PUC Denies Kenyon Wind Extension!
December 9th, 2010
After four years, finally, the Public Utilities Commission has denied an extension of the old, old permit. Kenyon Wind was first applied for way back in 2006. To see the full PUC record, go to www.puc.state.mn.us and go to “Search eDockets” and then search for “06-1445.” Recently, because their permit was expiring, it was granted and then two years was extended for two years, they came back to the PUC for yet another extension.
Here’s the report from the Red Wing Republican Eagle:
Kenyon Wind project in doubt after state denies permit extension
They haven’t built this project, despite being issued a permit on July 18, 2007, nearly a year after they’d applied. Since that time, much has changed. Goodhue County passed its Goodhue County Wind Ordinance. The laws for Community Based Energy Development (C-BED) have changed, amended each year since it was passed. And the Kenyon Wind Project has changed:
Here’s the CFER’s Comment:
Here’s Kenyon Wind’s comments:
And the PUC denied the permit, 3-2. Commissioners Pugh, O’Brien and Wergin voting to Chair Boyd and Judge Reha were the two voting against denial of Kenyon Wind’s request for extension.
EEEEEEEEEEEEE-HA!!! It took four years, but this vaporware project is finally dead!
Earthquake in New Jersey?
December 2nd, 2010
This is the “artist’s conception” of the PurGen coal gasification plant proposed for Linden, New Jersey.
Last week there was an earthquake just off the cost of New Jersey and New York:
Small earthquakes in N.J. prompt calls to police, but no reported damages
The US Geological Survey has a site to report earthquakes:
What does this Linden coal gasification plant have to do with an earthquake? Well DUH, PurGen wants to pump the earth full of CO2. They claim that “Carbon dioxide will then be removed from the gas and safely stored offshore in a permanent repository.”
In support of this nonsense, they’re trotting out our friend from the Mesaba Project, Dan Schrag:
For information on impact of gas storage on seismic activity, check out “Gas Migration” which is THE source for the real poop. In short, pumping the earth full of gas, i.e. CO2, triggers seismic activity, CCS = earthquakes.
What’s interesting to me is that this is the second time this year for New Jersey:
Earthquake Jolts New Jersey
By Therese Crowley
2/22/2010BERNARDSVILLE, NJ – Sunday morning reverie at 8:59 a.m. was punctuated by a big BOOM in Bernardsville- and Basking Ridge- and at least 25 more zip codes, according to the US Geological Survey. Within an hour, an earthquake measuring 2.6 on the Richter scale was confirmed by the Lamont Doherty cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN). The quake was centered at Peapack and Gladstone, New Jersey, 13 miles WSW of Morristown.
In Bernardsville, the quake was experienced as a ‘boom. BOOM!!! shake.’ In this reporter’s old stone cottage, the shaking rang bells. The quake shook Bernardsville Police headquarters, where Dispatcher 35 was fielding calls from residents, and cautioning that an aftershock may follow. Some 100 residents called in the first hour. No damage was immediately reported, although an earthquake of mild magnitude can cause hairline cracks in structures.
The region sits on the Ramapo Fault Line, and Lamont Doherty estimates the depth of the quake at 3.1 miles, measuring the impact as mild, at ll-lV level intensity. Still, residents were excited and rattled. The first aftershock followed at 12:31pm, measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale. As with the original quake, the first alert of something happening within the earth was a booming rumble, followed by a shaking sensation. The first aftershock was centered just one mile from the morning tremor.
The quake was the talk of the Somerset Hills YMCA; many people felt it, but few had heard confirmation of the event. One Dad reported, ‘We were watching TV with the kids and heard the boom—I made them turn the TV down, and we listened and felt the shake. It was something!’
The Sunday morning earthquake follows a series of tremors that moved the ground in Far Hills and Bernardsville from Friday, February 5th to Sunday, February 7th. One of those quakes measured 1.2, but Sunday morning’s 2.6 is orders of intensity greater.
An aftershock took place around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday measuring 2.3 on the richter scale.
Residents who would like to report their experience can go to the US Geological Survey Website and fill out the ‘Did You Feel It?’ form, at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/
Gro Wind south of Northfield
November 29th, 2010
Right now, the Northfield Planning Commission is reviewing the idea of the Spring Creek LLC wind turbine planned for the Northfield Urban Reserve district. Here’s some on that from Tracy Davis:
In another exciting development, Tom Dunnwald filed for a Writ of Mandamus, to tell Rice County to follow the law, and damned if he didn’t get it! In this case, the County didn’t provide proper notice for the Conditional Use hearing, and they have to do it over.
This is the same county where I had a laundry list of instances where they had not followed the law and the judge said, “They know they should follow the law so I’m not going to tell them to follow the law” and tossed us out. So perhaps Mandamus is the way to go rather than a Declaratory Judgment?!?! Go figure…
Here’s the poop from the Northfield News:
Mandamus trips up wind turbine development
Interesting day at the PUC!
November 23rd, 2010
Today on the PUC’s agenda? AWA Goodhue’s request for Reconsideration of the PUC’s remand to an Administrative Law Judge.
Here’s their remand Order and subsequent filings:
And from that Order, here’s what the PUC wants from the ALJ:
1. The ALJ assigned to this matter is requested to develop a record on every standard in Article 18 that is more stringent than what the Commission has heretofore applied to LWECS and make recommendations regarding each such standard whether the Commission should adopt it for Large Wind Energy Conversion Systems in Goodhue County. The Commission has identified two such standards in this Order (Section 4 and Section 6) but is not by this Order restricting the ALJ from developing the record and making recommendations regarding additional standards in Article 18 that upon further examination meet the “more stringent” qualification.
2. The ALJ assigned to this matter is requested to allow the parties to develop a factual record on the question of “good cause” as that term appears in Minn. Stat. § 216F.081 and to provide recommendations on whether, with respect to each standard in Article 18 identified in the course of her review as “more stringent” than what the Commission has heretofore applied to LWECS, there is “good cause” for the Commission to not apply the standard to siting LWECS in Goodhue County.
3. As the ALJ addresses the issues identified in the previous two sections, the ALJ is requested to include (but not limited to, by this Order) whether there is sufficient evidence regarding health and safety to support a 10 rotor diameter set-back for non-participating residents and the stray voltage requirements.
To which AWA Goodhue said …. “NOOOO, we want you to undo that decision” …
… and to which we said, “PPFFFFFFFFFFFFFBBBBBT!” …
… including a section you really ought to read:
… and from Goodhue County:
… and then the AWA Goodhue’s Reply – quite pissy, eh?
… and some others on behalf of AWA:
… and PUC staff weighs in:
Staff Briefing Papers (a separate revised cover sheet filed later)
… and then at 8:21 a.m. this morning, served by eFiling, and Document Properties show it wasn’t pdf’d until 4:03… TODD GUERERRO, WHATEVER ARE YOU THINKING… this from AWA Goodhue trying to wiggle into mediation somehow rather than a proceeding before the Administrative Law Judge. Mediation??? Mediation has it’s place, but… well, anyway, here’s what they said:
The Commission was probably not pleased, the timing of that latest filing was duly noted, and after a short discussion about the availability of mediation in any contested case, under the administrative rules it’s always an option, the discussion led by Commissioner Reha, who as an ALJ had mediated the Chisago Transmission Project (were any of the Commissioners around then? Perhaps Pugh?):
That’s one result of that mediation, one which I certainly wouldn’t be proud of, because though it did underground down the banks of the St. Croix River, it DOUBLED the capacity, and I don’t think anyone other than our friends at NSP had any clue what dropping voltage but bundling BIG conductors meant. Well, Art Hughes, Ph. D., of course, but he’s dead… And at the time, it was disturbing the way ALJ Phyllis Reha and George Crocker were on the stage of the Festival Theatre in St. Croix Falls stumping for the deal and urging Concerned River Valley Citizens to adopt the deal. WHY, what’s in it for them? For CRVC, nothing! And why would Reha and Crocker want CRVC to adopt that deal? Enough to be promoting it on stage before CRVC? CRVC said NO, and the rest is history…
So anyway, to make a short story long, the PUC talked about Reconsideration and the referral to OAH a bit, Commissioner Reha mentioned some things she is concerned about as material facts at issue, they expressly stated they did not want to Reconsider, and they all (4, Betsy Wergin was missing) said NO to AWA Goodhue’s Motion for Reconsideration.
Onward!
Nuclear? I don’t think so…
November 6th, 2010
A little birdie sent this about “our Stevie,” former Minnesota Asst. A.G. Steve Corneli, now a Senior V.P. at NRG, is in the news.
Steve Corneli — he was the one who “clarified” that nuclear stranded costs (BIG BIG $$$$ which Northern States Power was claiming were due in the event of deregulation which they were fighting for) was really stranded ASSETS! Yes, dear readers, you’ve heard this before, but if you haven’t read this report, from the dark ages of 1997, please do, because incorporating this shift in perspective on stranded costs can free your soul!
And you may remember that dreadful idea on his watch that NRG should put an IGCC (coal gasification) plant in Delaware at its Indian River site with THIS, below, as a site plan, I kid you not:
Oh, my, that instills confidence, doesn’t it!
And so what’s he up to now? He’s pushing nuclear power, and next to him, there’s the Obama administration pushing nuclear power… and they wonder why we’re “disappointed?”
The fate of nuclear power after midterm elections
by Brian Wheeler, Associate Editor, Power-Gen Worldwide
In the largest shift of power since 1948, Republicans took over the U.S. House on midterm election night. And the nuclear industry could benefit from the Republican takeover as part of the clean energy legislation.
In a statement released the morning of Election Day, Don Gillispie, CEO of Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc., said that if Republicans won, the other big winner would be nuclear power. Well, we do know that Republicans have won the House and have made up ground in the Senate as well, even though Democrats still hold the majority.
Historically there has been more support from Republicans for nuclear power. But Steve Corneli, senior vice president of market and climate policy for NRG Energy, said there is an increasing awareness from Democrats that nuclear power can be an important part of energy independence and a zero-carbon emission future.
Michigan representative Fred Upton, like many Republicans, is a supporter of nuclear power in the U.S. Upton is also a strong contender to head the House Energy and Commerce Committee; the committee that sees over the national energy policy.
“Through a greater commitment to nuclear, we have a unique opportunity to cut greenhouse gases, provide stability to our electrical supply and create jobs,” Upton told Reuters.
John Boehner (R-OH) is expected to take over as the new Speaker of the House and is also a strong proponent of nuclear power.
“The new Congress will be more pro-nuclear than any Congress we’ve seen in decades,” said Gillispie.
And President Obama continues to promote nuclear power, too.
“There’s been discussion about how we can restart our nuclear industry as a means of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing greenhouse gases,” Obama said during a speech the day after the midterm elections. “Is that an area where we can move forward?”
As of now, that seems to be possible. The White House has requested an additional $36 billion in federal loan guarantees for new nuclear plants and it seems that Republicans are likely to support the measure, even with a big focus during the campaign on reducing government spending.
But Corneli said the interesting part is that the important policy measures that are needed to help jump start the nuclear renaissance are the ones with the lowest cost to federal treasury, and those are the federal loan guarantees, “which really don’t cost the treasury anything.”
“Essentially it is self-financing,” he said. “It seems like the stars could be lining up right now for a boost in nuclear power development.”
Corneli said nuclear is established and the existing fleet of nuclear reactors provide the lowest cost power currently on the grid, but there hasn’t been a new plant built in roughly 30 years.
“We actually think that nuclear power has the potential to be the real foundation of clean energy technology,” he said.Gillispie seems to agree.
“When the history of nuclear power is written, Nov. 2, 2010 will be a major turning point for the industry,” said Gillispie. “It will mark the beginning of a dramatic resurgence for nuclear power.”