Legalectric

It just started pouring again here in Red Wing, yes, we’re on a bluff, yes, that is a boat in the back yard, but maybe we’ll have to get it ready to float!

Flash Flood Warning for Red Wing Area

Thunder, siren going off way in the distance but not here, and getting windy.  Dogs shakin’ and quakin’ fur falling out pacing terrrrrrrified.

Weather radar shows a long SW/NE angled system, the length of it running right through Red Wing:

Will somebody tell me just what is going on here?  Check the photos and videos of Duluth!

If this is the “new normal,” we’ve got trouble!

Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project has raised its ugly head again.  There were rumors for a long time that Micheletti wanted to change it to a natural gas plant.  Then they went to the legislature and got the “incentives” for their boondoggle “clean coal” plant, the “innovative technology” that doesn’t work…  they went to the MPCA and their air permit was AGAIN rejected as incomplete, and now they’ve gone to the PUC, requesting confirmation that the permits they have are valid.  Oh, PUH-LEEZE!

Here we go again…

mncoalgasplant.com will be filing comments, no doubt about it!

Would the PUC doesn’t transfer projects like this without amending the permit application, without verification of what indeed it is they want to do?  If you take the original ALJ Decision, the Permit Order and the Permit itself, redact everything related to coal gasification, what’s left?  Not much!  We need to know what they’re planning (if anything, this remains the vaporware project from hell).

This is the letter filed by Excelsior Energy — I don’t recall having received it, but will dig through the piles here, they DO have my correct address (though I note that they sent to Excelsior’s Evans, Greenman and Harrington at their OLD address!):

Excelsior Energy Request – May 31, 2012

Here is the PUC’s Notice of Comment Period, first round due June 29, 2012:

Notice of Comment Period

And what’s most disturbing is the legislative change in 2011, supported, DEMANDED, by Gov. Dayton:

Subd. 3. Staging and permitting.

(a) A natural gas-fired plant that is located on one site designated as an innovative energy project site under subdivision 1, clause (3), is accorded the regulatory incentives granted to an innovative energy project under subdivision 2, clauses (1) to (3), and may exercise the authorities therein.

(b) Following issuance of a final state or federal environmental impact statement for an innovative energy project that was a subject of contested case proceedings before an administrative law judge:

(1) site and route permits and water appropriation approvals for an innovative energy project must also be deemed valid for a plant meeting the requirements of paragraph (a) and shall remain valid until the earlier of (i) four years from the date the final required state or federal preconstruction permit is issued or (ii) June 30, 2019; and

(2) no air, water, or other permit issued by a state agency that is necessary for constructing an innovative energy project may be the subject of contested case hearings, notwithstanding Minnesota Rules, parts 7000.1750 to 7000.2200.

Here’s the link to the full Minn. Stat. 216B.1694.

The Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant here in Red Wing, Minnesota.

Today the Appellate Court tossed out the NRC’s “Waste Confidence Decision,” which essentially was the NRC’s statement that they were confident that the nuclear waste problem will be solved (as if!) so let’s just carry on and not worry about it.  The Appellate Court said, in essence, WE DON’T THINK SO:

Court of Appeals – 11-1045 – Waste Confidence Decision

Here’s the latest version of the Waste Confidence Decision that they’re rejecting:

75 FR 81032 – Consideration of Environmental Impacts of Temporary Storage of Spent Fuel After Cessation of Reactor Operation

All I can say is, IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!   And no way will the utilities go for this, so off to the Supreme Court we go!

Let’s hope he gets indicted soon…  Remember Nixon?

Is Scott Walker Facing Indictment and Does it Matter to Walker’s Wisconsin Supporters?

Given that most of his $30.9 came from outside Wisconsin, I’d alter that headline some and look at that!

Thanks to a little birdie for this!

Check out page 4.  So is that Wisconsin’s Russell Feingold?  Naaaaaaah, must be his alter ego…

Black & Veatch – 2012 Strategic Directions in the U.S. Electric Utility Industry

Keep in mind that this is a utility survey, so it is not a report on reality, it is a report on perceptions of the “captains of industry,” not the “captives of industry!”  Here’s what they’re concerned about (click to enlarge):

And an interesting one — I cannot comprehend how, in 2012, anyone involved in things electric would think that coal gasification would ever be viable (click to enlarge):

And my favorite — LOAD GROWTH (click to enlarge):