Legalectric

Naries filter — A new use for a Homer Hanky???

Last night’s hearing was a start – the Minneapolis Planning Commission is thinking about the implications and impacts of increasing the “throughput tonnage” (makes it sound so innocuous) for the HERC incinerator, the incinerator right next door to the new open (polluted) air stadium.  Care for some tire PM 2.5 with that hot dog?  New use for “Homer Hankies?”

There was good representation of a number of opposition views.

Muller – Comment – Spreadsheet of Pollutants

Comment-Eureka Recycling, Institute for Local Self Reliance, Linden Hills Power & Light, Women’s Environmental Initiative, Will Steger Foundation

For some who were not able to be there, I was also able to get into the record letters from (and will post if they arrive electronically):

Rep. Karen Clark

Senator Patricia Torres-Ray

East Phillips Improvement Coalition – Carol Pass

Carol Greenwood – Seward Neighborhood

And some decent media coverage!  From Fox9 News – check out the video with John Schatz and Andrea Kiepe testifying:

Minneapolis residents discuss garbage incinerator plan

And in the STrib today:

Minneapolis may set limit on pollution from burner

A Minneapolis planning body is weighing a no-net-increase limit in considering whether to allow more trash to be burned in downtown Minneapolis.

By STEVE BRANDT, Star Tribune

Minneapolis planning commissioners signaled informally Monday that they may set a no-net-increase requirement for pollution from the downtown incinerator if they decide to allow it to burn more trash.

The commission didn’t act on the request Monday evening after hearing from burner opponents and operator Covanta Energy Corp., but asked for more information on emissions and health effects. The incinerator is next door to the new Minnesota Twins ballpark, which opens next spring.

Covanta and Hennepin County, for which it operates the incinerator, are seeking permission to burn an average of 1,212 tons of trash daily. The limit in the city’s original 1987 zoning conditions for the facility is 1,000 tons per day.
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And before I could get this thing posted, it’s OVER!

What I did hear was repeated statements from Norm’s attorney that “There is no evidence of fraud” in this case, which is good to hear.  What R’s love to repeat countering same day registration, any voter registration efforts, and of course ACORN voter registration efforts is claims of mass voter fraud, which as anyone who looks at the record knows, is NOT happening.  In Minnesota, the major case of voter fraud, the largest number in one incident in the nation, I belive it still holds that record, was the Jake’s voter fraud case in Coates.

Drat, well, we’ll know soon enough.. what’s another hundred years without a second Senator… but then, with a Senator like Amy, we haven’t even got one… if Franken turns out anything like Klobuchar, it’s hopeless…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This morning, at “Coffee and Potica” or Minnesota Morning with Senator Amy Klobuchar, who should be there but Tom Micheletti! Yes, Excelsior Energy’s Tom Micheletti was there.  And he was there on the eve of the DEADLINE, the day before the PUC said it would pull the plug on Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project.

The legendary Alan Muller, Green Delaware, was in Amy’s office this morning too!  He got there, and “the only other person I knew in the room was Tom Micheletti.”   Too weird.   And here I had to stay home and dogsit.  DAMN!  I could have used the aerobic exercise of duking it out with Tom again.

Sen. Klobuchar’s energy staffer, Charlie Moore, said he wasn’t in on the conversation between Micheletti and Klobuchar’s chief of staff, Alan said they were huddled together for quite a while.  Moore also said that he didn’t know that there was a May 1 deadline.  Oh, really?  Not good.  It’s bad enough that we have to worry about what Micheletti might be saying, but now we’ve also got to be concerned about what he isn’t saying.

And sorry, no photo, yes, I’m MOST disappointed, oh well… but there’s a photo of Sen. Klobuchar with Alan in his Neighbors Against the Burner shirt.

Will it happen?  Will they pull the plug?  They sure better, they’ve been stalling long enough.

Here’s Excelsior Energy’s filings in their attempt to keep the PUC from FINALLY pulling the plug on the Mesaba Project:

Excelsior Energy’s Last Gasp – Motion April 27 2009

So let’s just let this thing die.  Xcel doesn’t want it, the Minnesota municipal utilities don’t want it, the PUC doesn’t want it, and mncoalgasplant.com sure doesn’t want it and neither does Citizens Against the Mesaba Project.

We’ve heard that before and we abdicated… and where are we?

Thanks to Jonathan Larson, who never fails to delight with his finds, for this insightful and inciteful piece:

Jump, you fuckers!

“This article is dedicated to the protestor on Wall Street on 25 September, 2008, who said what everyone was thinking.”

Thanks to Jonathan Larson for sending this, among others, today.  Check his site at www.elegant-technology.com and dig in!

For more of these, see www.icanhascheezeburger.com

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