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From MPCA site!!!

The public hearings are coming up for Excelsior’s Mesaba Project — the coal gasification plant proposed here in Minnesota. The hearings are:

Monday, December 18
1 p.m. & 6 p.m.
PUC Large Hearing Room
121 – 7th Place E.
St. Paul

Tuesday, December 19
1 p.m. & 5 p.m.
Hoyt Lakes Arena
Hoyt Lakes

Wednesday, December 20
1 p.m. & 5 p.m.
Taconite Community Ctr.
Taconite

Can’t be there? Here’s a Comment sheet with things to think about and comment on, and information about how to submit Comments if you’re not at the meeting:

Public Comment Form

And if you’re wondering what to comment about — take a look at the concerns and recommendations of state and federal agencies in the Excelsior Siting Docket. They raise many issues that have cost implications that should be considered in this cost docket.

MPCA Comment in Siting Docket July 31 2006

MPCA Comment in Siting Docket May 4 2006

US EPA Comment Letter

DNR Comments

DNR EIS Scope Comment Aug 30 2006

US Army Corps of Engineers May 26 2006

And also to be considered are the costs of development that Escelsior is shifting to local and state governments — particularly the costs of infrastructure such as the more than $20 million to “realign” Scenic Highway 7 to become a Mesaba access road, or the cost of getting 6,500 gpm of process water from at least two sources all the way over to Mesaba… and then what happens to all that water once it’s there? Here is the SEH Public Infrastructure Improvements proposed for Excelsior which sets out costs and has great maps showing the extent of what’s to be provided for Excelsior from the public trough.

SEH Public Infrastructure Improvements

And of course there are massive transmission costs, from simple interconnection to the hundreds of millions in transmission network upgrades. Those costs are listed here with citations to documents in the record:

Transmission Cost Summary

Each of these documents provides LOTS of options and issues to make cost specific comments about!

Part of our job is to assure that these costs associated with the development of Excelsior’s Mesaba Project are weighed by the PUC in determining whether this project is in the public interest. The statute requires this cost/benefit analysis as the PUC looks at the economic benefits that this project may provide to the state.

See you at the hearings!

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