Tonight is the public hearing, using the “Alternative Review Process,” for the transmission for the Freeborn Wind Project, the very same project that has been recommended be denied by the Administrative Law Judge:

WE WON!!! ALJ Recommend Freeborn Permit be DENIED, or…

Be there or be square:

What’s at issue?  Most important is “need” and lack thereof.  Under Minesota Rules, need may not be addressed in the environmental review:

Questions of need, including size, type, and timing; alternative system configurations; and voltage must not be included in the scope of environmental review conducted under this chapter.  Minn. Stat. 216E.02, Subd. 2.

BUT, where there is no Certificate of Need, issues of size, type and timing MAY be addressed — the prohibition of addressing need only applies where a Certificate of Need has been issued:

7850.4200 FACTORS EXCLUDED.

When the Public Utilities Commission has issued a Certificate of Need for a large electric power generating plant or a high voltage transmission line or placed a high voltage transmission line on the certified HVTL list maintained by the commission, questions of need, including size, type, and timing, questions of alternative system configurations, and questions of voltage shall not be factors considered by the commission in deciding whether to issue a permit for a proposed facility.

There is no Certificate of Need required or issued for this project, and so “questions of need, including size, type, and timing, questions of alternative system configurations, and questions of voltage” are fair game.

In this case, it’s particularly relevant where the ALJ has recommended the project site permit be denied!  No project, no transmission needed.

Off to Albert Lea!

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