Legalectric

Some have said that the Renewable Development Fund is sacred.  WRONG.  The Renewable Development Fund is profane, not sacred, all the way from its origins to its uses.  It’s now under scrutiny at Minnesota legislature, and institutional memory is nowhere to be found in this discussion.  See HF 235 and SF 214.

The Renewable Development Fund (RDF) came into being in the 1994 Prairie Island bill, and was to be a per cask compensation fund for the Prairie Island Indian Community for storage of nuclear waste next door and extension of Prairie Island nuclear plant life.  That compensation was turned into the RDF in a late night deal by “environmental” groups lobbying, of which Bill Grant (now Deputy Commissioner, Dept. of Commerce, formerly and then Izaak Walton League) was an integral part, Michael Noble (ME3, now “Fresh Energy”), and George Crocker (North American Water Office) too.  Prairie Island Indian Community was supposed to get priority in grants, but that never happened.  The RDF was administered by 3 from Xcel, plus Bill Grant, and one other “environmental” rep.  The composition of the group giving out the grants has changed, and there is now someone from PI on it, but that’s recent. (Full Disclosure: I represented Florence Twp. fighting the “in Goodhue County” alternate site mandate for nuclear waste and the Township worked very mindful of, and often in tandem with, PIIC, where it fiercely refused to acquiesce to Xcel and say “STICK IT THERE” to PIIC.  The working relationship continues and PIIC is now largest private  landowner in Florence Twp.).

1994 Prairie Island bill — Ch. 641, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=1994&type=0&doctype=Chapter&id=641).

The RDF was a material term of the 2003 Prairie Island bill, where as part of the deal millions of RDF money was to go to the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project.  Bill Grant was primary again, and when the Mesaba Project was stricken in one House session, a red-faced Tom Micheletti came flying down the hall yelling at Grant “We had a deal, we had a deal!” That deal was later added back in, and Micheletti’s Excelsior Energy coal gasification plant, Mesaba Project, was added to the factors to keep PI open.  “Environmental groups” got massive grants to promote coal gasification.  Micheletti got $10-12 million from RDF for Mesaba (and lots more from IRRB and DOE) and other regulator perks in the 2003 law, like exemption from CoN, and a mandated PPA with Xcel.  (Full Disclosure: I represented MNcoalgasplant.com against Mesaba Project, and with CAMP and help from Xcel, we got the details of coal gasification, that project was killed, and the info killed others nationwide, but Mesaba still has a site permit in Taconite from PUC valid until 2019!)

2003 Prairie Island bill – Ch. 11, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=2003&type=1&doctype=Chapter&id=11) 

On Monday, January 23, the Red Wing City Council voted to accept a $2 million grant from RDF to install a garbage grinder, a project they’ve been lobbying for for years, where they’ll take in garbage from the whole county, grind it up, and burn it in Xcel’s garbage burner here, its air permit expired in 2009!  GARBAGE!!!  DOH!  GARBAGE is not clean, it’s toxic!  The purpose of all this is to keep the incinerators open and burning.  (Full Disclosure:  I have been representing clients being screwed by Xcel’s plan for “ash mining” in their incinerator ash landfill in Red Wing, part of which includes a plan to build a Red Wing laydown yard and crusher on a site half of which is designated Water Tower Burial Mounds — yeah, really. That’s been exposed:

My partner, Alan Muller, is an incineration expert and has worked with groups to stop RockTenn; Midtown Burner in Phillips, Rockford City and Township; HERC uprate, etc.  See the Tyler Hills Neighbors Comments: Comment Extension for Lab USA EAW & Xcel & Lab USA Solid Waste)

The RDF has been a slush fund for deals enabling nuclear, promoting coal gasification, and greasing the skids for scams of great financial and environmental magnitude and impact.  It should be shut down and turned over to Prairie Island Indian Community as originally intended.

There’s at least one, and I believe 2, federal court hearings today on tRump’s Executive Order 13769, the one banning refugees and immigrants from 7 countries, the one that has left people detained at airports, prohibited to get on plans, people who have been thoroughly vetted over 2+ years, people who have green cards, people who are LEGAL immigrants to this country.  One would think that with the scrutiny surrounding this Executive Order, they’d be cautious.  Nope.  They’re not.

Norway’s former Prime Minister, Kjell Magne Bondevik, was detained!  His passport noted the 2014 visit, he was a speaker at a human rights conference.  His passport was a diplomatic passport, and said that he was a former Prime Minister of Norway.

Former Norway PM held at Washington airport over 2014 visit to Iran

Former PM Bondevik’s detention should be sufficient to get even the most reticent Norwegians sanding stoically in the streets!

Meanwhile, the long slow process of taking this administration down piece by piece has begun.  May this be the beginning of the end of the tRump administration.  So much damage and it’s only been two weeks.

Xcel’s 2016 Earnings Call was this morning.  Look at the above chart, pay close attention to the numbers I’ve highlighted in yellow.  2016 4th Quarter sales growth is down 0.6%.  Yearly sales decrease is -0.3%.  Here’s the rest of the Earnings Call Presentation:

1001219517_Presentation_Year End 2016

Remember CapX 2020, based on projections of annual increases of 2.49%.  Remember Commerce’s Steve Rakow who introduced the most bizarre chart ever in an effort to prop up need for CapX 2020, one without identifying the X axis or Y axis and just a sine wave trending sharply upward?  Yea, this one…

Hasn’t worked out that way, has it… the 2016 10-K isn’t filed yet, so there’s only 2015 to go on, though looking at their 10-Q for summer, I expect it’s flat at best.

So with sales down, I presume it’ll be flat peak demand?  It’s not disclosed in the 3rd Quarter 10-Q.  Xcel, we’ll be looking for that this month in your 10-K filing!