Gangs of America – good reading these days
February 9th, 2017
Looking forward to catching up with Ted Nace soon in San Francisco. He’s author of Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy — get your copy HERE.
Alan Muller and I had the good fortune of meeting him through our “no coal” work and the “No New Coal Plants” list that was instrumental in stopping so many coal gasification plants across the U.S., including Minnesota’s Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project (see also www.camp-site.info)and the NRG coal gasification plant proposed for Delaware. He wrote this Orion article about that coal gasification fight (a couple things are off — hey, Ted, it’s an ORANGE crate!!):
And from that, he also also wrote:
Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal
Check these out, you can find them reasonably priced at www.abebooks.com. Support your independent bookseller!
#No DAPL – Army Corps primary documents
February 8th, 2017
UPDATE: Corps grants easement to Dakota Access LLC
You may have read tRump’s Memorandum pushing the Army Corps of Engineers to ram through the Dakota Access pipeline:
From the Stanley Gazette:
Breaking News: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ready to Grant Easement for DAPL
And from the DC District Federal Court, here are the filings:
Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline – Memorandum – Document No. 207-02032
The Army rolled, and here are the documents stating intent to issue the DAPL easement across Lake Oahe, and the Notice of Termination of the Environmental Impact Statement:
ACoE_Notice Regarding Recently Issued Documents
How is this anything but “arbitrary and capricious” action on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers?
Xcel’s new normal — 2016 year end earnings call
February 2nd, 2017
Xcel’s 2016 Earnings Call was this morning. Look at the above chart, pay close attention to the numbers I’ve highlighted in yellow. 2016 4th Quarter sales growth is down 0.6%. Yearly sales decrease is -0.3%. Here’s the rest of the Earnings Call Presentation:
Remember CapX 2020, based on projections of annual increases of 2.49%. Remember Commerce’s Steve Rakow who introduced the most bizarre chart ever in an effort to prop up need for CapX 2020, one without identifying the X axis or Y axis and just a sine wave trending sharply upward? Yea, this one…
Hasn’t worked out that way, has it… the 2016 10-K isn’t filed yet, so there’s only 2015 to go on, though looking at their 10-Q for summer, I expect it’s flat at best.
So with sales down, I presume it’ll be flat peak demand? It’s not disclosed in the 3rd Quarter 10-Q. Xcel, we’ll be looking for that this month in your 10-K filing!
Send Dakota Access Scoping Comments ASAP!
January 26th, 2017
As we know, tRump signed a “Memorandum” (note, it is NOT an “Executive Order”) to ram through DAPL. Here’s the cut and paste of the Memorandum, also here at the White House Memoranda page:
One part I’m particularly concerned with is the second paragraph, where the Army Corps is ordered to consider rescinding or modifying the denial of the permit, and whether to withdraw the Notice of Intent and request for Scoping Comments for the Environmental Impact Statement:
Really. That’s tRumpspeak for “Issue the Permit, Who Needs an EIS!” So methinks it’s VERY important to get a lot of detailed scoping comments in ASAP!
What are Scoping Comments? It’s kind of a term of art, they are comments laying out what you think should be covered in the Environmental Impact Statement. It’s a “broadening” exercise, one where you bring up all the things that could be, should be, relevant and investigated, disclosed, analyzed, in the Environmental Impact Statement. Form letters and postcards won’t cut it, this requires a little time and thought, and because you can email them, it’s pretty easy. Just be specific about what issues should be considered. Because they’re looking for “alternative routes” I wouldn’t give them any, because if they put it anywhere, it’s a problem, so I’d recommend instead saying that moving the pipeline doesn’t lessen the odds of rupture, failure, corrosion, and that the pipeline is too much of a rupture waiting to happen to route anywhere!
Here’s the Notice:
Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
Scoping comments are due by February 20, 2017. By mail, and they ask that you include your name, return address, and “NOI Comments, Dakota Access Pipeline Crossing” on the first page of your written comments:
Gib Owen
Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works
108 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-0108
By email to gib.a.owen.civ@mail.mil – use Subject: NOI Comments, Dakota Access Pipeline Crossing
They say they want comments about these issues:
(1) Alternative locations for the pipeline crossing the Missouri River;
(2) Potential risks and impacts of an oil spill, and potential impacts to Lake Oahe, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s water intakes, and the Tribe’s water, treaty fishing, and hunting rights; and
(3) Information on the extent and location of the Tribe’s treaty rights in Lake Oahe.
… BUT… don’t limit your input — get creative, be specific, really think about impacts, about connected actions, about the entire length of this pipeline, about each of the bodies of water, the archeological features, protected wildlife areas, homes right next to the line, aquifers with so many wells drawing their water supply, nearby transmission lines which are known to corrode pipelines if too close. In the Notice, they specifically state, “The range of issues, alternatives, and potential impacts may be expanded based on comments received in response to this notice and at public scoping meetings.” So now it’s our job to be very, very specific about the broad range of issues to be included in the Environmental Impact Statement.
tRump’s Memoranda & Executive Orders
January 24th, 2017
There’s been a flurry of activity, and finally they posted the actual documents so we can see what’s going on, or what won’t be going on. This was part of my “One a Day” plan to send off a missive to the White House every day, something of substance. When the Contact page was blank on Monday morning, I started calling, ALL DAY LONG, and got through around 7 p.m., when a human answered, and hung up. I called back, got that same human, who wouldn’t tell me who I should talk to about the Executive Orders (presumed that’s what they were as that’s what was said) and said the Comment office person was gone so I had to leave it online, and she got pissy when I said that the Comment page was blank, and hung up again. OK, whatever…
Civics Lesson from USA Today, Presidential memoranda vs. executive orders. What’s the difference?
Here are the Memoranda thus far from the White House page (these are not required to be published in the Federal Register, so ???, but they are now on the White House Memoranda page:
Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 24, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 23, 2017Presidential Memorandum on January 20, 2017
And here are the Executive Orders, from the White House Executive Order page:
Executive Order on January 24, 2017Executive Order on January 20, 2017
Now maybe they’ll have the routine down and keep up with what they’re doing. Drives me crazy to be loating around in the dark — it’s hard enough to know or guess what these might mean in practice, but without an actual document to look at, it’s just blather. Well, it’s just blather anyway, but here it is. Read it and get busy!