An hour in utility futility! The Power Plant Siting Act annual hearing is over. Comment period? Here’s how:

The most important thing I see is that as of this legislative session, THE POWER PLANT SITING ACT NO LONGER EXISTS! Minn. Stat. Ch. 216E was the Power Plant Siting Act:

But now? It’s all been repealed and renumbered, and RENAMED under a different chapter:

And permitting statutes were repealed, amended, and then renumbered and sent over to a new “Chapter 216I.” Click that link to check it out.

What does it mean for siting and permitting if the Power Plant Siting Act is repealed? Kinda don’t want to think about it.

Today were two Prehearing Conferences regarding my Gary Iocco – Gary Iocco for Red Wing Mayor Complaint #2 and Gary Iocco – Gary Iocco for Red Wing Mayor Complaint #3. Complaint #2 is a continuation of #1, which was about the big sign on the roof along Hwy, 61 in Red Wing. Complaint #1 against Iocco was dismissed without prejudice, and he’s yet to be held accountable:

Gary Iocco – Gary Iocco for Red Wing Mayor – Complaint #2

Complaint #3 is about, after having it quickly taken down, put back up on a truck-trailer at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Red Wing!

Gary Iocco – Gary Iocco for Red Wing Mayor – Complaint #3

The hearings today were both Prehearing Conferences — color me confused, I thought they were to be Probable Cause hearings, but hey, I got the phone conference codes RIGHT!!!

The schedule is pretty simple, same for both:

• Discovery Deadline – Friday, January 31
• Subpoena Deadline – Monday, February 10
• Filing Witness & Exhibit List, and Exhibits February 17
• EVIDENTIARY HEARING
  • 10:00 am Monday, February 24 #2
  • 1:30 pm Monday, February 24 #3

I got the initial Discovery out just now for Complaint #2 – pages 3 & 4 is the fun stuff:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

The Power Plant Siting Act annual hearing, a la Minn. Stat. 216I.15, is the time to let the Public Utilities Commission know what works and what does not work in the Commission’s siting of power plants, transmission, wind, solar, and even pipelines!

Here’s the problem — all they have to do per the statute is “advise the public of the permits issued by the commission in the past year.” What happens after that, well, it goes to the PUC but that’s about it. It is a good time to vent, and get on the record all the horrible things that have happened over the year, and the historical trends, such as elimination of the Advisory Task Force.

Here’s the decades old law providing for Advisory Task Forces:

And this session, after the Public Utilities Commission and their OAH ALJs were denying, denying, denying after so many Advisory Task Force Petitions over so many years — simply repealed, eliminated:

It’s GONE! And eliminating the reference of Task Forces as an aspect of public participation:

Ja, we “Public Participants” get the PUC’s message loud and clear:

Public participation via the Public Utilities Commission? Remember the Report of the Office of the Legislative Auditor?

Public Utilities Commission’s Public Participation Processes – OLA-Report

Fat lot of good that did. Instead of improving public participation, we hear the Commission Chair saying, “What can we do to make this faster for you?” and “What can we do to speed this permitting up?” and that whole “streamlining” effort, which is really STEAMROLLING. Fast tracking permitting, denial of interventions, failure to have project proponents witnesses at hearings for questioning…

PUC Strategic Plan

Here are the reports from the last 20 years — often they hold it on my birthday, but not this year. You can see that year after year, it’s the same issues:

2000 Summary of Proceedings

2000 Report EQB

2001 Summary of Proceedings

2001 Report EQB

2002 Summary of Proceedings

2002 Report to EQB

2003 Summary of Proceedings

2003 Report to EQB

2004 Summary of Proceedings

2004 Report to EQB

2005 Report to PUC

2006 Report to PUC – Docket 06-1733

2007 Report to PUC – Docket 07-1579

2008 Report to PUC – Docket 08-1426

2009 Report to PUC – Docket 09-1351

2010 Report to PUC – Docket 10-222

2011 Report to PUC – Docket 11-324

2012 Report to PUC – Docket 12-360

2013 Report to PUC – Docket 13-965

2014 Summary Report– Docket 14-887

2015 Summary Report – Docket 15-785

2016 Summary Report – Docket 16-18

2017 Summary Report – Docket 17-18

2018 Summary Report – Docket 18-18

2019 Summary Report_Docket 19-18

Summary Report – Docket 20-18

2021 Summary Report – Docket 21-18

2022-Summary-Report_Docket 22-18

And last year’s Report from the 2023 hearing, held on December 20, 2023:

There’s a trend… And here we go, on Tuesday, another year of banging heads against the wall.

It’s no work of art, but in the scenario this proceeding is in, with Prairie Island Indian Community and City of Red Wing deep in it with or working on agreements with Xcel Energy, there’s not much we can do, little impact, as they’re the players, and also, AAAAACK, I just didn’t have time.

The DEIS did grossly misrepresent the history and status of Xcel’s Utility Personal Property Tax payments to local governments, so I did include the City of Red Wing comment in the IRP (below page 13, Attachment A).

The main purpose of this is to push for reworking of the “low-dose” radiation exposure modeling using Aaron Datesman’s cutting edge Three Mile Island “shot noise” work to correct for the GIGO current modeling and more accurately characterize the risk.

Sooooooo, anyway, here’s what I filed:

UPDATE: Tsunami warning canceled for San Francisco Bay, Northern California coast

So much for that!

Northern California tsunami warning issued after 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits

Here’s the USGS map from that article:

And this tsunami WARNING — what could go wrong?

Right on the ocean:

Well, there is a jetty there, but…