It’s hard to miss the Tammens — they are EVERYWHERE!!!  Saw them up in Clouqet about a year ago at an IATP Biomass love-fest, and they have been at every meeting and hearing for the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project.  Good to see they’ve been noticed!!!

Here’s the profile in Session Weekly — thanks to Darrell Gerber for pointing this out:

Soudan snowbirds

Published (3/25/2011)
By Sue Hegarty
You might not notice Bob and Pat Tammen sitting in the House hearing rooms. Bob, clothed in a crisp, pressed dress shirt and necktie, blends in with the lobbyists, deputy commissioners and expert testifiers. Pat sits next to her husband, alert to the day’s agenda.

The Tammens are not on anybody’s political payroll, nor are they required to hear or give testimony about proposed legislation, unlike most in the gallery. Yet there they sit, day after day.

“We’ve seen a couple of committees that have citizens sitting there with equal standing. Sometimes I believe those citizens represent our values better than our elected officials,” Bob said.

On Pat’s 74th birthday, March 22, they were in the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee hearing by 8:15 a.m. for 90 minutes of testimony; then again as testimony continued into the evening.

A retired couple from Soudan, the Tammens could spend the long, cold Minnesota winter anywhere. Instead, they pack up their 24-foot camper and drive to St. Paul, where they park in the Sears parking lot across from the State Office Building, so they can be close to all the legislative action.

“We like where we live, and when we talk about the quality of life in Minnesota, Soudan has it,” Bob said.

They begin their mornings with a walk across the street to buy a newspaper and coffee in the State Office Building. After sitting though the morning hearings in the House or Senate, they grab a bowl of soup at the Rathskeller, the State Capitol cafeteria. Afternoons may include more hearings or witnessing a rally in the Capitol Rotunda. In the evenings, they often drive their self-contained Winnebago to a bookstore where they share a sandwich. Pat scours the bookshelves while Bob uses the wireless Internet to check email.

They pay Sears a monthly parking fee of $30. So far, no one has rattled their metal cage, but they do need to watch their step when the snowplow clears the lot. On weekends, they return home to do laundry, open the mail and repack for another week in St. Paul.

In the spirit of full disclosure, they say they are DFLers and lifelong union workers. Pat taught elementary school in the Ely area for 38 years. Bob was an electrician who worked in the mines and did contract electrical work at Xcel’s nuclear power plant in Monticello. They pay dues to nearly every environmental group, but neither has ever held a board seat, they said.

Bob and Pat met after he returned from Vietnam in 1965.

Bob worked for several mining operations and for U.S. Steel, where he became familiar with mining’s residual effect on the environment. “Most of us were pretty nonchalant about what we were doing. There were a few voices in our communities warning us about this, but most of us didn’t listen,” he said.

They don’t always agree with some DFL legislators who say mining brings prosperity to a community.

“Look at Virginia. They are surrounded by taconite mines. You couldn’t squeeze any more mines in there hardly. They’re still losing population,” Bob said.

Pat followed the alternative pathways for teacher licensure debate in the House education committees and believes it will weaken the classroom.

When the legislative session ends, they’ll drive north again and park the camper on

20 acres of undeveloped land they own along 800 feet of shoreline. They’ll drop their canoe in the water and pick up stray fishing bobbers to add them their collection. Enjoying a respite from the Capitol chatter, they’ll hike through the new Lake Vermilion State Park near their house. No doubt, these citizen watchdogs will keep a watchful eye on how taxpayer dollars are being spent to develop the park that’s been called the jewel of the state park system.

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Does anyone give a rodent’s rump about Xcel’s Hiawatha Project transmission project through Phillips?

Listen up!  It’s time to Comment on what we all think the scope of the Environmental Report should be for Xcel Energy’s Hiawatha Project transmission line.  What should be reviewed, what system alternatives should be considered (conservation, reconductor the distribution system at issue), demand side management (demand is DOWN, DUH!), solar on every roof of Phillips to follow peak load… , whether the size of the project (the specs) conform with the need they’re claiming, whether a power factor and distribution based need claim can and should be addressed with a big honkin’ transmission line, and how ’bout some realistic magnetic field modeling, ____________ (your issue here!).

Does anyone care?

Last week was the public meeting to solicit comments on the scope of environmental review, a meeting (NOT a hearing!) held by our friends at Minnesota Office of Energy Security – MOES:

MOES – Hiawatha Transmission Project Scoping Notice

COMMENTS ON THE SCOPE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT ARE OPEN UNTIL APRIL 6, 2011!

Send Comments to:

Bill Storm

State Permit Manager

Minnesota Office of Energy Security

85 7th Place East, Suite 500

St. Paul, Minnesota, 55101-2198

Fax: 651-297-7891

email: bill.storm@state.mn.us

More on Comments below… I couldn’t attend the public meeting because it was in the middle of the AWA Goodhue Wind evidentiary hearing, there was no way to do both.  However, this is my old neighborhood, I spent 20 years in Prestigious East Phillips!  I can’t stand the thought of this project ripping up Phillips…

To look at the dockets for this case, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and click “Search eDockets” and search for:

Hiawatha Project Routing Docket – 09-38

Hiawatha Project Certificate of Need Docket – 10-694

I’m concerned whether anyone cares, whether anyone is going to be weighing in on this, because the big intervenors in the routing case, Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis, and the Midtown Greenway Coalition have all pledged not to intervene:

Joint letter from Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis, and Midtown Greenway Coalition

Why would they say they’re not planning on intervening?  Did they agree not to intervene?  Why?

What does it mean if the large funded intervenors aren’t participating in the Certificate of Need docket?

Why does it matter if anyone intervenes in the Certificate of Need?

Well, it’s simple.  This project isn’t needed.  And in a Certificate of Need proceeding, the applicant has to prove up need.  If it’s not needed, it doesn’t go forward.  If you want to stop a project, force them to do it another way, the odds are a lot higher if you show up and participate in the Certificate of Need docket at the PUC.  If not, well, you’re just sitting on the sidelines and stuck with whatever result happens while you’re not there.  The moral to the story?  SHOW UP!

During the Hiawatha Project’s PUC routing process, there were loud objections that this project was not needed, was not subject to a Certificate of Need, and should be.  Rep. Karen Clark pushed through a bill requiring a Certificate of Need for this specific project:

2010 Session Laws, Ch 361, Art 5, Section 19-21

So amid much breast-beating, this bill of Rep. Karen Clark was added to SF 3275 and became part of Ch 361.  A Certificate of Need is now necessary for the Hiawatha Project.

But here’s the hilarious part — there was a $90,000 kicker to ????  some organization, to do neighborhood conservation and energy planning, $90,000, and that the project would go forward, it wasn’t hinged on the results of this “work.”  The bill passes and goes on to the Gov. to be signed… SNORT… Pawlenty vetoed the $90,000 payout in the bill!

So now where are we?  The money is gone… funding to a community group is pulled out from the bill.  (And what  community group would that be intended for… CERTS?  … Xcel-funded Green Institute?  What organizations have “experience in energy conservation and energy planning at the neighborhood level?”)  Oh well, the project moves forward.

Next, Xcel applies for the Certificate of Need, which under this bill is not to proceed until after April 1, 2011, and now the scoping for the Environmental Report is held.

What is “scoping?”  It’s when an agency collects comments and mulls it over and determines what all should be covered in environmental review.  In this case, because it’s a “Certificate of Need” proceeding, system alternatives are at issue, in addition to the usual environmental suspects.  And of course, a full disclosure of impacts is necessary, things like the expected range of magnetic fields.  That’s a particularly prominent issue because in the routing docket, the Administrative Law Judge recommended that the Hiawatha Project be put underground due to exposure of local residents and workers to high levels of magnetic fields, higher than the threshold above which the World Health Organization would urge we exercise precaution.  And of course, the reasonable levels are a lot higher than what they’re disclosing.

MOES – Hiawatha Transmission Project Scoping Notice

Before you work on your comments, take a look at what’s been posted as the “Draft” Scoping Decision:

Draft EA Scoping Document

And check out these magnetic field charts from the application – do these amp levels have any relation to the claimed need and the potential amps on the lines as spec’d?

WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT?

COMMENTS ON THE SCOPE OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT ARE OPEN UNTIL APRIL 6, 2011!

Send Comments to:

Bill Storm

State Permit Manager

Minnesota Office of Energy Security

85 7th Place East, Suite 500

St. Paul, Minnesota, 55101-2198

Fax: 651-297-7891

email: bill.storm@state.mn.us

It’s a cold day in hell today, too cold to be painting in the new house!

Most of you can ignore this post, but for those of you looking for the owners manual for the Carrier Weathermaker 9200 Ultra High Efficiency 58MXA 060, here it is:

Carrier Weathermaker 9200 – 58MXA Owners Manual 58-67

Carrier 58MXA Service and Maintenance Instructions

The nuclear disaster in Japan continues, new twists unfolding each day…

Japan agency says crippled nuclear plant operator missed inspections before disaster struck – STrib

In a report released March 2, nine days before the disasters, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency cited Tokyo Electric Power Co. for ignoring inspection schedules and failing to examine 33 pieces of equipment at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

And as for conditions at the Fukushima nuclear site, an update from Bloomberg News:

Cooling pools holding spent-fuel rods atop the plant’s six reactors were below 100 degrees Celsius (212 Fahrenheit), the boiling point of water, Japan Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said last night in a news conference. The company said it needs to replace power components at reactors 1, 2, 3 and 4.

No. 1: The temperature outside the reactor’s pressure vessel fell to 385 degrees Celsius, as of 3 a.m. from 400 degrees as of 3 a.m. yesterday, Hikaru Kuroda, an official in Tokyo Electric’s nuclear management department, said today. The reactor was damaged on March 12 by a hydrogen explosion that destroyed the building’s walls. The reactor is rated level five in terms of threat on an international scale of 1-7.

No. 2: The temperature outside the reactor’s pressure vessel fell below 160 degrees Celsius, as of 3 a.m., Kuroda said. Workers reconnected a 1.5-kilometer (1 mile) power cable on March 19 to the unit. A March 15 explosion may have damaged the containment chamber. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 3: Smoke was seen rising from the building of the reactor at about 3:55 p.m. local time. Workers were evacuated from the building, spokesman Kaoru Yoshida said. Workers connected a power cable to the No. 3 and 4 reactors. The temperature inside the reactor dropped below 200 degrees Celsius, the Fukushima plant operator said earlier today. The Japanese Self Defense Force and firefighters have doused a total of 3,742 metric tons of water on the reactor since March 17, the government agency said in a statement. A March 14 explosion damaged the unit’s fuel cover. The reactor is rated a level-five threat.

No. 4: Japanese Self Defense Forces have sprayed a total of 255 tons of water toward the reactor building since yesterday. A fire broke out in the pond containing spent-fuel rods. The nuclear agency said March 17 there may be no water in the cooling pool. It’s rated four in terms of threat. This reactor was undergoing maintenance when the earthquake hit.

No. 5: The reactor achieved cold shutdown at 2:30 p.m. local time yesterday when the temperature fell below 100 degrees Celsius yesterday, Megumi Iwashita, Tepco spokeswoman, said. The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

No. 6: The reactor achieved cold shutdown at 7:27 p.m. when the temperature fell below 100 degrees Celsius yesterday, Iwashita said. A backup generator was fixed March 19, according to a company press release. The unit was idle for maintenance before the earthquake.

Isn’t it time for those who did the deal allowing new and increased dry cask storage at Monticello (same boiling water reactor as Fukushima’s) and Prairie Island to say NO!   From the New York Times, for those of us here in Minnesota by our own GE boiling water plant in Minnesota, info on the design of that type of plant:

Deconstructing a Controversial Design