Electricity 2020 in Grand Rapids
February 4th, 2007
Mike Bull’s on the road again … the 14th in Grand Rapids, the 15th in Edina (info below). He’s put together an odd show for Grand Rapids, hosted by IDEC. Peter McDermott, IDEC President, is an Excelsior cheerleader who doesn’t seem to be following the PPA proceeding and doesn’t have an understanding of what’s in the record. The IDEC Energy Forum in 2004 featured Tom Micheletti as Keynote Speaker!!! Usually it’s the leigslators from the area, but here, he’s got a crew where each has a tie to Excelsior’s Mesaba Project, and odder, the Chair of the Public Utilities Commission that is to make a decision on the Excelsior PPA in a couple of months! Bill Grant states we must “accelerate development of IGCC with carbon capture and storage; pair IGCC with wind to overcome barriers to transmission”demonstrating he also isn’t following the cost info of Mesaba or the DOE’s position that sequestration ain’t happening (CLICK HERE for Bill Grant presentation, p. 17). Then there’s Mike Jones, part of PCOR/EERC, which is the recipient of the $21 million Excelsior got from the DOE to “research” sequestration and it looks like pretty expensive reinvention of the wheel that the folks at Lawrence Livermore are working on, and PCOR is doing a CAP & TRADE video — with DOE funds — that’s not capture and sequestration of CO2! Very strange…
Invitation to Community Forum
ELECTRICITY 2020
Hosted by Itasca Economic Development Corporation
Wednesday, February 14th
9:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Sawmill Inn – Grand Rapids
lectricity is a basic need of local, regional and national interest. IEDC is hosting this electricity 2020 forum to provide the opportunity for everyone to become better educated and have open dialogue on the topic.
Forum speakers will be:
Mike Bull, Assistant Commissioner, Renewable Energy and Advanced Technologies, Minnesota Department of Commerce. He will share the Department of Commerce’s perspective on wind as a generation resource and the Governor’s Next Generation Energy Initiative. (25% by 2025). (stolen from Ray’s blog) Prior to his current position, Mike was Senior Policy Advisor for environment and natural resource issues for Governor Tim Pawlenty. He has also worked on energy, telecommunications and environmental protection issues in key policy positions for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch, the Minnesota Department of Commerce and both bodies of the Minnesota State Legislature. He holds graduate degrees in Law and Public Policy, both from the University of Minnesota.
Bill Grant, Associate Executive Director, The Izaak Walton League- Midwest Office. Bill Grant will cover conservation and climate-friendly power supply.
Mike Jones – Senior Research Advisor, Energy & Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota. Mike Jones is scheduled to speak about the availability of coal as a future resource and the current and emerging technologies regarding emission controls and coal utilization.
LeRoy Koppendrayer, Chairman of Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The program will conclude with a key-note address by LeRoy Koppendrayer on the future of power supply for Minnesotans. Koppendrayer has this CV posted on the PUC site: Republican, Vermillion State Junior College; Course work at Anoka Vocational Technical Institute; Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis; 1990 elected to Minnesota State Legislature and served through 1998, served as Assistant House Minority Leader and House Republican Whip; 1986-91 self-employed international agriculture consultant, lived in Indonesia for three years, also worked in South America, Africa, Jamaica, Phillippines and former U.S.S.R. Countries; 1974-86 dairy farmer; 1969 – 1974 manager, Fingerhut Corp. in Princeton, Alexandria, Sauk Center and Mora, MN; 1960-69 heavy equipment operator, truck driver, Reserve Mining Company; currently serves on the following committees for the National Association Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC); Liaison, NARUC International Relations Committee; NARUC Regulatory Advisory Committee to the Institute of Public Utilities; NARUC Committee on Electricity and Subcommittee on Strategic Issues. Chair, Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition; serves on the Board of the Organization of Midwest States which oversees the Midwest electricity grid; appointed Commissioner January 6, 1998; appointed Chairman January 6, 2003; Reappointed January 26, 2004, term expires January 4, 2010.
There will be an opportunity for questions and answers following the presentations.
The forum is open to the public and will include lunch at a cost of $10 per person.
Reservations are required.
Please call IEDC at 326-9411 to RSVP your attendance.
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And the next day, February 15th in Edina:
Legislating Energy Issues
Mike Bull
Assistant Commissioner, Renewable Energy and Advanced Technologies, Minnesota Department of Commerce
and
Rep. Maria Ruud (Dist. 42A)
Vice Chair, House Energy Finance and Policy Committee
Thurs, Feb 15 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Edina Comm Ctr Door 2, Room 350
Edina Community Center, 5701 Normandale Rd, Edina
Energy issues course through the legislature renewable electricity standards, lobal warming, emissions trading… What re these issues and what is their status
locally and statewide? Get the answers and earn how to take action on energy legislation. Community Ed Adult Enrichment pdf
Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Edina.
No charge, but please preregister: CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
FPL feels global warming heat
February 3rd, 2007
Photo by Cynthia Archbold, Miami Sun Post
When they were organizing this action, at the gate of the Ritz-Carlton where the 7th Coaltrans convention was being held, they did a reconnoiter of the scene, and the report of their look-see was hilarious, if I can find it, I’ll post it. Here’s the Coaltrans Agenda. yawn… and just a little bitty-bit on coal gasification:
Coal gasification: Assessing the technologies and prospects for development
• Economics of gasification technologies
• When will these technologies be adopted by the industry on commercial terms?
• How will these decisions affect coal market dynamics (and when?)
Gary Stiegel, Gasification Technology Manager, US DoE / NETL
Note the focus on “when?” That means it isn’t going quite according to plan. Sort of like the DOE’s DEIS for the siting side of the Mesaba Project, now delayed until April. APRIL!!! Why? The reason for the phone conference we had this week was that the EIS was delayed, that they were “having trouble with their inputs.” On the call, Bob Cupit ever so delicately asked what the problem was, and it seems they’re having a difficult time with the issues raised by the Army Corps of Engineers. Well duh, the CoE asked for documentation of the 3,000-6,300MW need in MINNESOTA claimed by Excelsior — no wonder they’re “having trouble with their inputs.” They asked for information about alternatives, and how they selected the preferred site! What a hoot! Here’s the US Army Corps of Engineers letters.
Anyway, Coaltrans and the Ritz-Carlton were not expecting a welcoming committee. hee hee hee hee hee hee Today Coaltrans, tomorrow, IGCC Essentials for Utility Leaders… or is that next week…
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By Cynthia Archbold
“Imagine the Ritz under 10 feet of water!” That’s what one sign, held by those protesting coal plants and global warming, said. Another sign warned that “Coal Kills.”
It’s not every day that international protestors take to the streets of Key Biscayne to warn about new threats of global warming coming from plans to build coal power plants.
But that’s what happened Wednesday in front of the Ritz-Carlton.
About a dozen environmentalists came to protest the Coaltrans Convention, a meeting of top coal industry leaders to discuss building more coal power plants in the United States and Latin America.
“The pressure needs to be on FPL [Florida Power & Light],” says Scott Perry, a Glades County resident who came to Key Biscayne to protest.
He says pollution from Lake Okeechobee turns the Caloosahatchee River into an opaque pea soup every spring, and a coal power plant would make the Everglades a toxic wasteland.
He and other environmentalists say coal power is outdated and devastating to the environment.
But FPL’s slogan is coal is “the right choice for right now,” and according to its Web site, is cheaper and easier to obtain than natural gas.
Moreover, Florida’s largest utility company also claims that coal power technology “has undergone dramatic improvements in efficiency and pollution control in the last 30 years.”
Not enough, however, to satisfy environmentalists who oppose FPL’s plans to build a coal-fired power plant about 125 miles north of Miami on Lake Okeechobee near Moore Haven in Glades County.
FPL wants to build the plant right on top of the Everglades, just as the national park is about to undergo the biggest environmental cleanup in the nation, according to Susan Glickman, consultant for the Natural Resources Defense and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
FPL’s huge, 1,960-megawatt coal-fired power plant, providing electricity to 650,000 homes, would be the kiss of death for the Everglades, Glickman says. The coal power plant will spew colossal amounts of mercury and toxic carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases that increase global warming, according to Glickman.
The amount of carbon dioxide emissions, 16 million tons each year, would be more than any new power plant in the country, she says.
Why haven’t we heard much about it? Glickman answers: “FPL went to Glades County and essentially held secret meetings and negotiations there.” She says FPL officials met with that county’s Community Development Department, without public notice, promising $21 million to the county in annual property taxes, and lots of new jobs.
On Sept. 12, 2006, the Glades County Commission passed a resolution to support FPL’s site plan application.
“I can understand why this would be very appealing to people in Glades County,” Glickman says. “Twenty-one million dollars in tax revenues is more than their annual budget. It’s a very small county, 11,000 residents, with few resources.”
Glades County Manager Wendell Taylor says FPL’s power plant proposal is “the first of its kind in the world.” He says, “If information comes out that it’s bad for the community, that it’s dirty, we won’t support it.”
Taylor says there will be a year-long process of public hearings, beginning on Feb. 20, where the public will be able to speak out and hear from environmentalists before the plant can be approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Two years ago, FPL’s efforts to build a similar plant in St. Lucie County so outraged citizens that they persuaded their County Commission to vote against it.
Now St. Lucie commissioners are urging their counterparts in Glades to do the same.
Glickman says conservationists will fight FPL every step of the way, if need be all the way to the governor’s office.
“And I believe Governor Crist and his cabinet will find that a giant old-style coal plant is not in the interests of the people of Florida.“
Eichorn’s statements are not accurate
February 2nd, 2007
Herald-Review
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 11:24:16 AMEditor:
At the Jan. 23 meeting of the Itasca County Commissioners, Rusty Eichorn stated that he supports the Mesaba Energy Project because the steel mill planned for Nashwauk will rely on Mesaba for baseload electricity. This is not accurate and Commissioner Eichorn ought to know it.
In September 2006, after learning that Senator Saxhaug had publicly said that the two projects were “a marriage of convenience”, I wrote to Howard Hilshorst, executive vice president of Minnesota Steel Industries. He replied: “There is no connection between Mesabi (sic) Energy’s output and our need. We are not looking to them for anything…. there is no connection between Mesabi Energy and Minnesota Steel at all, except for the possible common infrastructure of the rail line and part of the gas pipeline.”
Mr. Hilshorst repeated this at a public meeting in Lone Pine Township, and again in an e-mail that he wrote on Dec. 12th: “Minnesota Steel does not need the Mesaba Energy project to operate and we have no connection to them. We will be operating long before they are constructed. Obviously I cannot control what other people say or what they may try to lead people to think, but I can assure you that we are not dependent on them in any shape, form or for kilowatts.”
Despite Minnesota Steel’s clear and consistent position, at the public hearing in Taconite on Dec. 20, Ron Dicklich, who is paid $5,000/month by Itasca County to coordinate infrastructure planning for the two projects, again suggested that Mesaba was needed to support Minnesota Steel. Ironically, the subject of this hearing was Excelsior Energy’s attempt to force NSP/Xcel Energy to purchase the entire output of Mesaba I.
Such repetition of erroneous information is a feature of the “big lie” theory of propaganda: people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it. This explains why numerous people around the county have expressed confusion about a connection between Minnesota Steel and Mesaba at informational presentations by CAMP (Citizens Against the Mesaba Project).
It is not clear whether Commissioner Eichorn has been duped or is deliberately spreading this misinformation. Either way, he owes a higher degree of diligence and accuracy to the people of Itasca County.
Charlotte Neigh
CAMP Co-Chair
And Mike Casper too…
February 1st, 2007
Mike Casper has died. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing without his influence, nuclear waste, transmission lines, power plants, all those crazy trips up to Chisago and those awful hours long “coalition” meetings got me firmly entrenched. I’m so grateful to have had his guidance and direction and coaching and encouragement, he and Nancy were so supportive as I headed off on this electrical path.
This just came in from Joel Weisberg:
To friends and colleagues of Mike Casper,
It is my sad duty to inform you that Mike died on January 27, 2007 in Northfield from complications related to dementia. He caught pneumonia about ten days before he passed away, and his family and local friends surrounded him at his bedside through his last days.
Let me take this opportunity to remind you of some of the highlights of Mike’s life. Thanks to Daniel Casper for providing the document from which most of this was drawn.
Along with being a Professor of Physics at Carleton College, Mike was a tireless political activist. He was a leading figure in the peace movement for decades. Among his many projects, he helped to mobilize the scientific community in opposition to an anti-ballistic missile system, served as executive director of the Minnesota Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, and, with the help of his wife, Nancy, ran the Nuclear War Graphics Project. He helped to found the APS Congressional Science Fellows Program which brings scientists to work with Congressional representatives, a program that was so successful that many other scientific societies went on to copy it. He was one of the cofounders of the American Physical Society’s Forum on Physics and Society, where these kinds of issues are studied and debated. He also cofounded a program at Carleton called Science, Technology, and Public Policy, and as part of that program, Mike supervised annual technology policy projects in which he and a group of students studied a problem and then developed policy solutions. Over two decades, Mike and his students tackled issues ranging from alternative energy to HIV/AIDS policy. In a fitting legacy to Mike and the other founders, the STPP Program itself continues to thrive at Carleton under the name Environment and Technology Studies. Personally, I most deeply admire Mike for his work on science in the public interest, and for taking that work to the towns and streets rather than leaving it irrelevantly in the ivory tower.
While at Carleton, Mike developed a lifelong partnership with faculty colleague Paul Wellstone, the late Minnesota senator. The two became intimately involved with the 1970s struggles of western Minnesota farmers to oppose a high voltage power line. In 1978, Mike ran for lieutenant governor in the DFL primary with Alice Tripp, whose campaign for governor grew out of the anti-powerline movement. Casper and Wellstone later chronicled the story of the powerline struggle in the book Powerline: The First Battle of America’s Energy War (University of Massachusetts Press, 1981). Mike was a key strategist in Paul’s 1990 U.S. Senate campaign and went to Washington as Paul’s policy advisor, an experience that informed what would be Mike’s final book, Lost in Washington: Finding the Way Back to Democracy in America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.
Mike is survived by his wife, Nancy; sons Daniel (Linda), Benjamin (Marisela), and Michael (Beth) Casper, Jay and Aaron (Cecy) Syverson, daughter Kaarin Madigan, and five grandchildren. He was preceded in death by parents Barry and Florence Casper and brother Jonathan Casper.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, February 18, 2007, at Carleton College’s Skinner Memorial Chapel. A reception will follow in the Severance Great Hall. Should you wish to attend, I would be glad to assist in finding you accommodations with a local family or at a local hotel. In lieu of flowers, please direct memorial gifts to the Mike Casper Memorial Fund at Carleton College, Gift Accounting Office, One North College Street, Northfield, Minnesota, 55057.
If you feel so moved, I am sure that Mike’s family would appreciate any messages you would like to send. Daniel Casper can be reached at dcasper8[at]hotmail.com.
Sincerely,
Joel Weisberg, Mike’s friend and colleague in the physics department
Don’t tie CapX2020 anchor to RES
February 1st, 2007
STUPID LEGISLATIVE TRICKS ALERT!!!
CapX2020 facilitates coal, and does it quite nicely! And no, that’s not a good thing…
CapX2020, a multi-BILLION dollar transmission project, is spending a lot of time and money at the legislature. They get a full House Energy Committee meeting to sell their sob story, and the only testimony allowed is from those who have a vested interest in CapX2020 (TRANSLink). Why do the get so much time for their sales pitch? Why are they getting any time at all? I’ve been told “oh, they don’t want anything.” Right… oh, pleeeeeze…
CapX2020 will want to latch onto the RES claiming that renewables can’t be added without the transmission.
Capx2020 claims they need to “streamline” and of course will want to gut the Certificate of Need and/or environmental review. CapX2020 (TRANSLink by another name) and WoW have consistently advocated for gutting of state review, abdicating to federal non-review.
200,000 landowners across MN are affected by CapX. Of course they don’t want to have any review!!!! Particularly at a time when Dept. of Commerce analysis shows both Big Stone transmission (and plant) and the Mesaba Project are not needed/not in the public interest. They can’t prevail under the rules so we should change them just for them… the arrogance!
1) RES can easily be done once or twice over without significant transmission additions — RES renewables can be sited carefully and effectively and save us billions AND it doesn’t facilitate coal.
2) Streamlining is desired only because they cannot prove need — and when it’s not needed, why would we spend billions to build it?
3) Any project in the BILLIONS must have full review — it’d be nuts to exempt it!
4) If CapX 2020 were to be exempted from environmental review, then 200,000 landowners would not have recourse of “Buy the Farm” where they can elect for utility to buy out the entire parcel so they can move away from the line. Minn. Stat. 116C.63, Subd. 4. This would screw over 200,000 Minnesota landowners, great policy idea, eh?
Given the Waltons have been shamelessly promoting CapX2020, if this proposal comes up, who will oppose it? I don’t know of anyone who has resources/funding to do that. Just remember that when it comes to CapX2020, the Izaak Walton League is promoting their self interest, and not the public interest, and not representing “environmental” groups. And of course there are those of us doing what we can with what we’ve got to shine a light on CapX2020!
