Comment Period on Benson burner EXTENDED!
August 28th, 2017
Comments are due September 1, and Reply Comments are due September 15.
New law allows much of Minnesota’s biomass industry to be shut down
And it’s happening, and that’s a good thing — these plants that spew toxins and which have routinely violated their air permits should not have been built, permitted, and subsidized. Shut down is going to happen:
Xcel, Benson agree on plan to mitigate power plant closure – MPR News
But is what they’ve agreed to in the public interest? Who all was a party to the negotiation? Are there other ways to deal with this?
Xcel Energy has asked the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to approve its request to terminate the Power Purchase Agreement for the Benson turkey shit burner.
To review the full docket, E-002/M-17-530, go HERE, and search for “17” (year) and “530” (docket).
What’s at issue?
I need to find the older dockets, they’re not listed here…
Comment period on HERC PPA Amendment
August 22nd, 2017
That’s the HERC garbage burner, known to some as the “Hennepin Energy Recovery Center.” It’s right next to the new baseball field, so I made a “HERC Hanky” as schnozz cover in the stands.
Xcel now wants to revise the HERC Power Purchase Agreement and lower the price it pays HERC for electricity.
Hmmmmm, changing the rules in the middle of the game. Burning garbage has never been an economically winning proposition. Cut the rate? What will that mean for Hennepin County? As of a few minutes ago, the Public Utilities Commission announced a comment period on this change:
Comments? About what?
Initial Comments are due by 4:30 p.m. on September 11, 2017. eFiling is preferred. To eFile comments, go HERE TO REGISTER. It’s simple and fast. When you file, file under docket number 17 – 532 (that’s 17 for “year” and 532 for “docket number”)
Note the Commission asks, “Are there other project-related issues or concerns?” Well, what’s wrong with HERC and burning? For a long time this has been an issue for Neighbors Organizing for Change, Neighbors Against the Burner, Minneapolis Neighbors for Clean Air (wayback version), and the Sierra Club and the push to increase tonnage burned was successfully brought to a screeching halt by these groups and the folks of Minneapolis! You can find some general information at Alan Muller’s site. Alan reports that the HERC air permit expired something like 8 years ago, not uncommon. Most Minnesota air permits are expired and the MPCA isn’t doing much about it.
Some specifics on the tonnage burning increase request that was foiled:
Remember this? “The Burning Question” way back in 2013? Let’s get real, burning garbage isn’t a question!!!
Tuesday 9/17 – Dr. Paul Connett at Mayflower Church
Who is paying attention to this now?
What do the Benson turkey shit burning plant, the HERC garbage burner, and a couple other plants have in common? The have Power Purchase Agreements that Xcel wants to get out of or modify in its favor. Funny how that works. These things were bad from the get to, make no economic sense except to those selling what little power is generated. Now, it appears that Xcel Energy (and therefore us, Xcel’s customers), is tired of being screwed and are not going to take it anymore!
What’s Xcel Energy’s view of these Petitions? To save money, of course, and it looks to be about $53.1 million annually.
These Petitions were filed just now by Xcel Energy:
With a $20 million kicker to the City of Benson, here’s what Xcel Energy plans to do, including demolition of the plant:
Next up? The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) garbage burner:
The plan for HERC? Cut the PPA amount, by how much, we don’t know, it’s all “PROTECTED DATA” and top secret:
What does that mean for Hennepin County? The HERC garbage burner has never been a money maker, and has always been a money loser. So now what? Does it make any sense to keep it open, or is it time to shut it down? Allow me to rephrase… is there any reason to keep it open? Seems like this is a convenient time to close it. Neighbors Against The Burner, are you listening?
Next up? Pine Bend, another “waste-to-energy” garbage burner, and another PPA that Xcel Energy wants to terminate:
And about the Sherco site and moving part of Northern Metals operation to the Sherco site, and that’s not all they want to do:
The point of this Sherco Petition?
And last but not least, a sale of assets to Flint Hills:
Red Wing Incinerator is BURNING!!!
June 7th, 2017
So I see this notice, and run downstairs, “Alan, we’ve got to move!” and we hustled over to the “Solid Waste Campus,” and at the Bench Street intersection, waiting for the light, a fire truck comes roaring up, I quick take a left and scoot over to the right to let them through, it’s Lake City. Yeah, this must be some “active emergency fire situation.” And sure enough, I pulled over, got out, and got a few shots until I was shooed away. This is what we first saw, just as the sun was setting, about 9:15 p.m.:
KTTC from Rochester was there too, and here’s their report:
Fire breaks out in Red Wing incinerator
Posted: Jun 07, 2017 9:47 PM CST
And on WCCO:
I think it was still burning when we got there, for sure it was smoking intensely. There was smoke coming out of the roof on the east side, and they sawed at least two holes in the roof in the middle of the north side, and they opened up the big “incoming” door for offloading trucks and were dragging metal out with a front end loader, and then spraying inside, digging, spraying, digging. and given that the inside was massive piles of garbage, it’ll likely take a long time to burn out or be put out. The building has got to be a total loss, the new garbage grinder too, no word, but I’m betting. Rick Moskwa looked pretty grim tonight as he headed from the site around the tanning factory building to the parking lot.
The incinerator was shut down a couple years ago now, and the old garbage grinder… BURNED… so they got a brand new fancy schmancy one using Minnesota’s Renewable Development Fund to buy it, and the grind up the garbage and ship it down a couple miles to the other side of Red Wing to burn it in the Xcel Energy garbage burner. Now look at this mess… their brand new grinder has got to be damaged, if not destroyed.
The incinerator burns… AGAIN… right, maybe this will get the message through, no garbage burning in Red Wing. ZERO WASTE! We need to take steps toward this now and make it happen.
And from Red Wing Fire Department ~ 10 a.m. 6/8/2017:
For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Contact: Shannon Draper, Chief
Red Wing Fire Department
651.388.7141
Incident Date: June 7, 2017
Incident Time: 19:49 (7:49pm)
Incident Address: 1873 Bench Street, Red Wing, MN 55066
Alarm level: 4 Alarms
Resources on scene: 8 Engines, 3 Ladders, 2 Tenders, 5 Ambulances, 1 Battalion Chief and 3 Chief Officers. Total of 70 Firefighters on sceneRed Wing fire department received a call of smoke coming from the Red Wing city waste campus building. Units arrived on scene confirming a working fire and upgraded the fire call to a 1st alarm. Upon entering, the building crews encounter heavy fire condition in the tipping room area. Due to the amount of material and equipment in the building, the fire quickly grew and eventually involved 40% of the 36,000sqft building.
Fire was declared under control at 22:30 (10:30pm). Crews remained on scene working to overhaul the large building, looking for hot spots and putting out small fires until 01:10 (1:10am).
The building sustained major damage and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Red Wing Fire Department wants to thank our mutual aid departments for assisting during this emergency.
• Ellsworth Fire
• Cannon Falls Fire
• Zumbrota Ambulance
• Lake City Fire
• Goodhue Fire
• Red Wing Police Department.The mission of the Red Wing Fire Department is to enhance the safety and security of the community by providing cost effective protection of life and property, through fire prevention, public education, fire suppression and emergency medical care.
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tRump on Climate Change – Withdraw from Paris Accord
June 1st, 2017
Listening to him speak is painful. This idiot is talking about “Clean Coal.” Claims that the Paris Accord stops development of “Clean Coal.” DOH, IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID!
He’s again blathering about 3-4% growth. Delusional.
The Paris Accord hamstrings America? The Paris Accord limits the American economy?
His points in the speech are insane. A load of covfefe!
Here are tRumpe’s talking points handed out prior to today’s announcement:
