobbyist for some pretty nefarious entitites (google “Altria”).  Oh my!

Presenters:

Frac Sand Operations in Minnesota—History and Outlook—Heather Arends, DNR

Applicable State Regulations—Environmental Permits—Wendi Turri, MPCA

Transport Issues—Dave Christianson, MnDOT

Frac Sand Operations: Public Health Concerns—Silica Toxicity—Hillary Carpenter, MDH

Other Tools for Addressing New Operations—Environmental Review—Bob Patton, EQB

I had a flyer to pass, because I want those concerned with frac sand issues to weigh in on the gutting of the EQB, started by Pawlenty and gang, and which Gov. Dayton joined with his E.O. 11-32.  There was an EQB meeting recently about this, with a frac sand agenda item afterwards, and the frac sand people who were there just sat there, didn’t say a peep, as the EQB heard public comments on their plans!  Come on, folks, this affects you and your project!  Show up before it’s too late!

Executive Order 11-32

Here’s my flyer, urging people to attend the public meetings and Environmental Congress, to contact Gov. Dayton (click here!), and to contact legislators.

Handout – RW 2020 Forum

We missed the introduction, Heather Arends, DNR, and Wendi Turri from MPCA.

It was weird, mostly because the guy from the DOT, Dave Christianson, who was speaking when we got there, he was to talk about “Transport Issues” instead was in promotional mode, and even said that sand isn’t a health problem.  WHAT???  That went far beyond his area.  But he also said that he’s a friend of a guy who has a frac sand mine on his land in Wisconsin… hmmmmm…

Hillary Carpenter, from the Dept. of Health, was excellent, clearly knew what he was talking about, openly noting that this was something there wasn’t a lot of information about, but that it IS a health hazard.

Bob Patton, EQB. explained Environmental Review, pretty realistically, the purpose, scope and limits and also about Generic EIS and how that works (Other Tools for Addressing New Operations???  EH?  Should have been in the “Applicable State Regulations” part.  It’s not separate, and it’s applicable regulation.) Patton  brought up the Environmental Congress as something people should participate in.  YEAAAA!  The EQB once was a working entity, but now it’s been gutted so severely, with duties shuffled elsewhere, worst case was power plant siting going over to Commerce, what does Commerce have to do with environmental review for transmission?  So that helped lend some oomph to my flyers, which the organizers didn’t want me to pass out during the program, said I  had to wait until they called a break because they were running behind, I declined, “I’m not going to be delaying anything!” and passed them out during speaker changes.  I know, it’s such revolutionary stuff, info about the Environmental Congress and the meeting schedule.

With the Governor’s push to redefine the intent of environmental review, and with the budget cuts that have neutered agencies, I’m not feeling hopeful that frac sand will get the vetting it needs.

Now’s the time to weigh in on the importance of ROBUST and THOROUGH environmental review!  Public Meetings soon:

November 27 – Rochester, Wood Lake Meeting Center 9:30am – 12:00pm

November 27 – Bloomington, Normandale Community College 6:30pm – 9:00pm

November 28 – Duluth, Lake Superior College 5:30pm – 8:00pm

December 10 – Worthington, Worthington High School 3:30pm – 6:00pm

December 12 – St. Cloud, Stearns County Service Center 5:30pm – 8:00pm

December 14 – Moorhead, Minnesota State University 3:00pm – 5:30pm

More on the Environmental Congress page.

But we knew that…

PJM State of the Market Report 3Q 2012

Here’s the part I’m most interested, demand is DOWN, from the intro, summarizing p. 23 of the report linked above:

The PJM system peak load for the first nine months of 2012 was 154,344
MW, which was 3,672 MW, or 2.3 percent, lower than the PJM peak
load for the first nine months of 2011.  The DEOK Transmission Zone
accounted for 5,360 MW in the peak hour of the first nine months of
2012. The peak load in 2012 excluding the DEOK Transmission Zone was
148,984 MW, a decrease of 9,032 MW, or 5.7 percent, from the peak load
for the first nine months 2011. (See page 23)

2.3%, 5.7%, DUH!  Demand is DOWN!  Here’s the specifics:

I love it when that happens…

OH MY!  Quite a fracas…

Citizens have also criticized the county because the information in the EAWs was so similar to the information submitted by the mine applicants’ consultant. Johanna Rupprecht of the Land Stewardship Project said the county’s role in the EAW preparation, as outlined in EQB guidelines, showed the county had more work to do on the documents. She said the county was supposed to conduct independent review and analysis of the information submitted by the applicants, and that any “conclusions” about environmental impacts should come from the county, not the mine applicants. “The language in there is what the [mine] proposers wrote,” she said. “That’s not how that is supposed to work. The RGU is responsible for that independent analysis. Essentially, I think it was an issue of the county not exercising enough independent judgement.”

That’s not too surprising.  I remember over in Freeborn County on the Bent Tree wind project, the yahoo doing the environmental review CUT & PASTED the Application and called it environmental review.  The only thing different was the cover sheet.  NO, I DON’T THINK SO!

The problem though is that local governments don’t have the expertise, staff, or budget to handle full blown environmental review on a technical and new issue.  Funding is needed NOW!

Here’s the full article from Winona Post:

County bungled frac sand environmental studies

And here are the primary documents via the Winona County website:

Name	Size
archive.pst	1305510 KB
Dabelstein CUP Resubmittal 09-21-2012.pdf	9351 KB
EAW – Dabelstein FINAL 10-4-12.pdf	13880 KB
EAW – Yoder FINAL 10-4-12.pdf	17740 KB
Yoder CUP Resubmittal 09-21-2012.pdf	25615 KB

Love that billboard!

Today, Goodhue Wind Truth’s Complaint to the PUC about the Goodhue Wind Project f/k/a __________ (I forget… so many names…).  It took a while, it took some digging, and here it is:

Complaint to PUC – Goodhue Wind Truth

The short version?  Revoke the permit.  Check out the exhibits backing up the narrative.