Legalectric

Greetings from Iowa! Today, before the Polk County District Court, we should learn whether Cedar Falls Utilities is one step closer to its Waterloo! They’re building a 161kV transmission lie, no, it’s not a typo, they say that this line has a “33MW” capacity. MidAmerican is a partner in this line, but they were not a co-applicant, there was no discussion of who was paying for this line, and it seems to me that the 33MW is the Cedar Falls share of the capacity, and the rest is MidAmerican, but as it sits, Cedar Falls Utilities ratepayers will foot the bill for the entire thing. No inquiry by the Iowa Utilities Board whatsoever, no notice of the “33MW” claim, a claim that, when I tell engineers, they smirk and snort.

Sen. Tom Saxhaug, “author of SF2570”

So anyway, Wednesday before the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Tom Saxhaug immediately amended his SF2570, which grants Mesaba power plant a personal property tax exemption. Good thing too, because just the day before, the Itasca County Board, having learned of Saxhaug’s bill, and NOT from him, voted to approve the exemption conditioned upon approval of the local governments that would forgo revenue, and a Host Fee Agreement, which should compensate local governments for their costs and hassle of dealing with the plant.

Rep. Loren Solberg, “author” of companion bill HF3020

It’s the same story in the House, but if Rep. Loren Solberg’s paying attention, he’ll correct it before it gets to committee.

We know the identity of the real author of these bills. My question is: Just who is Saxhaug and Solberg representing? If like Sen. Dick Day and Rep. Connie Ruth, they’re willing to pull out millions of dollars annually of revenue from local governments, their constituent local governments, without even the courtesy of notifying them before hand, much less getting their approval… HOW DARE THEY! SHAME ON THEM. Isn’t it time to throw them out of office? Actually, it’s not a question, it’s a statement! November is coming up, and this better be a campaign issue. There’s work to be done in District 3.

Rep. Loren Solberg will be on KAXE on Monday morning at 7:15 a.m. You can listen on-line!

This afternoon, the Itasca County Board voted unanimously to support the Excelsior Energy exemption for the Mesaba plant conditioned on amendment of the legislation to require approval of local governments and that a Host Fee Agreement be negotiated with local governments. The county has forwarded their resolution and amendment language that meets their conditions to their legislators.

The bill introduced by Sen. Tom Saxhaug and Rep. Loren Solberg is really a problem — not only does it not require approval of local governments, they introduced this bill without their knowledge! Who exactly are they representing?

Here’s SF2570.

Here’s the simple fix for the legislation that the County Board recommended — just add these two paragraphs:

1.23 (b ) have received by resolution the approval from the governing body of the county and
1.24 township or city, and school districts in which the proposed facility is to be located for the exemption of
1.25 personal property under this subdivision.
1.26 (c ) To qualify under this subdivision, an agreement must be negotiated between the
1.27 power plant owner and the host county and township or city, for a payment in lieu of property
1.28 taxes to the host county and township or city, and school districts.

But the problem remains, just who are they representing when they leave out their constituent local governments?

Tomorrow’s the first hearing for this bill — it should be interesting!

HR 4437
Title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes.

Minnesotans who have signed on to this bill include “our own” 2CD John Kline, plus Jim Ramstad and Collin Peterson.

Tens of thousands march in Chicago to support immigrant rights

“Tens of thousands” ???? The headline’s misleading, it’s a few more than that according to that article and it’s even more in others:

And here CBS in Chicago says 300,000-500,000:
Protesters rally against illegal immigration bill

Here’s an easy link to check all the Chicago TV stations

Again, here’s the bill:
HR 4437
Title: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen enforcement of the immigration laws, to enhance border security, and for other purposes. .

Sponsor: Rep Sensenbrenner, F. James, Jr. [WI-5] (introduced 12/6/2005)

Here are the co-sponsors:
COSPONSORS(35), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)

Rep Alexander, Rodney [LA-5] – 12/8/2005
Rep Bachus, Spencer [AL-6] – 12/7/2005
Rep Baker, Richard H. [LA-6] – 12/13/2005
Rep Bono, Mary [CA-45] – 12/13/2005
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] – 12/13/2005
Rep Burton, Dan [IN-5] – 12/7/2005
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4] – 12/7/2005
Rep Culberson, John Abney [TX-7] – 12/7/2005
Rep Dreier, David [CA-26] – 12/7/2005
Rep Feeney, Tom [FL-24] – 12/8/2005
Rep Forbes, J. Randy [VA-4] – 12/7/2005
Rep Foxx, Virginia [NC-5] – 12/6/2005
Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6] – 12/8/2005
Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49] – 12/6/2005
Rep Istook, Ernest J., Jr. [OK-5] – 12/7/2005
Rep King, Peter T. [NY-3] – 12/6/2005
Rep Kline, John [MN-2] – 12/13/2005
Rep Lewis, Jerry [CA-41] – 12/13/2005
Rep Lungren, Daniel E. [CA-3] – 12/6/2005
Rep McCaul, Michael T. [TX-10] – 12/7/2005
Rep McHugh, John M. [NY-23] – 12/13/2005
Rep Miller, Gary G. [CA-42] – 12/6/2005
Rep Murphy, Tim [PA-18] – 12/13/2005
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7] – 12/8/2005
Rep Pickering, Charles W. (Chip) [MS-3] – 12/13/2005
Rep Poe, Ted [TX-2] – 12/13/2005
Rep Ramstad, Jim [MN-3] – 12/7/2005
Rep Royce, Edward R. [CA-40] – 12/13/2005
Rep Ryun, Jim [KS-2] – 12/13/2005
Rep Schmidt, Jean [OH-2] – 12/7/2005
Rep Shuster, Bill [PA-9] – 12/13/2005
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] – 12/6/2005
Rep Stearns, Cliff [FL-6] – 12/7/2005
Rep Thornberry, Mac [TX-13] – 12/7/2005
Rep Wilson, Joe [SC-2] – 12/13/2005

You may have heard there’s a 24″ oil pipeline coming across Scott and Dakota counties on it’s way to Koch Refinery from Canada — you may even have heard about it on Ray’s blog!

It’s called the MinnCan Project, and it’s real, and the Certificate of Need and Siting Prehearing Conference is scheduled for Friday, March 17 @ 9:30 a.m. at the PUC, probably the Small Hearing Room. Here’s where it’s going in our neck of the woods:

Scott County View image

Dakota County View image

There will be two public informational meetings held the following week:

Scott County Meeting
New Prague
New Prague Middle School Cafeteria
March 22, 2006
6-9 pm

Dakota County Meeting
Farmington
Rambling River Center Dining Room
March 23, 2006
6-9 pm

They’ve already been appropriately challenged about failure to give notice to landowners, maybe by now landowners are getting individual specific notice as they should…

The STrib reports: Air quality alert in Twin Cities

For more air info, check out the Air Quality Web Cams!

Given this, why would we want to build more than 18,000 MW of new coal plants, NEW COAL PLANTS!!! That’s essentially 90 new coal plants in the region (at 500MW apiece). Here’s the MISO Queue on a spreadsheet so you can search and do the math. Download file

This is the link to the actual MISO queue so you can see for yourself if you don’t believe it! Yes, there really is that much coal waiting in line. MISO Queue.