Legalectric

Freeborn Wind at the PUC tomorrow.

Watch on line HERE: Live Webcast

ANOTHER LATE FILING!!!  This last minute flurry is indicative of their desperation!  So I guess it’s a good thing, but hey, I’ve got to get ready for the Wind Rulemaking docket that I’ve been trying to get before the Commission for how many years?  Oh well… one thing at a time…

Freeborn Wind’s “Late Filed — Proposed Special Conditions Related to Noise _20189-146486-01

And our response just filed:

AFCL’s Late Filing2_Reply2Freeborn

Oh yeah, we’re going to have fun at the PUC tomorrow.  Watch on line HERE: Live Webcast

And background, yesterday and day before:

AFCL reply to Freeborn Wind’s Motion to Exclude

Freeborn Wind files Motion to Exclude!!

Whew, quick response to Freeborn Wind’s Motion:

Association of Freeborn County Landowners_FINAL Reply

Here’s their Motion:

20189-146448-02_Motion to Exclude Untimely Filing of Frank Kohlasch

From here, it looks like they’re trying to weasel their way into a 1 dBA “wiggle room” to add onto the state’s 50 dBA limit.  Ummmmmm, no!  No way is that supported by the record, and really, there’s already a 3 dBA “margin of error” built in, supposedly, well, so says Freeborn Wind’s expert Hankard!

Here’s the MPCA letter they’re so up in arms about, but wait, it’s nothing new!!!!

Letter 9/11/2018 Frank Kohlasch MPCA_20189-146351-01

Freeborn, you know all about ambient sound noise modeling, we discussed it for how many hours in the hearing?  Good grief…

Here are the MPCA’s noise standards:

NOISE STANDARDS  Minn. R. 7030.0040

Hot off the press — Freeborn Wind files Motion to exclude the letter of MPCA’s Frank Kohlasch regarding noise regulation:

20189-146448-02_Motion to Exclude Untimely Filing of Frank Kohlasch

20189-146448-01 Cover Aff of Service Service List

After the Recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge came out recommending denial of the site permit, they were “alarmed.”  Now what are they?  Read that Motion!!!

Here’s the “Frank Kohlasch letter” they’re so afraid of:

Letter from MPCA’s Frank Kohlasch_20189-146351-01

On Thursday, the Freeborn Wind siting docket (17-410) and transmission docket (17-322) are before the Public Utilities Commission.  The meeting starts at 9:30, and starting not earlier than 10:30 is wind rulemaking, followed by Freeborn Wind siting and transmission.  You can watch it here, and $50 says it’ll have high ratings!

Live Webcast

To check out the dockets, where everything but the hearing transcript is public, go to eDockets and search for docket 17 (year) – 410 for the siting docket.  For the transmission docket, search for 17 (year) 322.  BOTH are up on Thursday.

And before the Freeborn dockets is the much awaited wind rulemaking docket, where I filed a Petition for Rulemaking on behalf of Goodhue Wind Truth.  Here’s the background info from a couple weeks ago:

Today’s Wind Rulemaking Comments

I’ve been working for years to get rulemaking going, love to bang my head against the wall.  But it’s “working within the system” and it’s all we’ve got.  And yes, it is a good way to get the process engineered more favorably to people on the ground!  To view the docket, go to eDockets and search for docket 18 (year) – 518.

Monday I left on a whirlwind trip to California to pick up an old German Shepherd to be our hospice dog for the rest of her life.  She’d been dumped in a high-kill shelter at 12 years old.  That’s pretty much a death sentence and it was surprising that she was still there in a kennel after more than two weeks later.  So I made an impulsive decision, got on the internet and the horn, and arranged to have her pulled from the Lancaster shelter and boarded.

The bad news is that she died yesterday, just a few hours after we’d made it home.  We’re suspecting distemper, the symptoms fit, within hours she was down for the count.  From the beginning, she had neuro issues with apparent field cut when looking at something, leaning and circling,  and it increased, mostly her last day, with head tremors, motor issues as legs gave out, first rear then front legs, loss of appetite, fever, respiratory coughing, labored breathing, really gross nose gunk, and vet was talking about seizures and she may have had petit mal at home, had tremors for sure.  She had 108 temp when we got to the ER vet.  We gave her our best, but she went downhill so fast, and didn’t survive — she died moments after we got in the door at the emergency vet.

Here she is Thursday morning when I picked her up in CA:

And locked and loaded, here we go, heading to Minnesota:

Off we went, back to Minnesota. I HATE LAS VEGAS – construction on I-15 was such a mess:

A quick pit stop in Cedar, UT — easy to find her a cheezeburger, but not easy to find green grass in Cedar, Utah:

When we got further north, this white cloud appeared, I was wondering what on earth had blown up, and it turns out it was the “Poal Creek” fire, and as we went through Provo, I could see the flames and dark brown particulate matter hanging in the air, both of us were coughing and hacking through that, and the air was like that until the Wyoming border, where it was blowing north of our route:

Another surprise was the Echo reservoir, which was almost dry.  Back when I was driving, this was full of BIG boats cruising around, huge marina, a major tourist attraction.  Not any more.

And ready to hit the road again Friday morning in Wyoming — I was thrilled when she barked in the middle of the night, never knew a poop could be so thrilling (she hadn’t pooped yet, WHEW, glad to get that over with.  She appeared to be house/car trained, would bark to go.):

And checking out the depleted reservoir in Avoca, WY:

Here she is just after we got home:

I was so tired, haven’t been a truck driver in a long time and out of practice, and so right after we got in, I took a nap.  Alan made her a bed in the living room (that “Kenya bed” is 1/2 a futon!) and got a rotisserie chicken for her homecoming.  She wouldn’t eat.  When I got up two hours or less later, I came down the stairs and saw her, and it was clear she was dying.  WHAT?!?!  But there was no doubt.  We called the emergency vet and headed in.  She was dead 5 minutes, maybe 10, after we hit the door.  Distemper is suspected, it fits the symptoms she presented, the fastness of her decline, and the vet’s questions about seizures and her ultra-high temp and immediate shutdown and death.

And that’s how I want to remember her, a dear dog with a smile on her face… what a trip we had.  She died knowing she had arrived at home and was loved.  This post I’ll file in “Disasters.”

The MPCA filed a letter a couple days ago that clearly states that when measuring wind noise for permit compliance, AMBIENT NOISE IS TO BE INCLUDED.  They also admitted that this has not been properly interpreted for wind permit siting for past permits.

MPCA Letter from Frank Kohlasch_20189-146351-01

MPCA filed this in the Freeborn Wind docket, PUC docket 17-410, which is on the PUC’s agenda for September 20, 2018.  This will be interesting.