Legalectric

In their styes with all their backing
They don’t care what goes on around
In their eyes there’s something lacking
What they need’s a damn good whacking…

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So there’s this Health Care bill, and they stuck a number of energy related provisions in at the last minute and they were squealing like stuck pigs, but lo and behold, it all passed… just under the wire… funny how that works!

Questions – Inquiring minds want to know:

Is Excelsior one of the DOE tax credit recipients this round?

Is Excelsior one of the two recipients not disclosed?

If Excelsior didn’t get it this round, will Excelsior be applying next round?

BONUS QUESTION: If Excelsior gets this DOE tax credit, is it passed on in the PPA to the ratepayers or does Micheletti put it in his pocket?

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Coleman remedy may fix glitch

Excelsior Energy project would benefit under coal gasification tax incentives
Mesabi Daily News
Friday, December 08th, 2006 11:09:24 PM

WASHINGTON â?? The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was geared toward helping the country become more energy independent, which means more of a focus on clean-coal projects â?? including the Excelsior Energy Project slated for the Iron Range.

But the act had a technicality that was not kind to that initiative and others like it. U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., hopes a provision he is proposing to remedy the situation will be approved in another bill soon to be voted on by the full Senate.

Coleman cited a need to create a level playing field for the advancement of coal gasification technology, in successfully getting a provision included in the Tax Relief and Health Care Act, which will soon be considered on the Senate floor, that will allow the Excelsior Energy project to qualify for federal clean coal tax incentives.

Specifically, Colemanâ??s provision changes emission requirements contained in last yearâ??s Energy Bill that discriminated against projects like Excelsior that use cleaner, subbituminous coal â?? blocking their eligibility for new tax incentives.

â??My concern is that this would seriously hamper or undermine the Excelsior Energy Project, which is why Iâ??ve worked for over nine months to find a solution,â? said Coleman. â??Due to a technicality in last yearâ??s Energy Bill, Excelsior is unable to utilize clean coal tax credits. Ironically, Excelsior Energy was penalized for doing exactly what we want them to do: Create cleaner energy.

â??Excelsior offers us an opportunity for Minnesota to increase domestic energy production, lower the demand for and cost of natural gas, and do so in an environmentally sensitive manner. I am very thankful for the hard work of Congressmen (Jim) Ramstad and (Jim) Oberstar (both of Minnesota) in supporting my legislation and pressing for its passage on their side of Capitol Hill.â?

The Excelsior Energy project is expected to create hundreds of local construction jobs during the three years it takes to build the plant and many permanent high-tech jobs when commercial operations commence.

Recently, Sen. Coleman was successful in helping the projectâ??s developers in securing a $36 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to be used in the design and construction of the advanced clean coal plant, which will be located on the Iron Range in Northeastern Minnesota.

Excelsior officials plan for three coal gasification plants on the Range, with the first one slated for Itasca County near Bovey.

Talk about great minds! As I was prepping this to post (got carried away with all the piggie photos), what should arrive but a link to Sen. Coleman’s site! THANK YOU!!! Perfect timing. But before you read it, put on your barn boots, it’s getting deep in here!

CLICK HERE FOR COLEMAN’S SPIN

Here’s the IRS Notice on the tax credits:

www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-06-24.pdf

Here’s the public version of Excelsior’s response to Xcel IR 2 and 4 that addressed the credit — and the response to IR4 included a copy of the IRS Notice above:

Excelsior Response to Xcel IR 2
Excelsior Response to Xcel IR 4 – DOE 48A

Prior Legalectric posts on the PRB tax credit:

More about the tax credit and PRB
Impact of no tax credit for PRB

Oh, PRB… PRB is “Powder River Basin” coal, from… ta da… the Power River Basin in Wyoming, it’s a low sulphur coal.

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Color me pissy, but you’d think that after TEN (&(*$*(*@$(*% YEARS of dealing with this Chisago Transmission Project in one capacity or incapacity or another that Xcel might notice when they’re sending out its reapplication (for what, the third time now?) that they’d notice that they neglected to send one to me! You’d think that they’d notice that the local citizens group Intervenor in all the previous Chisago Project incarnations, the ever-so-effective Concerned River Valley Citizens, was NOT served with an application, nothing sent to Bill Neuman or Shellene Johnson! But NOOOOOOOO…

Here’s Xcel’s site for the Chisago Transmission Project, now called, I kid you not:

The Chisago County Reliability Improvement Project

Here’s the service list from PUC as of October 31, 2006:
chisago-service-list.pdf

I’m on the list.. well DUH, I’d better be, not just because of 10 years of work on this, but there’s also those formal Comments I’d filed on the Notice Plan in July. On the October 31 service list, Shellene Johnson, Pres. of CRVC was inexplicably removed.

So the recap:

Xcel screws up by not serving moi.

PUC/Commerce or whatever screws up by removing Shellene Johnson.

The Agency Formerly Known As The EQB screws up because they don’t take that EQB list over to the new office at 85 – 7th Place E. and make that existing list the service list in the dockets.

When I emailed Robin Benson, keeper of the PUC’s lists, she said I was on it, and that Shellene Johnson had been removed and Bill Neuman was MIA.

When I called Bret Eknes of the PUC, he said that the Comment Period on Completeness wouldn’t be reopened, and that they don’t have to solicit comments. Objection, non-responsive! Reopening because of a screw up is different than soliciting comments.

When I called Bob Cupit, of The Agency Formerly Known As The EQB, he rolls his eyeballs, does his “Oh, give me a break” Overland impression, and says things that he says I cannot quote or he will shoot me!

When I called Xcel, Mary Martinka, as Jimbo Alders says, was on it, and yesterday they shipped off copies to me, to Bill Neuman, and to Shellene Johnson.

Jimbo Alders, of Xcel, emails and says his staff people were right on it when I called. Yup, they were! Didn’t notice I wasn’t on the list? Come on, Jimbo, you knew I’d moved to Red Wing even before my neighbors did!

Oh, give me a break… as I told Jimbo, you’d think after all this time that Xcel would have a big envelope with my name in it to serve me with everything that goes out the door — except nuclear waste, I’ll pass on that. I mean really, you’d think they’d know I’m gonna find out about the Chisago Application, just like I find out about everything else!
Well, as my ex-husband used to say, “Goes to show you don’t think!” Yup, uh-huh…

OK, fine, if that’s how it’s going to be, I’ll just pack up all my IGCC files and move to Colorado!

And on that happy note, here’s the Xcel bird cam – nope, no bird cam, they’re sensible and are gone for the winter… at least staying away from Xcel power plants. Oh, that reminds me, and I failed to get a photo of it, but there was this great sign, an Xcel billboard, on the Lafayette Bridge, yes, an XCEL sign that said “Beware! Powerlines Kill!” or some such. Whatever were they thinking?

The Big Stone II hearings have begun at the PUC, ostensibly for transmission for the project, but the need for the plant remains at issue.  For the PUC docket on Big Stone, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and then to “Search DOckets” and then plug in 05-619.
You can tell that the people in Alexandra have been getting word out about the Big Stone plant, and you can tell what way the wind is blowing at the Echo Press in Alexandria — Mark Rolfes, the BS project manager, gets the Commentary, a defensive Commentary, while the regular guy gets a little ink in the LTE, but as we all know, the size of the commentary is directly proportional to the weakness of their argument!

Big Stone II will limit mercury emissions, double generating capacity

12/06/2006

By Mark Rolfes, Big Stone II project manager, Fergus Falls, MN

The public debate about mercury contamination too often is based on hyperbole rather than reason.

Those who are critical of plans to expand the Big Stone power station’s generating capacity suggest that mercury contamination will disappear from our lakes, streams, and fish if only we agree to not use coal to produce electricity. What they offer is an overly simplistic answer to a complex environmental problem.

Mercury is a naturally occurring element that is released into the environment through human activity and natural processes. About 55 percent of the mercury worldwide is produced from runoff and natural leaching, forest fires, and volcanic activity.

While it is true that some mercury is released from coal-fired power plants, the amount is relatively small, largely insoluble, and not easily converted into the methyl mercury that contaminates our waters and collects in the fatty tissues of fish.

Moreover, there has been significant reduction in the mercury emissions in the United States during the last 30 years. Since 1970, industrial use of mercury has decreased by 80 percent. Because of improved pollution-control technologies, mercury emissions from power plants declined 38 percent between 1995 and 1999.

In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established a new standard that requires a 20 percent reduction in electric utility mercury emissions within the next four years. By 2018, mercury emissions from power plants must be reduced by 70 percent.

Our project will more than double the generating capacity of the Big Stone power station near Milbank, S.D., without increasing the amount of mercury discharged into the atmosphere. By installing highly effective emission control equipment on the new 630-megawatt generator and the existing generator, we will be able to limit the mercury in our emissions to no more than 189 pounds per year. That is equal to the record we achieved in 2004 with the existing 450-megawatt generator.

By any measure, the seven utilities involved in the Big Stone II project â?? Otter Tail Power Company, Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Great River Energy, Heartland Consumers Power District, Missouri River Energy Services, Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., and the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency â?? are concerned about environmental protection. Limiting our mercury emissions to the 2004 level while more than doubling our generating capacity is a significant accomplishment.

We and other regional utilities are participating in expensive research to reduce power plant emissions. Utilities are investing millions of dollars in research and demonstration projects to develop emission-control technologies that will capture mercury before it leaves the power plant.

We will use highly effective technology not only to supply our customers with reasonably priced electricity but also to minimize environmental degradation.Â

Here’s the view from the regular guy:

Big Stone II: An environmental mistake

12/06/2006

To the editor:

I think that members of Runestone Electric Association should be concerned that the power supplier for their and many other rural electric cooperatives (REC), Great River Energy (GRE), would be a major owner of a planned coal-fired electric generating plant, Big Stone II, which would be built in South Dakota. I think that building such a plant at this time would not only be an environmental mistake but could also be a catastrophic financial blunder.

This plant, like all coal-fired plants, would be a large contributor of green house gases (CO2), which most scientists agree are causing global warming. The cost of this plant has already increased from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion and a route for the associated transmission lines has not been approved, but the involved utilities seem to be proceeding full speed ahead.

If, as many knowledgeable people predict that CO2 limits and penalties are enacted, the costs, which would be added onto a plant like Big Stone II, would be substantial. Some say as much as 30 to 40 percent.

The involved utilities say they will deal with these issues as they appear. What this translates to is that you and I will end up paying for their mistakes. Our rates about doubled after the last large coal-fired plant, Coal Creek, came online.

There are alternatives to this electric generating plant. Our power supplier GRE is involved in wind energy and has natural gas-fired peak time generators to back them up when the wind is not blowing.

I encourage everyone to get involved in this issue. Ottertail Power and power suppliers to most municipal utilities are also involved in this project, so it affects many people in this area.

Glenn Bennett
Lowry, MN

(Editor’s note: Watch for an in-depth story about the Big Stone II project and the controversy surrounding it in Friday’s Echo Press.)

… here’s some reality therapy. Tom just sent this, so if you don’t believe it, call solarson…

Wow, just when you think youÂ?ve seen it all. This might be the winner this year.

“Isn’t that just amazing. They were laying new power cables. They were strung on the ground for miles. The moose are rutting right now and very agitated. He was thrashing around and got his antlers stuck. When the men (miles away) pull the lines up with their big equipment, he went too. They couldn’t get the lines right and went searching for the problem. He was still alive when they lowered him, but he had to be shot later because he was in distress. He was a huge 60 inch bull.”

Mark your calendars – next Monday, December 11. Somebody PLEASE go and send me photos to post.

It’s in Coleraine’s Peterson Funeral Home building on Roosevelt, so at least they won’t have far to carry the Project to bury it!