Legalectric

Why is Coleman a toady for Mesaba? Time for a new Senator!
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Citizens Against the Mesaba Project is unveiling CAMP and holding an informational meeting on Tuesday.

CAMP

July 25, 2006 at 7 p.m.

Grand Rapids Public Library

Do join us for this informational meeting about Excelsior Energy’s proposed coal gasification power plant.

• What are the real costs? (and what about those unreal costs!)
• Is this technology reliable?
• What are the real economic benefits?
• What infrastructure exists/is needed at the Scenic Highway site?
• Why is the power of eminent domain granted to a private company?
• Why is this project exempted from the typical review process?
• What are the environmental and health effects?
• What can a concerned citizen do?

Featured speaker, Ross Hammond, P.E. Ross is an energy consultant, a Board Member of Fresh Energy (formerly ME3), and has over 30 years in the industry. He was NSP’s Director of Environmental Affairs, manager of NSP’s Riverside coal plant, and another in Australia, and he worked in transmission too! And yes, his father and my father built coal plants together!
And don’t forget that Thursday is the PUC meeting where they will address Comments received regarding cost issues and decide whether they want to amend their prior Order in the Mesaba cost docket. It will probably be one of the best PUC meetings this decade!

And Thursday or Friday, who knows, we’re waiting to find out, it’s Xcel’s Motion to Extend Deadlines, because Excelsior is dragging their feet, stalling, won’t turn stuff over and we spend all our time fighting to get access to information — seems Xcel is being perfectly reasonable. GASP!!! (isn’t GASP an anti-coal group?)

Who pays for this? The deeper I look, the worse it gets. The infrastructure tally is pushing half a billion bucks — that’s a lot in my book. The Commissioners were getting pretty wound up about costs, and rightly so. They know what’s coming, no foreshadowing required. And on July 7, the day after the last Mesaba meeting, they opened up a Comment period! YES!

PUC Notice of 7/7/06 in part:

At its July 6, 2006 agenda meeting, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission considered the acceptance of Excelsior Energy Inc.’s Combined Application for a Site Permit, Transmission Line Route Permit, and Natural Gas Pipeline Permit for its Mesaba Energy Project in Docket No. E-6472/GS-06-668 (link to the Docket). In the course of discussions on the 06-668 Docket, issues were raised that may be more directly addressed in Docket No. E-6472/M-05-1993 which the Commission has already referred for contested case hearing. The Commission directed its staff to bring these issues back before the Commission at a future agenda meeting in the 05-1993 Docket.

Written comments will be accepted on whether the Commission should supplement its April 26, 2006 Notice and Order for Hearing and Order Granting Intervention Petition in the 05-1993 Docket to request that parties specifically address:

• the costs of transmission upgrades and related facilities beyond the substation associated with the Mesaba Energy Project; and
• the costs of other infrastructure investments associated with the Mesaba Energy Project.

Pretty cool, eh? Here’s the bunch that flew over the ether yesterday with clickable links:

MCGP Comment on Cost for Commission.pdf
Local Gov’t Infrastructure Cost Estimate Exhibit A – SEH Public Infrastructure.pdf
TLTG Tables – incremental cost of fixes Exhibit B – TLTG Table 1-H SW MN 345kV.pdf

Excelsior_Comments on Commn Notice Regarding Addl Issues-1.pdf

MP Comments 05-1993-1.pdf

Xcel Energy Comments 05-1993-2.pdf

Remember when a couple weeks ago, I’d sent out Info Requests to Xcel asking what curtailment costs would be for the 675MW of wind that under MISO G519 has to be cut (plus Big Stone II has to be “kept in ND” and MP generation and capacity of A-W is cut too) because curtailment payments would be easy for them to measure… hee hee hee hee. Here’s the G519 report — it’s hilarious! 675MW of wind cut for 600MW of Mesaba! Anyway, Xcel got right with it and even did me one better in what they think should be considered:

• Carbon sequestration: Should the record attempt to identify the cost and infrastructure necessary for carbon sequestration?
• Curtailment: Are there potential curtailment costs with generation so far from NSP load and should these costs be considered along with the infrastructure costs?
• Natural gas capacity andinfrastructure: What are the costs of developing natural gas fuel for the plant as a back-up or alternative fuel, including gas capacity reservation charges as well as infrastructure costs.
• Cost allocatin and assignment: In light of the statutes, who should have the responsibility for the actual infrastructure improvements?
• Hydrogen economy: Are there infrastructure costs associated with using this IGCC to help devleop a Minnesota hydrogen economy?
• Other infrastructure: Are other infrastructure costs for rail, water, management of wastes, fly ash fully considered?

Hey Xcel – you forgot “road!” But isn’t that just the greatest list of costs to be considered that you ever did see!

The Commission will address these issues on Thursday, July 27, the meeting starts at 9:30 but we’re second to last on the agenda. Keep an eye on the Calendar, click here, because Staff Briefing papers will appear before the meeting.

Now let’s see if this upload works now!

Pat Micheletti hiding behind a local landowner!

He was trying hard not to get caught, but I was persistent, missed a great shot with his hand in front of the lens, couldn’t get the camera on in time! He asked me why I don’t like the project, and I don’t think wanted a point by point description — and it made me think that I really should have that in talking points, so that’s something to do on the drive home.

But on a serious note, this was by far the best meeting on Mesaba yet, because this time there was more give and take, and no Tom Micheletti to screw up the public relations! Michael Wadley presented, and gave a very detailed overview, and he’s obviously been doing his homework and has learned a lot about coal gasification — but hey, it’s not nuclear science, eh? He was pushed by many of the audience members, some challenged the job estimates and wanted to know what the qualifications would be, how many locals could really get a job there. There were good questions about the meaning of “jobs” in the “Duluth” report, and the discrepancy between that report and the numbers in the PUC application, and Mike did well explaining the way it was calculated and how that was modified for the PUC — the Duluth report calls one job for one person for one hour “a job” and the PUC was more in line with reality that it takes more than that to make a “job” (my summary). Wadley gave his own example, starting pushing a broom at Prairie Island, and he should have given Steve Murphy’s example, parlaying his NSP job into the Senate as a “company” senator — Dog knows they need some new representation up here! (Saxhaug’s got to go! Rumor has it he’s not running again, if only Solberg would say the same, both have abandoned their constituents in favor of Excelsior/Mesaba). Others had questions about the plume of pollutants, and there was a wind rose posted which suprisingly showed most wind… as I think about this I might have it exactly backwards, more on this later.

One thing I’d recommend is to have someone who has authorization to address the economic issues — there’s this presumption that “regular folks” are interested only in the environmental issues, and that’s not true! Locals are very concerned about the costs to their community — what it means for the County to be considering a rail spur, essentially becoming a short line railroad (really… more on that later), or for Taconite to be expanding its water treatment plant (Taconite, Bovey, Coleraine joint plant), and what all these perks that Excelsior is getting mean to them, and the impact on the cost to ratepayers and taxpayers. People do care about this stuff and they get it, they know pork when they see it, they know corporate welfare when they see it, and when they’re working so hard to get by, watching their taxes to up and up and up, people don’t like to see exceptions for risky corporate for-profit businesses. Excelsior’s financing transfers the burden of a risky private enterprise to the public, and someone had better figure out how to answer the public’s questions!

Info and questions that stood out last night:

* They expect to achieve an efficiency of “greater than 50%!” This i gotta see, because typically coal gasification is doing good ti get a 40-41% efficiency rate.
* Sulphur — recovery is around 99%, but even with that, 1.5 tons a day goes out the stack
* Mercury — disposal of mercury laden carbon (or recycling of carbon) depends on how quickly it loads up, and that’s not known
* Coal supply requires 5 trains in and out weekly, 115 cars each, no switching yard, but there is unloading
^ ZLD – Zero liquid discharge — it means there’s no discharge on site, but it is recycled through plant and after some treatment, goes into cooling towers and then out. They are planning to incorporate into waters where there is already known mercury discuarge (I need more info on this, it’s hard to figure out what the water situation is because it keeps changing)
* Transmission studies are done and on the MISO site (I’ll dig for this when I get home)
* Financing will be nailed down first quarter 2007
* Stacks are 150 feet high, compared with 500-700ft stacks at Boswell — “not higher because we don’t need it” because they don’t pollute like a coal plant
* Most of the financial questions remained unanswered, so I’ll be putting together a list of what I’m hearing people comment on, and will forward that to Excelsior.

Excelsior Energy’s site: www.excelsiorenergy.com
I can’t find the PUC filings there…

To find the PUC application, which has a detailed project description, go to www.mncoalgasplant.com

Here’s the Annandale decision, the one that does not allow discharge into impaired water:

In the Matter of the Cities of Annandale and Maple Lake NPDES/SDS Permit Issuance for the Discharge of Treated Wastewater, and Request for Contested Case Hearing

There’s a poll in the Grand Rapids Herald Review, and as Al Franken says, vote early and vote often. Last I saw there were 336 votes, and 64% opposed!

Local residents talking with “Jim,” who is probably Jim Milkovich, of Excelsior.

The DOE and the Department of Commerce have finally released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project. Here’s the link:

DRAFT EIS – MESABA PROJECT IGCC

I’ll be uploading the pieces of it for posterity, sitting on my posterior… it’ll take a while, but here’s a start:

Mesaba DEIS – Contents

Mesaba DEIS – Summary

Mesaba DIES – Chapter 1

Mesaba DEIS – Chapter 2

Chapter 3 is just too big!

Mesaba DEIS – Chapter 4

Mesaba DEIS – Chapter 5

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix A

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix B

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix C

Appendix D is just too big!

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix E

Appendix F is just too big!

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix G

Mesaba DEIS – Appendix H

This ought to keep you going at least long enough for me to get the big ones broken down and posted! Happy reading.
Remember this on of “the boys” deer hunting on the Mesaba site? It’s that time of year again… and look at all that infrastructure!