Legalectric

Now we’re going to see how uploading works on this puppy!

Why are these guys smiling? I’m not == uploading doesn’t work!
This was an utterly insane week, with Mesaba Discovery and Discovery issues flying and the Mesaba siting permit on the agenda of the PUC.

1) Order for Citizens Advisory Task Force

Thursday was the PUC meeting to accept the Mesaba siting application (siting of plant, transmission and natural gas) and decide whether they want to appoint a Citizens Advisory Task Force. Commerce staff had their opinion, found in Staff Briefing Papers — that there should NOT be a Citizens Advisory Task Force, and instead only be a “work group” of local government officials. SAY WHAT??? Read those Briefing Papers, it’s enough to make you puke… but remember, Commerce does not have the same charge as EQB, and the EQB was the one that utilized the statutorily authorized Citizens Advisory Task Force (CATF). As “Commerce” said, “we’re not bound by history.” As one representing the folks on the ground in these projects over the last decade, decade plus, color me outraged. OK, fine, that’s how you want to play it, I’m ready. Here’s my response to that attitude, a request for a CATF, because the statute says that when they get a request, they have to address it at the next meeting. Obviously, with their attitude, Commerce will just ignore that, so before they had time to talk their way around my request, they were flooded with 23 more!

Let’s see… we had mine to start, and I’ve been involved with three projects with four CATF’s; others from projects with CATFs who wrote were Shellene Johnson, former President of CRVC (Chisago Project), John Nauerth III who was on two CATFs in association with the SW MN 345kV line, Linda Hanson/WOLF, Intervenor in Arrowhead MN and WI; Julie Risser, candidate for SD 41 in Edina; Clean Water Action Alliance by Erin Jordahl-Redlin on behalf of its 60,000 members, Sierra Club Northstar Chapter by Christoopher Childs; Ross Hammond, P.E., formerly of Xcel (ran the Riverside coal plant!) and NRG and who is now an ME3 Board Member; Harold Dziuk, DVM, Ph.D., who was a member of the PUC’s Science Advisors regarding ground currents; and locals on the ground including Earl Orf, Ron Gustafson, Charlotte Neigh, Esq., Jane Latimer, Andrew David, Linda Castagneri, Kurt Christopherson, Brad Jones, Darrell and Dee White, David and Carmen Griggs, Doug and Barbara Veit, Thomas Nelson and Sanna Pederson, and last but certainly not least, Bob and Leeann Norgord.

Yes, the PUC got the message allright, and Ordered a Citizens Advisory Task Force. But what was very disturbing was the Commerce attitude that there were plenty of opportunities to participate, there were all these public meetings and there would be even more. What a load of crap (which barely begins to express my disgust)! There has been exactly one public meeting in the past year since the West Site was revealed as Excelsior’s preferred site. That was the DOE meeting for the DOE’s EIS. Check out the transcript for a sense of the public outrage about this “West Site.” Nothing from the state, no public meeting at all yet, and 8/22 is the Siting informational meeting. In the PPA docket, they hadn’t anticipated doing meetings up north (EH?) and the latest is the ALJ thinks that the public should not be able to cross-examine witnesses up there. EH???? So anyway, we got an Order for a Citizens Advisory Task Force.

2) Order for access to Trade Secret Information

And now back to the Mesaba PPA docket, where we’ve been having a pissing contest over access to cost information in a PPA docket — a Power Purchase Agreement is about nothing but cost — but the ALJ said pre-emptively and prematurely and without specific determinations, that mncoalgasplant.com was not entitled to cost information. Really! Here’s from the memorandum:

Parties that are not a utility or a power producer will usually not need access to the detailed cost and technical data. Sometimes they are not in a position to make helpful comment about it. But they may be. So separate treatment is reasonable…

And the separate treatment we got was a paragraph that was NOT in the Protective Order drafts we discussed at the PUC Hearing, those were just fine, this is patently offensive:

(F) Non-utility or non-power producer Parties shall not have access to Trade Secret Information absent a showing that the interest they seek to protect reasonably requires it.

So, what, we guess what might be there and try to prove we need something when we don’t know what it is? Right…

We got support from the Xcel Industrial Intervenors (Geraud Ameristeel and Marathon Oil) in their brief. …sigh… how to upload a pdf? grrrrrrrrrrrr

And the PUC site is screwed up and the OAH site doesn’t list anything, WTF? So I guess that won’t get posted…

Anyway, we got the Order in the afternoon, after the PUC hearing on the siting side of the project, and it said:

(3) However, pursuant to subparagraph 1(c)(ii)(F) of the Protective Order, MCGP has shown that the interest MCGP seeks to protect in thos proceeding reasonably requires access to Trade Secret Information, as defined in the Protective Order; and (4) MCGP is therefore GRANTED access to Trade Secret Information, as defined in the Protective Order.

3) PUC issues notice of Comment Period — Just a day after the meeting, an email goes out to the service list on the PPA docket that they’re taking Comments on Cost issues. GOOD!

NOTICE OF COMMENT PERIOD ON WHETHER THE COMMISSION SHOULD SPECIFY ADDITIONAL ISSUES TO BE ADDRESSED At its July 6, 2006 agenda meeting, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (Commission) considered the acceptance of Excelsior Energy Inc.â??s (Excelsior) Combined Application for a Site Permit, Transmission Line Route Permit, and Natural Gas Pipeline Permit for its Mesaba Energy Project in Docket No. E-6472/GS-06-668. In the course of discussions on the 06-668 docket, issues were raised that may be more directly addressed in Docket No. E-6472/M-05-1993 (05-1993 Docket) which the Commission has already referred for contested case hearing. The Commission directed its staff to bring these issues back before the Commission at a future agenda meeting in the 05-1993 Docket. Written comments will be accepted on whether the Commission should supplement its April 26, 2006 Notice and Order for Hearing and Order Granting Intervention Petition in the 05-1993 Docket to request that parties specifically address:-the costs of transmission upgrades and related facilities beyond the substation associated with the Mesaba Energy Project; and-the costs of other infrastructure investments associated with the Mesaba Energy Project.Parties wishing to comment shall do so by 4:30 p.m. on July 18, 2006 This matter is tentatively scheduled to be heard at the Commissionâ??s July 27, 2006 agenda meeting.Questions regarding this matter may be directed to Janet Gonzalez at 651-201-2231.

It’s real, it’s here, MY BLOG IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER, my DNS is propagated and as folks have been saying unsolicited, “It’s BEEEEEUUUTIFUL!” and “WOW! This looks GREAT!

There’re a few things I need to learn to do here, but even the posting screen here looks so much better and buttons to make it easier!

It took two days and a process with untolled grey-haired questions, a process that for sure had me looking at directions and explanations that might as well have been in Chinese or quadratic equations. But LOOK!!!

THANKS!!!!!!!

Now, let’s see how this upload works… OK, that works, slick, but what about getting the date to show, and not be overwritten?!?!?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAA!

The best news is that so far 23, yes, TWENTY THREE letters have come in to the PUC asking for a Citizens Advisory Task Force, including Clean Water Action Alliance on behalf of its 60,000 members, and the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club. Excelsior filed its siting application for the plant, transmission and natural gas pipelines. As a part of all siting proceedings in history, a Citizens Advisory Task Force has been appointed, but word from the “department” is that they are not bound by history since it’s no longer the Environmental Quality Board handling siting, but the Dept. of Commerce. Oh, OK, fine, well, I’ll just call out the troops! Twenty three letters! Here they are!

Also good was that mncoalgasplant.com got bit of support in fighting a really goofy Order from the ALJ on the Mesaba and a goofier Protective Order — it’s great, dead on, in explaining why a Protective Order that requires we prove we need documents before we can have them is so off:

How a third-party could determine which documents it should seek to remove the “Trade Secret” classification is not clear, and the imposition of these burdens on third-parties is inconsistent with applicable case law.

Yup, that says it all. But hey, it says even more! Here’s the “Xcel Industrial Intervenors” Response: Download file

Excelsior, of course also had to meet today’s deadline for Responses to my Motion and here’s what they sent, can you spell (smell?) CONFLATULANCE? Download file

Here’s the Order that started it all: Download file
And here’s the Protective Order and the unreasonable paragraph 1(C)(f): Download file

Here’s my Motion for Modifying Protective Order, asking to delete the offensive bit: (later, have to rescan)

Well DUH! From Eric Francis:

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 | BREAKING: Ken Lay is Not Dead

Ken Lay is not dead. He is already in a foreign country. This is according to a reading of the horary chart associated with his death (4:51 pm CED, Brussels, July 5, 2006). In one of the most carefully planned escapes in shadow government history, Lay disappeared, probably within the past 24 hours.

The chart has Scorpio rising, apropos of the discussion. The Moon and Jupiter Rx have just risen and are in the 12th house, about to make a conjunction. This is nothing, if not mysterious — no need to push it too hard.

The ruler of the ascendant is Mars, which is in Leo and the 9th house. The ascendant ruler represents the first party to the question — Mr. Lay. He does not appear to be anywhere nearby, as the 9th house represents travel of long distances.

Magnificently, Mars is precisely opposite Neptune — separating to an exactitude of three arc minutes. Neptune adds the factor of a huge fog, deception or unknowable possibility (echoed vividly by those 12th house Scorpio planets). This suggests a kind of crime of the century: that Neptune in Aquarius has proven many times that there is no story too outrageous for people to swallow.

Regarding Mars in the 9th, we could propose that the ‘long distance’ of this house was to Kenny Boy’s little place in hog heaven, were it not for another fact: the ruler of the 7th cusp, which is Taurus and thus Venus — representing a partner or, in general, ‘someone else’, is found in the 8th house, the house of death.

The syntax of this is not difficult to grasp: someone else is dead. First take is this is the body of the guy who is laying in for Kenny.

My second take on this Venus 8th was that his wife would soon be joining him, as Venus is about to square Uranus in Pisces.

Obviously, there was an escape house on an island somewhere; such is commonplace enough among the ultra-posh. And with all the resources of the Land of the Free to protect them, freedom is available.

News prediction: “they,” that is, the MSM, will float a story that proves the validity of the corpse, a kind of, “It really is Ken” story, with DNA or fingerprints — affirming the question.

That’s the news. Now back to you.

Sent via Planet Waves

The Big Stone hearing in South Dakota ended on Wednesday, with a public hearing on Thursday night, and look what’s in Saturday’s paper…

Cleaner power plant pondered

BEN SHOUSE

July 1, 2006

Cleaner coal technology could be on its way to Mobridge or Huron if a study announced Friday is successful.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative announced it is considering building a coal-fired power plant in South Dakota, using a technology called Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, or IGCC.

The projected $1.5 billion plant would be more expensive to build than the conventional Big Stone II power plant proposed by other companies near Milbank. But IGCC produces less pollution and would make it possible to someday trap carbon dioxide.

That gas is thought to be the main culprit in global warming and would be a potential financial liability if Congress or the states one day regulate carbon emissions.

“We recognize that if coal is going to have a future in this country that we need to find a way of producing energy using coal in the most environmentally responsible way that’s possible,” said Basin spokesman Floyd Robb in Bismarck, N.D.

Basin is the wholesale power supplier for South Dakota’s rural electric cooperatives. It is studying the IGCC plant with GE Energy and Bechtel Power.

Robb said Basin narrowed its choices for the feasibility study to the Mobridge-Selby area and the Huron-Wolsey area based on water supply and the availability of coal by rail from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

There are two IGCC plants operating in the U.S., but they use a different coal type. Using Powder River coal will be one technical challenge, as will finding a way to lock away carbon dioxide.

Bob Grant is associate executive director of the Izaak Walton League, one of four environmental groups that opposed the Big Stone II plant at a hearing this week in Pierre.

He said the IGCC plans are a positive sign.

“Clearly, that’s the kind of technology – if we’re going to use coal – that we think is moving us in the right direction, particularly if the project really takes a serious look at capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide from the facility,” Grant said.

Reach Ben Shouse at 331-2318.

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And the Big Stone hearings really are over. Two and one-half days of hearings for a coal plant! Can you believe that?

Here’s all the Prefiled Testimony, Exhibits, Transcripts and you can even listen!
South Dakota PUC Docket No.: EL05-022

The Minnesota Big Stone transmission docket moves forward too…
go to www.puc.state.mn.us and click on eDockets and type in docket 05-619
and for siting, here’s the transmission line docket.