Last night under the transmission line!
September 4th, 2014
Alan and I were invited to attend a climate change bicycle tour meeting, joined/hosted by Red Wing locals Mayor Dan Bender, and Evan Brown, cook extraordinaire (see his blog, Cooking for the Future) and member of the Sustainability Commission, so we went. What’s a climate change bicycle tour meeting? Well, they’re on tour, and there have been other meetings as a part of this tour, in Lakeville, Northfield, Winona, and here in Red Wing, other locations perhaps? I think there were five.
Participating organizations were:
When I first heard about this, what came to mind was Neil Ritchie & the solar bike tour back in 2004, they were in Northfield in September, 2004, and many other locations in SD, IA, and MN, raising awareness about renewable energy and urging people to contact their legislators!
This was similar but slightly different, focused on getting word out about climate change. Hopefully, it raised awareness and got Red Wing residents interested in the doings of Red Wing’s Sustainability Commission. The Sustainability Commission played a large role in getting the City’s solar project going. It’s a treat to go to City Hall, which we did yesterday to attend the West Avenue Construction meeting, and see the city vehicles parked under the solar array canopy. LOVE IT!! And there’s additional solar on the roof of the fire station and at the city’s Public Works vehicle parking lot. Yes, PUBLIC WORKS!
We had to do the “go around the circle” thing, and I noted “garbage” (the loud and stinky incinerator right behind me), “transmission” (directly overhead), and “nuclear” just up wind and upriver in the city limits, and that RES must be tied to shutting down coal.
Here’s that transmission line, and it seems to have been redone recently, look at that beautiful, decorative cortend steel:
Alan raised the incinerator issues he’s been working on, that the City of Red Wing burner has been shut down, and it was clear that they’d not really thought about incineration and the contribution of burning to CO2 generation/climate change. In discussing garbage and shutting down the incinerator, “zero waste” was not part of their vocabulary, and instead the binary response was “well, where will we put it?”
Here’s a photo as we were leaving of that former coal plant, now garbage plant, the one David Sparby and an IRP said would be shut down — ask Ramsey and Washington Counties about that:
Their handouts didn’t note shutdown of incinerators or coal plants:
Promote a just transition to clean energy to stop the progression of climate change.
Resist the aggressive expansion of extreme fossil fuel extraction, including tar sands, that threatens life itself.
Nothing about shutting down coal. ??? Nothing about decreasing burning. But again, there’s that insidious link that “clean energy = less CO2” which we know isn’t true. Now that we have the electric market set up, and the transmission infrastructure in place to ship all that excess generation from the Dakotas through Minnesota eastward, they won’t be shutting it down anytime soon. Now that Sherco 3 is up and running after a year and a half off-line, we lost that opportunity to keep the biggest coal plant in Minnesota shuttered.
If you’re looking for reduction of CO2, and Renewable Energy Standards won’t do anything towards that goal unless it’s explicitly linked. RES MUST BE LINKED TO SHUTDOWN OF COAL. Otherwise, it’s just adding “renewable” generation on top of a surplus, and they can sell that surplus coal generation now that they’ve got the transmission to do it.
West Avenue Update
September 2nd, 2014
West Avenue construction update:
Those huge fish ladders are done — thought I’d posted this but can’t find it! Today some poor delivery guys were dropping off a mattress to some house up on Sturtevant, maybe the new neighbors up the block at the top of that hill, and the were CARRYING THEM down from somewhere up the top of West, down around our house, and back up the hill on Sturtevant. Lucky for them it was just a twin and box spring!
Anyway, now that the fish ladders are set, they’re building the walls and are almost done with that now:
August 25, 2014, the upper fish ladders and beginning of the walls:
And these from August 13, 2014:
PUC Rulemaking — send Comments on Drafts!
September 1st, 2014
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is winding up its rulemaking on the Certificate of Need (Minn. R. Ch. 7849) and Siting/Routing (Minn. R. Ch. 7850) chapters. My clients Goodhue Wind Truth and North Route Group have been participating all along, and their experience with the Certificate of Need and Routing/Siting process has helped inform this record and we sure hope leads to more sensible and workable rules, AND increased public participation.
Now is the time to download and make your comments on what should be included, what’s included that’s important and needs to go forward, and what needs to be reworded.
Send Comments to:
- kate.kahlert@state.mn.us
- and/or post to the Rulemaking Docket. To do that go HERE to the eDocket Filing Page, register if you’re not registered (it’s easy and almost instant), and post to Docket 12-1246.
It’s highly likely that the LAST meeting of the PUC’s Rulemaking Advisory Committee will be September 24, 2014 (9:30 a.m. at the PUC, in the basement).
A few things that need work:
- Ch. 7849 & 7850: Need language mirroring statutory language regarding testimony by members of the public UNDER OATH (ALJs have refused to offer people opportunity to testify under oath, and PUC has stated that it makes a difference, “but were those statements made under oath” and if not, less weight.
- Ch. 7849: Advisory Task Forces need language of statute, and membership not limited to “local units of government.”
- Ch. 7849 & 7850: Transcripts available online — need to address this in rules and reporter contracts.
- Ch. 7849: Scoping and Alternatives — compare with Ch. 7850. Similar process?
- Ch. 7849.1450: When is it Commerce EER & DER
- Ch. 7849 & 7850 – timing should be similar for completeness review, etc.
- Ch. 7850: Public Meeting separate from Scoping Meeting (Public Meeting is to disseminate information, Scoping Meeting is for intake).
- Ch. 7850: Power Plant Siting Act includes “Buy the Farm.” Need rules regarding Buy the Farm.
Now is the time to review the drafts, above, and send in Comments. There may be, I hope there are, revisions released prior to the next meeting, but usually it happens just before, and there’s no time. So here’s where we are now, and Comments would be helpful.