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Carol A. Overland, Overland Law Office — Utility Regulatory and Land Use Advocacy

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Due TODAY — Comments on HERC

September 11th, 2017

Get to it, folks.  Comments are due TODAY! Here’s mine, and Alan’s, just filed:

Overland Legalectric Comment_HERC-Xcel 17-532

Muller Comments_20179-135413-01

in eDockets, go here to register, it’s quick, it’s easy, and you can post on Public Utilities Commission’s eDockets system.

Notice_20179-135289-01-1

On what? Xcel Energy’s latest plan (part of) to terminate and/or amend outrageously high priced Power Purchase Agreements on incinerators across Minnesota.

Comment period on HERC PPA Amendment

Just filed — hot off the press:

Commerce DER_20179-135384-01

Hennepin County_20179-135389-01

Xcel Energy_20179-135379-01

And check what Commerce DER is at long last admitting, that there’s a generation surplus and transmission is for export:

Not only is there no need, BUT THERE IS NO NEED FOR MINNESOTANS TO PAY FOR MORE TRANSMISSION! But that’s an argument for another day, another docket…

Here’s another snippet:

And check this conclusion reached by MN’s Dept of Commerce – DER in its first round of comments — that Xcel is double dipping:

Here are the DER Comments:

CommerceDER_20178-134456-02

And Comments of Hennepin County:

Hennepin County_20178-134679-01

So far, not even ONE other comment!?!?!
The fundamental problem I have with this is that Xcel Energy and “Hennepin Energy Resource Company” privately reach an agreement that works for them, but screws the public and enables operation of an incinerator that is a money-sucking polluting drain. Listen for that sucking sound…
Now would be a good time to shut it down.
The HERC Burner has been a problem for a long time… and their plan to increase garbage-burning capacity went south.

Burn 200 Tons More Garbage at the HERC Incinerator?

Here’s the Neighbors Against the Burner HERC archive.

From Hennepin County:

Hennepin Energy Recovery Center | Hennepin County

From Politico:

Minneapolis Gets Trashed

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Energy, Incineration, Land Use, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?), Power Plants - includes Mesaba coal gasification
No Comments »

Comment period on HERC PPA Amendment

August 22nd, 2017

That’s the HERC garbage burner, known to some as the “Hennepin Energy Recovery Center.” It’s right next to the new baseball field, so I made a “HERC Hanky” as schnozz cover in the stands.

Xcel now wants to revise the HERC Power Purchase Agreement and lower the price it pays HERC for electricity.

HERC+PPA+Petition+PUBLIC

Hmmmmm, changing the rules in the middle of the game. Burning garbage has never been an economically winning proposition. Cut the rate?  What will that mean for Hennepin County?  As of a few minutes ago, the Public Utilities Commission announced a comment period on this change:

17-532+NOTICE+OF+COMMENT+PERIOD+HERC+PPA

Comments?  About what?

Initial Comments are due by 4:30 p.m. on September 11, 2017.  eFiling is preferred.  To eFile comments, go HERE TO REGISTER.  It’s simple and fast.  When you file, file under docket number 17 – 532 (that’s 17 for “year” and 532 for “docket number”)

Note the Commission asks, “Are there other project-related issues or concerns?”  Well, what’s wrong with HERC and burning?  For a long time this has been an issue for Neighbors Organizing for Change, Neighbors Against the Burner, Minneapolis Neighbors for Clean Air (wayback version), and the Sierra Club and the push to increase tonnage burned was successfully brought to a screeching halt by these groups and the folks of Minneapolis!   You can find some general information at Alan Muller’s site.  Alan reports that the HERC air permit expired something like 8 years ago, not uncommon.  Most Minnesota air permits are expired and the MPCA isn’t doing much about it.

Some specifics on the tonnage burning increase request that was foiled:

Muller – Comment – Spreadsheet of Pollutants

Comment-Eureka Recycling, Institute for Local Self Reliance, Linden Hills Power & Light, Women’s Environmental Initiative, Will Steger Foundation

Remember this?  “The Burning Question” way back in 2013? Let’s get real, burning garbage isn’t a question!!!

Tuesday 9/17 – Dr. Paul Connett at Mayflower Church

Who is paying attention to this now?

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Incineration, Land Use, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?)
No Comments »

Xcel files a handful of PPA termination & reduction Petitions

July 1st, 2017

What do the Benson turkey shit burning plant, the HERC garbage burner, and a couple other plants have in common?  The have Power Purchase Agreements that Xcel wants to get out of or modify in its favor.  Funny how that works.  These things were bad from the get to, make no economic sense except to those selling what little power is generated.  Now, it appears that Xcel Energy (and therefore us, Xcel’s customers), is tired of being screwed and are not going to take it anymore!

What’s Xcel Energy’s view of these Petitions?  To save money, of course, and it looks to be about $53.1 million annually.

These Petitions were filed just now by Xcel Energy:

17-xxxx+Initial+Filing+Benson+063017+NSP+PUBLIC

With a $20 million kicker to the City of Benson, here’s what Xcel Energy plans to do, including demolition of the plant:

Next up?  The Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) garbage burner:

HERC+PPA+Petition+PUBLIC

The plan for HERC?  Cut the PPA amount, by how much, we don’t know, it’s all “PROTECTED DATA” and top secret:

What does that mean for Hennepin County?  The HERC garbage burner has never been a money maker, and has always been a money loser.  So now what?  Does it make any sense to keep it open, or is it time to shut it down?  Allow me to rephrase… is there any reason to keep it open?  Seems like this is a convenient time to close it.  Neighbors Against The Burner, are you listening?

Next up?  Pine Bend, another “waste-to-energy” garbage burner, and another PPA that Xcel Energy wants to terminate:

Pine+Bend+PPA+Petition+PUBLIC

And about the Sherco site and moving part of Northern Metals operation to the Sherco site, and that’s not all they want to do:

17-xxxx+Sherco+Land+Sale+Petition+NSP+063017

The point of this Sherco Petition?

And last but not least, a sale of assets to Flint Hills:

17-xxxx+Inver+Hills+Asset+Sale+Petition+063017

 

 

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Energy, Incineration, Legislative & Policy, Political Sense (non?), Power Plants - includes Mesaba coal gasification
No Comments »

Red Wing Incinerator is BURNING!!!

June 7th, 2017

So I see this notice, and run downstairs, “Alan, we’ve got to move!” and we hustled over to the “Solid Waste Campus,” and at the Bench Street intersection, waiting for the light, a fire truck comes roaring up, I quick take a left and scoot over to the right to let them through, it’s Lake City.  Yeah, this must be some “active emergency fire situation.”  And sure enough, I pulled over, got out, and got a few shots until I was shooed away.  This is what we first saw, just as the sun was setting, about 9:15 p.m.:

KTTC from Rochester was there too, and here’s their report:

Fire breaks out in Red Wing incinerator

Posted: Jun 07, 2017 9:47 PM CST

RED WING, Minn. (KTTC) – A four alarm fire breaks out in Red Wing Tuesday evening, damaging an incinerator.

Sixty-five firefighters have been battling the blaze since around 7:45 p.m., and called in extra assistance from around the region.

The fire is at the site of the Solid Waste facility at 1873 Bench Street in Red Wing.

Authorities request that residents stay away from the scene, as it is still considered an active blaze.

The facility takes burnable waste from Red Wing and surrounding communities in Goodhue and Wabasha counties.

Police say there was no one inside at the time of the fire.

The city also states that refuse and recycling will be picked up at normal times in the area for Thursday, June 8th.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

And on WCCO:

Crews Battle Major Fire At Red Wing Solid Waste Facility

I think it was still burning when we got there, for sure it was smoking intensely.  There was smoke coming out of the roof on the east side, and they sawed at least two holes in the roof in the middle of the north side, and they opened up the big “incoming” door for offloading trucks and were dragging metal out with a front end loader, and then spraying inside, digging, spraying, digging.  and given that the inside was massive piles of garbage, it’ll likely take a long time to burn out or be put out.  The building has got to be a total loss, the new garbage grinder too, no word, but I’m betting.  Rick Moskwa looked pretty grim tonight as he headed from the site around the tanning factory building to the parking lot.

The incinerator was shut down a couple years ago now, and the old garbage grinder… BURNED… so they got a brand new fancy schmancy one using Minnesota’s Renewable Development Fund to buy it, and the grind up the garbage and ship it down a couple miles to the other side of Red Wing to burn it in the Xcel Energy garbage burner.  Now look at this mess… their brand new grinder has got to be damaged, if not destroyed.

The incinerator burns… AGAIN… right, maybe this will get the message through, no garbage burning in Red Wing.  ZERO WASTE!  We need to take steps toward this now and make it happen.

And from Red Wing Fire Department ~ 10 a.m. 6/8/2017:

Red Wing Fire Department

2 hrs ·

For Immediate Release
Thursday, June 08, 2017
Contact: Shannon Draper, Chief
Red Wing Fire Department
651.388.7141

Incident Date: June 7, 2017
Incident Time: 19:49 (7:49pm)
Incident Address: 1873 Bench Street, Red Wing, MN 55066
Alarm level: 4 Alarms
Resources on scene: 8 Engines, 3 Ladders, 2 Tenders, 5 Ambulances, 1 Battalion Chief and 3 Chief Officers. Total of 70 Firefighters on scene

Red Wing fire department received a call of smoke coming from the Red Wing city waste campus building. Units arrived on scene confirming a working fire and upgraded the fire call to a 1st alarm. Upon entering, the building crews encounter heavy fire condition in the tipping room area. Due to the amount of material and equipment in the building, the fire quickly grew and eventually involved 40% of the 36,000sqft building.

Fire was declared under control at 22:30 (10:30pm). Crews remained on scene working to overhaul the large building, looking for hot spots and putting out small fires until 01:10 (1:10am).

The building sustained major damage and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Red Wing Fire Department wants to thank our mutual aid departments for assisting during this emergency.
• Ellsworth Fire
• Cannon Falls Fire
• Zumbrota Ambulance
• Lake City Fire
• Goodhue Fire
• Red Wing Police Department.

The mission of the Red Wing Fire Department is to enhance the safety and security of the community by providing cost effective protection of life and property, through fire prevention, public education, fire suppression and emergency medical care.

###

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Disasters, Incineration
No Comments »

MPCA’s THREE Red Wing Ash releases today

December 5th, 2016

soundstudy

OK, time to get to it.  There were THREE releases from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency today related to the Red Wing/Xcel Energy/Lab USA ash mining project.  THREE!

The ash mining project’s EAW:

Lab USA’s Ash Processing Facility – EAW (p-ear2-119a)

Public notice period: 12-5-16 to 1-4-17; Project manager: Kevin Kain

And two solid waste draft permits, first NSP’s ash landfill:

INTENT TO MODIFY AND REISSUE AN EXISTING SOLID WASTE FACILITY PERMIT TO NSP- RED WING ASH DISPOSAL FACILITY, RED WING

  • PDF icon Public Notice – SW-307 – 2016.pdf
  • PDF icon Draft Permit – SW-307 – 2016.pdf

Open for public comment through Thursday, January 5, 2017

And one for Lab USA (modify and reissue?  Hmmmm…):

Intent to Modify and Reissue an Existing Solid Waste Facility Permit to Lab USA’s Ash Processing Facility – Red Wing

  • PDF icon Public Notice LabUSA 2016.pdf
  • PDF icon Draft Permit Lab USA 2016.pdf

Open for public comment through Thursday, January 5, 2017

There’s a meeting at the Red Wing library on Wednesday, from 5-7 p.m. about the Lab USA EAW, but what about the permits?

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Land Use
No Comments »
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