Legalectric

Today was the first meeting of the Citizens Advisory Task Force (CATF) for the Prairie Island uprate and dry cask storage expansion. They’re meeting only THREE times over the next three weeks. Let’s see, the purpose of a Task Force is to review and vet the application (yes, Commissioner Reha was quite clear of the importance of vetting the application), to make recommendations about alternatives and issues to address in the EIS, but you wouldn’t know it from tonight’s meeting. And he didn’t have copies of the charge for members. MOES memo from him to Glahn was done 10/6 and efforts to pull it up last night were utterly frustrating, the PUC site was down, I got around in the backdoor, but it took 45 minutes of trying to get the link to work — anyone trying to find it last night was as frustrated as I was. The PUC issued an Order about the Task Force 10/7, but the entire PUC site was down and it was not in the “Orders” section and I couldn’t find away around that block so I’ll post that if it becomes available… AAAAAAAAAAGH!

And yes, it’s happening again, not enough time… and it’s set up that way. The Task Force members didn’t even have the applications until tonight. They had to shut down at 8:30 rather than 9 as was announced… GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. But it gets worse. Bill Storm has appointed himself master of the Task Force, claiming that the PUC established the Task Force, that they ordered that he preside over it… like hell… I was at the PUC meeting, they did no such thing. That’s just how Commerce things it should be done — but the people on this Task Force who were around for the Goodhue County nuclear task force know better… Oh, and did I mention there was no tape recorder? No court reporter to take minutes? HUH??? NO RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS??? OH MY!!

At that same PUC meeting last week, there was a suggestion that due to the time crunch, if the Task Force could continue as a work group after the EIS Scope was released, proposed by I believe Commissioner Pugh, but maybe Chair Boyd, and Chair Boyd specifically asked Bill Storm if MOES had any objection to a work group and he said NO, NO OBJECTION! Was this raised last night at the meeting? NO!!! And of course the public was not allowed to speak.

Last night, I raised concerns about his proposed “charge” because as stated, it did not address submission by the Task Force of a report. HOW BIZARRE!!! The PUC Commissioners tossed it around and did not order it but said very clearly “They can do one if they want.” Storm is trying to characterize it as “it’s not in the order, they can’t do it.” I don’t think so!

The whole point of all of this is Commerce’s attempts to neuter the public. Over and over and over. Why? Because once people look at these applications, they find there are problems, issues not addressed, and things that call it all into question… can’t have that now, can we?

iT’S TIME FOR A REVOLUTION. iT’S TIME FOR THE TASK FORCE TO TAKE CHARGE!!! IT’S TIME TO THOROUGHLY VET THE APPLICATION. IT’S TIME FOR THE TASK FORCE TO TAKE BACK THEIR CHAIR!!! IT’S TIME TO CALL IN THE VIDEO CREW TO HAVE A RECORD OF THIS!!! TIME TO GET TO WORK AND WRITE A REPORT!!! IT’S TIME TO ESTABLISH A WORK GROUP!!! Of course that’s just what Commerce doesn’t want to have happen.

Meanwhile, the PUC site is down down down, and I finagled this link the final Task Force charge:

Task Force Charge

I hope it works better for you than it has for me! The main Prairie Island uprate page asked for an admin name and password! Supposedly the Prehearing Order also came out, but the PUC side of things, the “Search Documents” is as bad as the Energy Facility Permitting side, nothing comes up when I search any docket…

I found the First Prehearing Order, issued October (now that the PUC site is working again):

First Prehearing Order

Bill Storm claims that there was a PUC order regarding the Task Force but it’s nowhere to be found. There’s the words and a dead link on the MOES site that now no longer requires a password!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

So now I talked with Janet Gonzalez who referred me to Mike Kaluzniak who sent this… it’s an “Informal Order” which says nothing new:

Commission Meeting Agenda Item #6
September 25, 2008

The above-entitled matter has been considered by the Commission and the following disposition made:

Authorized formation of an Advisory Task Force pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 216E.08 and Minn. Rules, Part 7849.5270. The structure, charge, and duration of the Advisory Task Force shall be as presented in the attached comments of the Minnesota Office of Energy Security, Energy Facility Permitting, with one exception: the composition of the Advisory Task Force shall be expanded to include a representative of the townships of Goodhue County.

The Commission agrees with and adopts the attached recommendations of the Office of Energy Security, modified as to the composition of the Advisory Task Force as set forth above.

BY ORDER OF THE COMMISSION

Let’s see, this Informal Order is just a prefunctory statement and doesn’t mention their statement that the Task force could continue if it wanted to, there’s no mention of the Task Force being able to write a report if it wanted to, which they DID say. There’s nothing that backs up Bill Storm’s statement that the PUC said he was to PRESIDE over the Task Force, which they assuredly did NOT say.

OK, fine, I’ll get a tape from the PUC…