Mesaba spinnin’ it against gravity
April 2nd, 2009
THE MESABA PROJECT IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD! Coal gasification is not happening. IGCC ist zu ende! How many silver stakes through its slimy heart will it take?
Once more with feeling:
This is from Charlotte Neigh, Co-Chair of Citizens Against the Mesaba Project, who, having reviewed the recent spin-doctoring of Excelsior Energy, and their tentacle-reach toward Minnesota Municipal Utilities — they’re trying to make it look like they’ve got something they haven’t got:
It is not correct to say that the federal government would back 73 percent of the total cost, or that the federal government has “pledged” $800 million in loan guarantees, or that municipal utilities would have to raise only 27 percent of the project costs to secure ownership of Unit 1 of the Mesaba Project.
Excelsior Energy has not yet been awarded any loan guarantees. It is one of eleven final applicants to share in a pool of $4 billion. Excelsior admits that its negotiations with DOE will continue throughout 2009. DOE stated in October 2007 that projects relying upon a smaller guarantee percentage will be given greater weight. Despite this statement, Excelsior repeatedly misled the media and even the PUC about the status of the loan guarantees, suggesting that they would cover 80 percent of the project costs.
Apparently Excelsior is now seeking 73 percent but this is a long way from becoming reality. A key requirement for qualifying is to have an assurance of revenues to be generated from sale of the product. This means a long-term commitment from a customer to purchase the energy. This is why the failure to achieve a PPA with Xcel Energy is critical. Other obstacles are DOE requirements for: credit assessment without a loan guarantee; approval of environmental and other permits; reduced greenhouse gases; and relative amount of cash contributed by the principals.
Now Excelsior is trying to entice municipal utilities into purchasing ownership interests by suggesting that 100 percent ownership can be obtained by raising 27 percent of the costs. Municipal utilities should carefully assess the likelihood that this amount or any loan guarantees at all will be awarded for the Mesaba Project before issuing bonds to finance such a purchase.
More information and analysis about the federal loan guarantees can be found by scrolling down to the October 8, 2007 entry on the CAMP website: www.camp-site.info/
Charlotte Neigh, Co-Chair
Citizens Against the Mesaba Project
Here’s an example of the bogus spin, from Business North — note she can’t even get the announcement time-frame right… Excelsior announced Mesaba in December, 2001, that’s EIGHT years ago:
No customer for controversial energy project
Excelsior Energy targets municipal PUCs in search for a buyer as key May 1 deadline looms.
4/1/2009
by Beth BilyAbout six years ago in the wake of the permanent closing of LTV Steel Mining in Hoyt Lakes, momentum began to develop behind a project concept, one since celebrated and renounced.
That proposed Mesaba Energy project with a price estimated at $2 billion has moved through various phases of public review to a potentially new location further west. Along the way it has become one of the most vigorously debated economic development initiatives proposed for Minnesota’s Iron Range.
Meanwhile, an important deadline looms that could make or break the project. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission had ordered talks between Mesaba’s parent, Excelsior Energy, and power giant, Twin Cities-based Xcel Energy. The two sides were directed to negotiate a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the approximate 600 megawatts of electricity Mesaba’s proposed Unit One would produce. That ordered negotiation period ends on May 1 and there is no evidence an agreement will be reached.
Mesaba FEIS now delayed until JUNE!!!!
March 19th, 2009
Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project has been delayed… AGAIN… until June… and when we get closer to June, well, we know what will happen… delay again!
Thanks to Charlotte Neigh and CAMP for keeping on this!
Pawlenty, Bill Glahn, MMPA and Excelsior
January 11th, 2009
Julie Jorgensen says the focus of Excelsior Energy’s sales pitch will now be Municipal Utilities… MMUA is sponsoring Mesaba dog & pony shows to Municipal Utilities… torturously long dog & pony shows about Mesaba… selling Mesaba… pushing Mesaba… arm twisting about Mesaba? WTF??? Well, we all know how much Pawlenty loves the Mesaba Project.
OK folks, let’s connect the dots between Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Bill Glahn, Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project… and how does Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association fit in (could Kadermas be back there? Naaaaaaah…)???
We all know about Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the Green Chameleon:
Governor Pawlenty announces Bill Glahn as Director of Minnesota Office of Energy Security.
… nevermind, that’s a different “Bill Glahn” (ain’t google fun?)
We know the Minnesota Office of Energy Security, MOES, the part of Commerce that’s now charged with doing Power Plant (and xmsn) siting (Press Release – Gov. Pawlenty Announces Energy Initiatives, Jan. 17, 2008):
Prior to MOES, Bill Glahn was, according to the press release above, at Minnesota Municipal Power Agency.
And that means he was also Dahlen Berg: CLICK HERE FOR BILL GLAHN CV
From Dahlen, Berg’s site, here’s their explanation of their relation to MMPA:
Toadies all. It’s like Minnesota Rural Electric Association’s connection with CapX 2020 and GRE…
So Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association is doing dog & pony shows trying to sell Mesaba. HOW STUPID DO THEY THINK MUNICIPAL UTILITIES ARE? They can read the Mesaba Project ALJ’s decision, they can understand the meaning of TOO RISKY, they can understand the meaning of COSTS WAY TOO MUCH, they can understand the meaning of NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. The Mesaba Project is a real DUH! IT’S TOO ABSURD TO EVEN CONSIDER!
And knowing that Green Chameleon Tim Pawlenty is a toadie for Excelsior Energy and Excelsior’s Mesaba Project, knowing the extent to which he’ll promote this stupider than words can convey project, does anyone know why? What’s in it for him? What do they have on him? Why would he risk credibility and reputation supporting this utter bullshit project? What’s the rest of the story here?
Mesaba Project’s “procedural reconsideration”
November 25th, 2008
So what the hell is a “procedural reconsideration?” Today the PUC had the never-ending (until May 1, 2009) saga of Excelsior Energy’s Mesaba Project. The issue? Yet another Motion to Reconsider from Excelsior Energy, they don’t want to take NO for an answer.
The PUC staff recommended reaching the hand toward the life-support plug, but not yanking it with a final decision:
Staff acknowledges the comments of Minnesota Power requesting the clarification of whether the Commission’s approval or denial of Excelsior’s petition for reconsideration at this time constitutes a final decision for purposes of appellate review. In the alternative, the Commission will not enter a final decision until May 1, 2009, the deadline for negotiations. As such, Staff believes that the most judicially efficient course would be for the Commission to grant the petition for reconsideration for procedural reasons and hold further consideration in abeyance until after May 1, 2009.
Briefing papers, p. 13. And so they voted unanimously for alternative 1:
Grant the petition for reconsideration and rehearing for procedural reasons and hold further consideration in abeyance until after May 1, 2009.
For the whole Excelsior Energy saga, GO HERE and search for Docket 05-1993. And if that’s not enough, search also for 06-668!
So we’re still holding… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Mesaba EIS Public Meeting Tuesday
August 20th, 2006
Excelsior now has radio ads on a station in Duluth! The lengths they’ll go to to promote this thing…
Important meeting coming up:
MINNESOTA DEPT. OF COMMERCE PUBLIC MEETINGS ON
MESABA COAL PLANT ENERGY PROJECT
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Taconite Community Center
26 Haynes Street
Taconite, Minnesota
Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Hoyt Lakes Arena
102 Kennedy Memorial Drive
Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota
DOC will conduct two public scoping meetings in which agencies, organizations, and the general public is invited to present oral comments or suggestions with regard to the range of alternatives and environmental issues to be considered in the EIS.
Here’s the DoC Comment Notice.
Here’s a Comment form you can use:Â Â eis_comment_form.doc
Comments are due by August 30. Email (click here) or send to:
Bill Storm
Dept. of Commerce
85 – 7th Place E., Suite 500
St. Paul, MNÂ 55101-2198
August 30 is not that far away! Get your comments in today!
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And fresh editorials from the Grand Rapids Herald Review:
 Project will affect people’s health
Editor:
There are times when sacrifices made to promote economic development may be appropriate. However, I am troubled by the massive sacrifices that our elected officials are supporting for the handful of permanent jobs proposed by the Mesaba Energy project. In addition to around 100 permanent jobs (a reduction by 900 since the original proposal) there are other â??developmentsâ? Excelsior Energyâ??s IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) plants will bring if built.
Canisteo Lake will be closed for recreational use and a massive pumping station will operate on the lake to serve the plant. One hundred-forty foot transmission towers will impede on private and public land, forcing landowners off in a controversial use of eminent domain. People will become sick as documented in Excelsiorâ??s own literature. Miles and miles of coal trains will travel through Grand Rapids each week. Snowmobile trails will close or reroute to make room for the plant footprint. One thousand two hundred acres of hunting land will now be off-limits. Carbon dioxide will be pumped into the air, contributing to global warming, along with tons of sulfur dioxide, pounds of mercury, and other particulates that cause asthma and other respiratory problems. Children will be exposed to unsafe levels of electro magnetic fields, putting them at greater risk for childhood leukemia. Groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water to nearby communities are at risk for contamination when Canisteo Lake becomes polluted. Millions upon millions of dollars will be bonded by the county, placing us at financial risk and possibly increasing our property taxes. How will schools, health care facilities, and housing developers deal with the glut and then absence of hundreds of imported construction workers? Hire then fire? Build then abandon?
Our health is our wealth. Development that endangers our personal, environmental, and financial health to this extent is too big a sacrifice for us to take on. We should demand better! The carbon dioxide can be captured in IGCC technology but not in this location. More mercury can be captured than what Excelsior is proposing. Technology exists to prevent water pollution. Local dollars do not have to be used to build infrastructure. My hope is that we can promote economic development in a way that achieves balance and addresses the reality of the future.
Kristen K. Anderson
Bovey
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Editor:
As I read the information provided in the Environmental Supplement for Excelsior Energy’s proposed coal gasification plant I became very angry. How is it that a power plant with a potential to contaminate our wells and the air we breathe could even be considered for this area when no one has demonstrated the need for the electricity and the power would be sent down to the Cities and beyond anyway. Where are the people that were given the responsibility of protecting our health?
If this plant is built in this beautiful area I will have lost all faith in the system, the checks and balance that were designed to protect our quality of life. We should look at the future results of this and keep in mind that this will effect us a lot more then what they are showing or telling us.
Pam Perry
BoveyÂ