2024 Jay McCleary Sustainability Award
April 24th, 2024
At Monday’s meeting of the Red Wing City Council, Mike Johnson, Chair of the Sustainability Commission, presented this year’s Jay McCleary Sustainability Award to… MOI!
My experience working on issues in Red Wing has been “interesting,” though I’ve yet to sue the City!! From helping on frac sand issues and ejecting our conflicted ex-Mayor Egan, to representing affected landowners on the “ash mining” fiasco and intrusion on the “Water Tank Mounds,” pushing for restoration of the nuclear waste utility personal property tax going way, way back, to working on/with the MPCA about the Xcel Energy garbage burner with the long expired (since 2009) air emissions permit… what all am I forgetting… but local issues are such a small part of my work, and I get the feeling that most of the members of the City Council have no clue what all I’ve been doing for the last 29 years!
It’s so encouraging to have this work recognized by the Sustainability Commission in this town!
Then again, before the presentation there was a reminder of past days in Red Wing when a certain public official tried to stop this 2024 Jay McCleary Sustainability Award from happening, and said (close but not absolute quotes),:
“I don’t want you giving Carol the plaque tonight.” And “This is not a night for presentations.” When the response was asserting that the public gets 3 minutes, that public official said, ” You get your 3 minutes, but not to give a presentation.” And then, a strongly worded “I WANT YOU TO PROMISE ME THAT YOU WON’T GIVE HER THAT AWARD.”
And then when it was time, that public official left the room until the 3 minute presentation was over.
Wish it would have been recorded… Oh well, on with the presentation.
A hearty thank you from me to the Sustainability Commission.
TODAY & TOMORROW – Nuclear Waste EIS Scoping Mtgs
April 24th, 2024
Today and tomorrow are the Public Utilities Commission‘s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Scoping meetings for Xcel Energy’s latest application for additional nuclear waste storage casks. “Scoping” means determining what all should be covered by the EIS.
What do you think should be included in the EIS? What documents, studies, observations do you have, know of, that are important for the Public Utilities Commission to consider?
Here are Comments from Communities United for Responsible Energy on Completeness and other topics as requested by the Commission:
What we’re doing here at these meetings is similar to what we did a couple years ago, and I’d individually filed quite a bit then. To get at these filings, click on the link, and then plug in the “Submission Number” in the space provided:
20228-188610-02 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–OVERLAND COMMENT – MOVE ON INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL WORK | 08/26/2022 | |
20226-186863-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–INITIAL COMMENTS | 06/24/2022 | |
20226-186869-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SECOND INITIAL COMMENT | 06/24/2022 | |
20226-186869-02 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–OVERLAND – DATE CORRECTED INITIAL COMMENTS 6-24-2022 | 06/24/2022 | |
20223-183420-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT AND EX A | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183420-02 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX B | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183420-03 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX C D E AND F | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183420-04 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENT EX H AND I | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183421-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART I | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183421-02 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART 2 | 03/04/2022 | |
20223-183421-03 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SEIS COMMENTS EXHIBIT G PART 3 | 03/04/2022 | |
202112-180780-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–XCEL PRESENTATION TO RW CITY COUNCIL ITEM 7C | 12/16/2021 | |
202112-180780-02 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–RED WING COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM 7C XCEL PRESENTATION AND ANSWERS | 12/16/2021 | |
202110-178990-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–SCOPE OF SUPPLEMENTAL EIS | 10/20/2021 | |
202110-178948-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | LETTER–DRAFT SCOPING DECISION | 10/19/2021 | |
20219-178146-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–RE CASK SEALS – UNLOADING – PART 72 ISFSI LICENSE | 09/21/2021 | |
20219-177896-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND – LEGALECTRIC | COMMENTS–LATE-FILED COMMENTS | 09/13/2021 |
Here are filings from the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Study Group (PINGP Study Group) in that earlier “additional cask” docket:
20101-45872-03 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | RECONSIDERATION–REQUEST FOR REHEARING | 01/11/2010 | |
200911-43460-03 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | LETTER–ADVISORY BRIEF OF PRAIRIE ISLAND NUCLEAR GENERATING PLANT STUDY GROUP | 11/02/2009 | |
200911-43460-06 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | LETTER–ATTACHMENTS A, B, C | 11/02/2009 | |
200911-43460-09 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | LETTER–COVER LETTER | 11/02/2009 | |
20099-41729-03 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | BRIEF–ADVISORY | 09/11/2009 | |
20099-41729-06 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | BRIEF–ATTACHMENT | 09/11/2009 | |
20095-37809-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | PINGP STUDY GROUP | COMMENTS–COMMENTS WITH ATTACHMENTS | 05/26/2009 |
And Overland and Muller filings in that same docket, circa 2012:
201210-79816-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND AND MULLER | PUBLIC COMMENT— ON XCEL SUPPLEMENTAL FILING | 10/23/2012 | |
20127-77011-01 | PUBLIC | 08-510 | CN | OVERLAND AND MULLER | COMMENTS | 07/20/2012 |
Trump N.Y. daily transcripts available
April 23rd, 2024
A BIG thanks to Joyce Vance for the link to the Trump N.Y. criminal trial transcripts.
LIVE LINK: https://ww2.nycourts.gov/press/index.shtml
Xcel lied? Outage was really cut cables!
April 19th, 2024
In October, while Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant’s reactor 2 was out for refueling, there was an outage at reactor 2 that shut down that unit also for months. It was shut down for so long that the Mississippi River FROZE! Here’s the scoop on that outage that I’d not gotten around to posting.
OOPS!
The real cause of Xcel’s lengthy Prairie Island nuclear outage: Workers drilled through cables
By Walker Orenstein Star Tribune April 12, 2024 — 8:02am
Xcel Energy initially pinpointed the cause of a lengthy outage at its Prairie Island nuclear power plant as an equipment issue between the turbine and the electric grid.
https://www.startribune.com/nuclear-power-plant-xcel-energy-prairie-island-red-wing-outage/600358326/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Now they say “evacuation planning and oversight was inadequate.”
Remember when the Red Wing City Council approved Xcel’s PINGP Emergency Plan in a consent agenda vote?
How are the inadequacies going to be corrected?
EIS Scoping for Xcel additional casks NOW!
April 18th, 2024
This morning was a quick Public Utilities Commission rubber stamp of Xcel Energy’s application for additional casks at Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant, declaring the application “complete.” It’s being forwarded to Office of Administrative Hearings for a contested case hearing. The Prehearing Conference is already scheduled for May 13!
Meanwhile, notice is out for the EIS Scoping “Meeting” NEXT WEEK, April 24th & 25th!
Here are all the documents that go with it, lots of busy work for the next 6 days. The most important one is the Scoping Environmental Assessment Worksheet:
What strikes me about this, well, two things, one, that this application is NOW when they don’t “need” additional storage until 2033; and two, that if the Public Utilities Commission grants this Certificate of Need, we’re locked in until 2053-2054, with all the waste that will be generated through that time, and all the waste from decommissioning, which includes what’s in the reactors at that time, AND all the associated radioactive stuff, and there’s a lot of that. Where will that go? And when? I think the term now, rather than “temporary,” is indeterminate. And not only the waste, but there’s also the cost… in additional to costs of the casks and maintenance, because there are also casks that need to be “replaced,” and where and what that will entail, and again, that radioactive junkyard.
Oh, what a mess. And in addition to that, the timing problem looms large, because things CHANGE. For example, Xcel alludes to planning/hoping to “move” nuclear waste to an “interim” storage facility in either Texas or New Mexico, ones that could/would accept the type of casks they’re using. But things change… a while ago, the one in Texas was found unconstitutional:
Federal appeals court blocks plan to ship nuclear waste to West Texas
From the article:
That decision in August 2023 effectively killed the proposal by Interim Storage Partners to house used nuclear fuel from power plants across the U.S. at the existing Andrews County waste facility, on the Texas-New Mexico border.
West Texas nuclear waste plan remains blocked after federal appeals court ruling
… federal appeals court “killed the proposal,” and so much for that, which leaves New Mexico:
Law to ban high-level nuclear waste storage facility effective June
That law is Senate Bill 53. And just last month:
Court blocks proposed Holtec International nuclear waste site in New Mexico
From the article:
The ISP license was vacated in August 2023 by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana which on March 27 found Holtec’s license was “materially identical” and should also be vacated for the same reasons. In both cases, the court found the NRC “lacked statutory authority” to issue the licenses under the Atomic Energy Act.
So now what? Is Xcel’s reliance on “interim” storage realistic? With “interim storage” in flux, is it reasonable, rational, to move forward with additional storage of nuclear waste that will sit at Prairie Island forever?!?! Particularly where they don’t need it until 2033? Makes no sense to me!