Legalectric

Lava Ridge wind DEIS deadline now 4/20

March 15th, 2023

The deadline for Comments on the Lava Ridge wind project Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been extended to April 20, 2023. This is the wind project near, or nearly surrounding, the Minidoka National Historical Site, depending on the siting allowed.

Want to make a comment? Here’s how:

Here are links, starting with the Executive Summary and in order of appearance (there’s really no easy way to do this, and be prepared, just that first one with the narrative, it’s 578 pages long, and it’s the most important for the overview):

Go to the “Friends of Minidoka” for some guidelines and suggestions for comments:

Friends of Minidoka – Lava Ridge page

Posted by Carol A. Overland

Filed in Disasters, Energy, Land Use, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?), Wind

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Lava Ridge Wind EIS Comments due March 21

February 1st, 2023

The blue/purple area is the rough footprint of Magic Valley (subsidiary of LS Power) Lava Ridge wind project, by Twin Falls, Idaho. It’s even closer to the Minidoka National Historic Site, the location of a Japenese internment camp during WWII.

Friends of Minidoka have taken an interest and are posting great info on how to write comments, how to participate, because of course participation is where it’s at. Here’s their “Call to Action” page.

The applicants for Lava Ridge propose several alternate footprints:

Zoom about this on NOW.

The Lava Ridge EIS is out and open for comments, and it’s a LOT to review.

COMMENTS DUE BY MARCH 21, 2023

Here are links, starting with the Executive Summary and in order of appearance (there’s really no easy way to do this, and be prepared, just that first one with the narrative, it’s 578 pages long):

Of course, the Applicant’s Noise study/report is of great interest to me:

Lava Ridge Wind_Noise Technical Report_10-31-22_508 Download

The good news, the BEST news, is that they did use the correct ground factor, 0.0, for their modeling, but wait, that’s not correct. They used a factor of 1.0 and a factor of 0.6 in places:

That’s a map we need to see!!

It sure looks like some folks are too close, or surrounded:

Posted by Carol A. Overland

Filed in Energy, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?), Wind

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Lava Ridge EIS is out!

January 18th, 2023

The Environmental Impact Statement for the Lava Ridge wind project, proposed by Magic Valley Wind, is now available — get it here:

BLM page for Lava Ridge

**Magic Valley’s map** for proposed project footprint

I’d first learned about this when we were on the way from Craters of the Moon National Monument …

… to our next stop, which took us through Jerome, Idaho, and to the Minidoka National Historic Site.

That’s a “new” historical site, where a Japanese internment camp was located. And as we were learning about it online between the two sites, the Lava Ridge wind project popped up — turns out that the wind project as proposed would be adjacent to the historical site! Check the first map above, hunt for “Hunt” Idaho, and here’s Minidoka in relation to “Hunt.”

And from there, Friends of Minidoka popped up, and their advocacy to protect the site, so we’d learned some before we got there:

Friends of Minidoka has an excellent “Comments” page — written suggestions for EFFECTIVE and SUBSTANTIVE comments, and scroll down for a youtube (see also National Trust for Historic Preservation Action campaign), as does the linked BLM pate. From that Friends of Minidoka page:

How to Submit Effective Comments

Effective comments will produce actionable items for BLM. How to Write Substantive Comments provides tips and examples. As per Kasey Prestwich of the BLM, it is important to:

* Focus your comments on the proposed project and what is being analyzed.
* *Describe the significance of the potential impacts and how they affect you, others, places, and activities.
* Provide any new information that is relevant to the project (e.g., potential affected resources).
* Discuss modifications to existing alternatives or suggest other reasonable alternatives with justification.
* Provide detailed information and references to back up your comment.

If your comment includes a statement that describes your opposition or support for the project, ensure you describe specific elements of the project or specific potential impacts that are influencing your position. Position statements must include enough information to help the BLM inform reasonable changes to the alternatives or revisions to the assessment of potential impacts. Avoid comments like “I don’t like this” or “I do like this.”

Identical comments are treated as one comment, including form letters.

Get to work on comments!

Posted by Carol A. Overland

Filed in Disasters, Energy, Land Use, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?), Wind

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How to deal with “America First” electeds?

November 21st, 2022

Campaigning as “America First” in 2022 — do people understand what this means? I hope it’s “just” voter ignorance, but it’s how Altendorf proudly, intentionally, labeled herself. That alone should be reason to eject them from office. Check out the high mileage look of these two:

Both are 2020 election deniers, and together they are sponsoring their (ALEC) Education Freedom Act, identical to one passed on Arizona. Thankfully it won’t go far in Minnesota’s DFL controlled legislature.

What Drazkowski had to say about Altendorf in his endorsement of her for state House 20A:

“LEADING” conservatives with Recall City Hall effort, squawking at school board meetings about “critical race theory” and mask mandates.

And bragging about being an “America First” candidate… good grief… And she was elected.

Back to America First, there’s this, Conservative U.S. House Republicans to form ‘America First’ caucus and the platform:

America-First-Caucus-Policy-Platform-FINAL-2 Download

And a look at what “America First” means:

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/22/17940964/america-first-trump-sarah-churchwell-american-dream

From 2019, ‘America First’ is only making the world worse. Here’s a better approach. that then before the 2020 election noted the increase of nationalists, demagogues and autocratic powers:

Yet that president is going to face an increasingly dangerous world that looks more like the 1930s than the end of history—with populists, nationalists and demagogues on the rise; autocratic powers growing in strength and increasingly aggressive; Europe mired in division and self-doubt; and democracy under siege and vulnerable to foreign manipulation. Then there are the new challenges of our own century—from cyberwarfare to mass migration to a warming planet—that no one nation can meet alone and no wall can contain.

Doubling down on “America First,” with its mix of nationalism, unilateralism and xenophobia, would only exacerbate these problems. But so would embracing the alternative offered by thinkers across the ideological spectrum who, concerned that our reach exceeds our means, advise us to pull back without considering the likely consequences, as we did in the 1930s.

Yes, time to trot out my “RENOUNCE NATIONALISM sign again.

Oh we got trouble… right here in Goodhue County… And that starts with G and that rhymes with P and that stands for… or is it G and that rhymes with D… it’s BOTH!

p.s. If you want to learn more about “America First” in Minnesota get up to Little Falls, and do some reading in the library at the Charles Lindbergh House and Museum.