Legalectric

Yesterday afternoon, things got a little hot in the ‘hood, sirens going, stopping just down the hill and around 7th toward the park. Here’s the story, with great quotes in the running for understatement of the year:

â??A charred caster is not what I had in mind,â? said 22-year-old Jeff Nielsen, referring to one of his expensive instruments.

and

â??This is not cool,â? Nielsen said.

and summing it all up:

â??Iâ??m not trying to jump to conclusions,â? Nielsen said, â??but I think itâ??s pretty safe to assume Iâ??m gonna have to find a new place to live.â?

Here’s the story from the Beagle:

Â

Electrical short causes fire in local home

Jen Cullen

Fire damaged a home on Seventh Street Thursday, leaving three people temporarily homeless.

Two of the put out residents watched from the street â?? teeth chattering â?? wondering about their guitars.

â??A charred caster is not what I had in mind,â? said 22-year-old Jeff Nielsen, referring to one of his expensive instruments.

All three of the homeâ??s residents â?? including the owner â?? got out of the two-level house safely.

But Nielsen and his friend Nate Hess stood across the street hoping their guitars would be as lucky as they were.

â??This is not cool,â? Nielsen said.

Both men have been renting rooms at the house since August when they enrolled in the guitar repair program at Minnesota State College-Southeast Technicalâ??s Red Wing campus.

Nielsen was leaving for work just after 4 p.m. when he said he noticed smoke billowing from the rear of the home.

The Minneapolis native grabbed Hess and told the homeâ??s owner, Gordon Pecinovsky, about the smoke.

Pecinovsky called 911.

Nielsen said he noticed a â??campfire smellâ? in the house earlier in the day. He thought nothing of it, assuming the aroma was from the fireplace of a nearby neighbor.

What Nielsen was probably smelling, said Fire Marshal Steven Hamilton, was a blaze in a crawl space between the first and second floors.

Hamilton said houseâ??s balloon construction made the fire hard to find.

â??We had to pull the ceilings down to get to the actual flames,â? he said, noting that the house is probably more than 100 years old.

Common in homes built before 1930, balloon construction often plagues fire fighters because it can cause flames to spread through interconnected hidden spaces between a homeâ??s basement and attic.

â??We donâ??t want to take any chances in a home like this,â? Hamilton said.

Fire fighters stayed on the scene for more than two ours making sure the blaze was out.

Hamilton is calling the fire accidental. He said an old fuse box appears to have shorted out, sending flames up a wall in an addition of the home.

The fire marshal estimates damage between $50,000 and $100,000. Not a total loss, he said, because the homeâ??s structure was relatively unharmed.

Fire fighters were able to salvage most of the belongings on the homeâ??s main level, Hamilton said, including Nielsen and Hessâ?? guitars.

A representative from the local chapter of the Red Cross showed up about an hour after the fire began to see if anyone needed help finding a place to stay.

Nielsen said he planned on hanging out with friends. Hess, who is from Madison, was unsure what he was going to do.

â??Iâ??m not trying to jump to conclusions,â? Nielsen said, â??but I think itâ??s pretty safe to assume Iâ??m gonna have to find a new place to live.â?

So here we’ve been dealing with this Mesaba application for about a year now, the DOE’s EIS Scoping hearing was one year ago next week, and all along there’s been, EXPRESSLY, no intent of carbon capture and/or sequestration — NO INTENT! Suddenly, in the Rebuttal Testimony, they have a “Plan for Carbon Capture and Sequestration.”

(Compliments of www.hauntedadventures.com)

Things change, there’s a “plan,” and what a plan it is…

Here’s the Rebuttal Testimony of Ed Steadman:

Here’s Rebuttal Testimony of Wolk:
Wolk-rebuttal-testimony.pdf

Here’s the Rebuttal Testimony of Richard Stone:
stone-rebuttal-testimony.pdf
And here’s the weirdest part — “Plan for Carbon Capture and Sequestration” (I had to cut it in two parts because it refused to upload).

Color me jaundiced, but what a crock. And now we’ve got to waste our time reading this and picking it apart, fighting to make it all public information. Plus they hired some gorilla in the store room to bend the notebook rings so they don’t close, can’t read it without blowing a gasket every attempted page turn… OK, guys, get ready, I’s a pickin’ with surgical precision. Oh, hey, I’ve got a better idea… why don’t we just pump it up… ah… oh… ah… nevermind, it’d just be released again… ppppppppffffffbbbbbbbbbbtttttt.. Look! There goes Tom Micheletti propelled into the stratosphere! Both our Co2 and Mesaba problem solved! (Special thanks to a certain party, whose name I can’t recall,for her sequestration advice!)

So now I’ve got it in a real notebook that works, a hot cup of Sleepytime Tea, with visions of CO2 pumping stations and store room gorillas dancing in my head…

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For all of you Mesaba folks out there, there is indeed a Transmission Planning meeting that does cover Mesaba, better point that out.

Thursday, November 2, 2006

3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.

Ramada Inn

2115 So. 6th St.

Brainerd, MN 56401

Here’s the northeast-zone-notice.pdf

For more information, go to www.minnelectrans.com or there’s the “contact person” for the NE Zone, Eric Olson at (218) 723-3947, or eolson@allete.com.

I raised the Mesaba project transmission two years ago in Rochester, was told, “NO, NOT HERE, there will be someone at the NE meeting to address it.” OK, fine, so I go up to Duluth, well, Proctor, the same place the Arrowhead hearings were held, and there was no one there presenting on Mesaba, and when I tried to raise it, I was shushed, and when I refused to shut up, I was almost run out of town!

So, if you’re concerned about the Mesaba project and the associated transmission, better show up and let them know you want more informaiton.

Professor Burton Abrams has this to say about the Mesaba coal gasification project:

Itasca County should focus on recreation
Grand Rapids Herald-Review

Editor:
As a part-time resident of Itasca County, I recently received a brochure from the Citizens Against the Mesaba Project (CAMP). If the allegations made by CAMP are true, it is apparent that Excelsior Energyâ??s project is contrary to the long-run interests of the county. For nearly 60 years, I have enjoyed the pristine lakes of northern Itasca County, but I have been dismayed at the countyâ??s ability to never miss an opportunity to permit environmental damage. In 2001, Itasca County ranked third in Minnesota in sulfur dioxide emissions, an important source for acid rain.

My grandfather told of beautiful Trout Lake alongside Coleraine and a short walk from Bovey that teemed with gigantic lake trout. The nearby iron mine was permitted to dump its tailings into the lake, silting over the lakeâ??s gravel spawning beds. The trout and most of the mining jobs are gone, but the environmental damage remains and may grow. One of the abandoned pit mines, now a lake complete with hazardous embankments, threatens to overflow and flood parts of Bovey.

The demographic trends in the United States and the characteristics of Itasca County indicate that Itasca Countyâ??s comparative advantage is not power generation. Itasca County is first and foremost a recreational paradise whose value will only grow with the graying of America. To subsidize Excelsior Energy with the privilege of eminent domain to increase acid rain and to contaminate ground water strikes me as a dangerous job-creation strategy. If jobs are needed, letâ??s subsidize fish hatcheries to return our lakes to world-class fish production. The jobs created by the increase in tourism and retirement-related services would better serve the county. In the final analysis, bragging rights in Itasca County will focus on tons of fish harvested, not on tons of pollutants released into its air and water.

Professor Burton A. Abrams
Acting Chairman
Department of Economics
University of Delaware
Newark, DE

Here’s the schedule. For more info go to the Minnesota Transmission Owners site at www.minnelectrans.com or contact MTO’s Al Mitchell at amitchell@lindquist.com or the State’s Bob Cupit, bob.cupit@state.mn.us

For the CapX2020 lines, the blue ones and red ones on the maps below, go to the CapX2020 Project page, and then click on the project of interest under “Description.”
Now here’s where we get into the problem. Check out the SW Minnesota Zone, “my” district (how can I limit it so when the state is my oyster??)

SE MN Notice: southeast-zone-notice.pdf

What’s wrong with this? Look at the map:

Nevermind, DON’T!! They sent me THREE, I gave away two, and who knows where it went, I GIVE UP, I CANNOT FIND MY COPY FOR THE LIFE OF ME. So allow me to describe it — it’s a cheezy map, with no proposed transmission lines or corridors drawn, only these funny light dashed lines around some cities, no lines drawn at all…

So what are they planning? LOOK!!!

And on that happy note, we’re having another cycle of Biennial Transmission Plan meeitngs, and I hope you’re all paying attention and passing this notice along to everyone who lives near these blue lines on the map above. Or the red lines on this map below (it shows the Big Stone II line connecting into the SW Minnesota line over to Prairie island):

Notice that there’s a line going into Red Wing from the SW, and then from Red Wing (Prairie Island) it goes straight south. CapX2020 calls it “two lines,” one in and one out, and this is just Phase I. In Phase II, there’s another coming into Red Wing from the North, the Chisago sub, and down to Prairie Island. Three lines — no other community has three lines in the CapX2020 “Vision.”

Here’s the SW Zone map from the Transmission Plan meeting packet, covering the same area as the above map (found after 45 minutes of searching — in the recycling — too many papers):

Here’s a version you can zoom or print: sw-zone.pdf

Who cares about the Biennial Transmission Plan meetings? For starters, any of the 200,00 landowners that the Dept. of Commerce says will be affected by these transmission lines. How about the local governments these lines are going through? How about the legislators whose constituents are affected? These lines have been approaching for years now, but the Notice Plans were approved for the CapX2020 lines and we’re now approaching aplication time.

Why care about the Biennial Transmission Plan meetings? Because they’re planning utility infrastructure, and utility infrastructure is very expensive and lasts a long time, 50 years or so. We are at a juncture where we will either invest billions of dollars in central-station infrastructure, large plants a long way from load, OR, we can invest these same dollars in renewable and sustainable energy. Time to choose, because once we start building these central station coal plants and transmission lines, they won’t be abandoned, mothballed. Do we want to take that road? Not on my watch! And on yours???

Transmission Planning Meeting – SE Minnesota Zone:

Tuesday, October 24 from 3-7 p.m.

International Center

7333 Airport View Dr. S.W.

Rochester

For more information:

Al Mitchell – amitchell@lindquist.com

Be there, or be square — that means you, City of Red Wing and Goodhue County! I see you’re on the email list, and hope to see you there!