Mesaba LTE in Grand Rapids paper
October 10th, 2006
Today rebuttal testimony is due on Mesaba, so it’s been a long day… that’ll be posted here later, maybe tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s the latest Letter to the Editor in the Grand Rapids Herald Review:
Health consequences should be considered with Mesaba Energy
Editor:
Mesaba Energy. I’m reminded of people who smoke. When they start, they donâ??t think about possible consequences 10, 15, 20 years down the road. Their focus is the instant gratification of the nicotine hit. Their focus is on thinking they are acting like an adult, an idea sold by tobacco companies They don’t consider the long term consequences.
As with most things, a person’s decisions will be based on the information they choose to focus on. If their priority is instant gratification, only the information that validates instant gratification will seem correct. Among the many ironies is that people start smoking because they were conditioned to think it was the adult thing to do. They stop smoking, with a large amount of pain and effort, because it is the adult thing to do.
The irony of Dave Johnsonâ??s comment on NIMBY is that the people in power of the Mesaba project are also guilty of NIMBY. They never considered building the power plant in their back yard. Dave also mentions the sequestering of carbon dioxide, but fails to mention the carbon dioxide continually created to build the plant, mine the coal, and transport the coal and other elements needed to keep the plant running.
He also mentions all the time, energy, and money needed to clean the exhaust at Clay Boswell. He fails to mention that there are no pollutants or byproducts created with a wind generator once its operable. Now that’s truly sensational.
Wind Logic is a company, with an office in Grand Rapids, that tests places worldwide for the potential of wind-generated power. When I last spoke with the company, I was told that none of the towns on the Iron Range has ever been tested for their potential to generate electricity using wind. Wouldn’t it be wiser to consider all possible alternatives before committing to an industry that makes and keeps us dependent on so many people and natural resources, and creates so much pollution and waste in the process.
If consumers had a choice between clean, non-polluting wind energy, and Mesaba, how many would choose wind power? I believe Mr. Johnson’s logic regarding the use of wind-generated power is specious because we donâ??t have that choice. I also suspect the executives of Mesaba Energy want to keep it that way. They want us dependent on them for jobs and money, as it will ensure their fortunes.Has anyone in power ever considered how much wind power would cost and how much money and jobs it would generate long term if we had available the money that Mesaba wants to get and has gotten. Has anyone in power ever considered how much less dependent we would all be using wind power? Are the people in power so focused on instant gratification, that they can’t consider the possible long term consequences of their decisions? If that is the case, arenâ??t we leaving our children with a legacy of dependency and pollution?
Gary Burt
Taconite
David Morris on Habeas Corpus
October 8th, 2006
In today’s STrib:
David Morris: What would Wellstone have done? He would have fought.
Four years ago this month Paul Wellstone was taken from us. Today, more than ever, American politics suffers from his absence.
Just days ago, Senate Democrats agreed not to filibuster a bill allowing the president to detain indefinitely, even for life, any alien, whether in the United States or abroad, whether a foreign resident or a lawful permanent resident. The bill denies prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court.
Why would Democrats allow 51 senators to eliminate one of the fundamental pillars of free societies? I imagine it was because their pollsters told them a vigorous opposition would lose them votes in the coming election as Republicans pummeled them for being soft on terrorism.
Paul would have filibustered. That would almost certainly have delayed a Senate vote until after the election, enabling Americans to more clearly demonstrate how they stand on the 800-year-old right of habeas corpus.
Three weeks before he died, Paul voted against war in Iraq. At the time, his opponent was aggressively accusing Paul of being weak on national security. Polls told Paul a vote against war would lose him the election. But as he told the Washington Post two days after the vote, “I think people want you to do what you think is right … .” And added, in typical Wellstone fashion, “how would I have had the enthusiasm and the fight if I had actually cast a vote I didn’t believe in? I couldn’t do that.”
A few days later Paul delighted in the fact that his vote resulted in a surge of support among Minnesotans, a surge that almost certainly would have led to his reelection.
Paul knew how to filibuster. Singlehandedly, his filibusters prevented a remarkably inequitable bankruptcy bill from being passed while he was in the Senate.
And he knew how to speak truth to power. When Exxon, the No. 1 oil company, gobbled up No. 2 Mobil, and the No. 1 grain company, Cargill, devoured runner-up Continental Grain, and the No. 1 bank, Citicorp, snapped up Travelers Insurance, the silence from Washington was deafening.
The New York Times, commenting about the Exxon-Mobil merger, observed, “scarcely a politician of any stripe headed for the cameras” to question “whether the $76 billion deal was good for the country, for workers or for consumers.” Except one: “Senator Paul Wellstone, the Minnesota Democrat who is among the few in Congress still exercised about the concentration of corporate power … .”
In 1996, Paul was among the very few who voted against the Telecommunications Act. He argued it would lead to concentrated ownership. He was right. Over the next 22 months, more than 1,000 radio stations were sold. Some 450 owners left the field. Single companies now dominate local radio broadcasting.
In 1996, Paul bravely voted against ending the nation’s commitment to the poor. Again, he was the only politician running for reelection who did so. “If you want to reduce poverty, stop scapegoating people,” he said. “Start focusing on a good education and a good job.”
Paul Wellstone proposed as well as opposed. For example, when the United States tried one more time to join the rest of the industrialized world in making access to medical care a right, not a privilege, Wellstone helped organize a grass-roots coalition that gained considerable support in Congress in favor of a system similar to Canada’s 30-year-old program: a single insurer, local control, and private suppliers.
But it was in his opposition that he most clearly demonstrated both his character and his uniqueness. Four years after his death, we sorely miss his courage and leadership.
David Morris is vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, based in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.
©2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Spot’s the word on Dissin’ da Writ
October 7th, 2006
I stole this from Spotty, sums up the state of our “rights” now:
Time for a reality check — Spot does a good job of walking, or dog trotting, through the Habeas insanity. Take a few and read and wonder how long we’ll be on the loose…
I’m trying to work up to writing my take on the Red Wing background checks but this is all just too depressing… I hope you’re all paying attention and don’t let this moment pass quietly…
Can someone explain Rowley’s position on…
October 7th, 2006
Color me pissy, but will someone please explain Rowley’s position on… oh, say… energy… or education… or environment… or EVERYTHING? That is, anything but the war, we’ve got that one figured out. Look at the Colleen Rowley website. There are no position papers posted, no issues statements. It’s even worse than before when there were lame statements and she was doing things like conflating “decreasing dependence on foreign oil” with “wind generation” and some such. Back then, of course, I went straight to the horse’s mouth, we had a few go rounds, I spoke with her in person too, I spent quite a bit of time sending off basic information on electrical generation and transmission == hey, 2nd Congressional District is home to a nuclear plant up for relicensing. NADA! I heard from an FBI buddy of hers who was working on position papers, and now that they’ve had a lot of time to deal with it, to do something, nada. I’m getting a lot of email on Rowley doorknocks, lit drops, events, but
LTEs in Grand Rapids HR
October 5th, 2006
…and I don’t mean John…
Two great Letters to the Editor today in the Grand Rapids paper (it takes a while for them to be posted) and guess who’s on the front page of the Red Wing Republican Beagle — “fuming” no less!!!
Here’s Grand Rapids, from Alvar Hupila:
Editor:
The article in Business Monthly, supplement to the Grand Rapids Herald Review, â??A Look at IGCC Technology,â? puts the Mesaba Energy Project in stark perspective. The statement by John Grasser, who is with the US Department of Energyâ??s Office of Fossil Energy, that â??IGCC technology is an important step in the development of further technologiesâ? and that â??the Mesaba Project is one of these stepsâ?, is an indication that we should not be subjected to it.
This means that this â??experimentâ? will put the environment, our health, and the pristine water of the Canisteo pit at risk for a process that is still being developed.
The Excelsior Energy representative at the Grand Rapids meeting admitted that they do not know how they would deal with the slurry that contains most of the pollutants and it has not been determined whether the used water would be returned to the pit or released into the Mississippi River watershed.
As attractive as the promise of permanent jobs may be, there are still too many unknowns to justify this project.
Alvar E. Hupila
Bovey
And Bob Norgord, King of Run On Paragraphs, is at it again, direct, factual and hard-hitting as always:
Editor:
I would like to respond to the â??Letter to the Editorâ? in the Sept. 20 Herald Review written by the president of a building trades union. His spin on things sounds like an advertisement for Excelsior Energy with the same spin that they put on things, but he needs to get his facts straight. He refers to â??significant property taxâ? benefits for the county to be paid by Excelsior Energy. Excelsior was made exempt from paying property tax. He refers to a large number of jobs – but for whom? Excelsior is hiring contractors from out of state who will be bringing a large number of their own people with them. There will be some jobs for local people, but after three years, the honeymoon is over. The $1 .5 billion of private investment he refers to does not exist. There are no private investors yet as the venture is considered too risky for the private sector. The â??clean coalâ? technology he mentions does not exist. There is no such thing as clean coal even if they do cut some of the emissions. If this plant were to go to the Dakotas as he suggests could happen, the â??easterly windsâ? he refers to would not blow the emissions towards us. If this technology is so clean, we wouldn’t have to worry about westerly winds either.
He also makes reference to the Mesaba Project as having the potential to â??deal with global warming without increasing our electricity rates through the roof.â? When Excelsior Energy’s CEO Tom Micheletti was asked why anyone would purchase his power when it would cost more than twice as much as power purchased elsewhere, he responded by saying that if we want clean power, we are going to have to pay for it. As to the global warming thing, this technology has the ability to sequester 20-30 percent of the carbon dioxide it creates by pumping it into the ground, but not here-not on this granite ledge on the Scenic Highway, so now we would be adding to the problem, not helping the environment as he suggests. As to the â??looming energy crisis,â? it has been suggested that it could happen in 10-15 years, but it is being handled as I write this letter. The governor of Texas has plans for 18 coal fired plants to be built in Texas, NSP has plans for one in Colorado, and other producers of power have plans for increasing production.
Don’t worry, the Christmas tree on the White House lawn will be lit this year and every year in the future without the Mesaba Project.
Bob Norgord
Bovey
And here’s from the Red Wing Republican Beagle (this’ll teach me not to respond to questions with 72 pt. bold font… naaaaaaaaaaah…):
Screening process didnâ??t violate laws, official says
Mike Longaecker
The Republican Eagle – 10/05/2006The background checks have been checked out. And according to the Dakota County Attorneyâ??s office, there was no wrongdoing by the city of Red Wing.
A report, issued Sept. 27 by Dakota County Attorney Chief Deputy Phillip Prokopowicz, says he couldnâ??t find a law requiring Red Wing City Council candidates to sign a release.
City Clerk Kathy Johnson told investigators that signing a release for background checks wasnâ??t a condition of candidacy, Prokopowicz said Wednesday.
Still, that could have been made more clear, he said. He suspected some kind of disconnect between Johnsonâ??s office and what was told to candidates by others at City Hall.
â??It might have been an implied expectation,â? Prokopowicz said of what was told to some candidates. â??It was not communicated as well as it should have been.â?
In a letter to complainant Carol Overland, Prokopowicz also said that he couldnâ??t find any law specifically prohibiting city officials from asking candidates to sign release forms.
Some City Council hopefuls raised a flap in July after noticing background checks were included in candidacy materials distributed by Johnsonâ??s office.
The original form given to most of the candidates allowed the city to perform criminal, courts, driving and credit checks.
That release form told candidates that while they werenâ??t legally required to sign the authorization, voluntary compliance was allowed â??because I want to be considered for employment or volunteer service â?¦ ;â?
With the background checks serving as her impetus, Overland â?? an advocacy attorney â?? filed for the At-Large seat. She filed a complaint with the Secretary of Stateâ??s office soon after.
The city issued a second draft of the release before the filing period closed. It said voluntary checks would be performed â??because I want to aid the city of Red Wing in fulfilling its duty to ensure that only eligible candidates are certified for placement on the cityâ??s ballot.â?
According to the second draft, the checks were to be limited in scope searches for felony offenses, court findings of incompetency and any matter negating election eligibility.
Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer and her election opponent, Mark Ritchie, have both criticized the city for its screening policy.
After receiving Prokopowiczâ??s letter, Overland was left fuming.
â??What says this is OK?â? she said Tuesday, referring to what she called â??qualified and passive languageâ? in the letter.
The Red Wing Charter Commission member said sheâ??s not sure whether sheâ??ll continue to pursue legal action against the city, but said some kind of action is important.
â??If actionâ??s not taken, this kind of thingâ??s going to keep happening,â? said Overland, who works closely with issues such as transmission lines and a proposed northern Minnesota coal gasification plant.
â??Itâ??s not over for me, but I donâ??t know how much I can do.â?
Joe Krueger â?? who also took a vocal stand against the city for its background checks â?? and Carol Duff defeated Overland and three others vying for the At-Large seat in the primary election.
Itâ??s unknown whether the city will continue to screen council candidates, said Council Administrator Kay Kuhlmann. She said the council will address the matter sometime before the next election cycle.
Overlandâ??s complaint was referred to Dakota County after Goodhue County prosecutors determined a conflict of interest. County Attorney Stephen Betcher also prosecutes cases for the city of Red Wing.
And here’s the letter that had me fumin’ yesterday:
So do tell, where’s the authorization to do this??? Zip, nada… And Joe Krueger did make a complaint, but dropped it, and no other candidates stood up to the City. Given that, why would the City Staff do anything differently in the future?