Legalectric

Seen on I-35 last night, right across from Cabelas

Last week, I saw the above sign on I-35 across from Cabelas.  Today, Sunday, I saw another, just north of the Clarks Grove/251 exit, between the 19 and 20 mile markers.  I’d guess with these two, there’d also be ones along I-90.  There’s another one on Main in Albert Lea, near the lake; and another eastbound on I-90 near Hwy. 46 exit by Austin.  Anyone see other billboards?

Where is Center of the American Experiment getting the money for this disinformation campaign?  You may ask why I say “disinformation campaign.”  Read on…

Check this out, the “report” they keep recycling:

Energy Policy in Minnesota: The High Cost of Failure

Legalectric post from October:

Center of the American Experiment — Conflatulence!

Adding Power Purchase Agreement cost AND overnight cost (cost of developing and constructing) will of course be higher — you can’t have it both ways — pick one or the other!

Who benefits by CAE making arguments that don’t hold up to 30 seconds of research?  CAE does of course, they’re filling their coffers.  But they’re just on this because the funders want this result. The funders?  I don’t presume that it’s as simple an answer as “The Koch Bros.”  The false claims they use tells me it’s more nuanced, because they’re setting people up.  Those who are sucked in to these arguments, who buy into these false claims, will be shot down by regulators and legislators who know the truth of what goes into rates, and who understand that CO2 reduction only happens by reducing burning, DOH! (not by increasing wind, increasing wind only changes the percentages).  They’re sabotaging legitimate issues with wind siting, and they’re ignoring the groundbreaking recent demonstrations that wind projects DO violate the noise related permit conditions and Minnesota’s noise rule (Minn. Ch. 7030).  They’re ignoring that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission HAS ordered the violators to take action (too late, not enough, but a start).  When there are legitimate issues, why would they ignore them and go for fake news?  Why release the bogus CAE report a month after the Bent Tree Phase I report comes out?  Hmmmmmmmm…

REAL NEWS:

Bent Tree_Noise Monitoring Phase I_20179-135856-01

Bent Tree Post-Construction Noise Monitoring Report Phase II Report

Big Blue – PUC Letter to Show Cause

Big Blue 20183-140861-01_Commission Order

REAL NEWS: Freeborn Wind project is first ever wind siting contested case!  For info, go HERE and search for docket “17” (year) “410” (docket number).  Good reading!

These Minnesota Public Utilities Commission actions should be well known to CAE if they’re going to be doing a campaign like this.  CAE should be spreading this info far and wide… but noooooo….

An example — the day before yesterday at the legislature, there they are touting this report again:

American Experiment Testifies in Front of MN House of Representatives Committee on Job Growth and Energy Affordability Policy on Wind Energy

Soooo, who benefits?  Who benefits from CAE’s big PR push?  Who benefits from uninformed people jumping on the CAE bandwagon, only to lose their credibility by spewing these CAE bogus arguments?  I think this is a very well crafted disinformation campaign.  Who is paying for it?  Usually the Wizard is Xcel Energy, manipulating behind the scenes, spreading money far and wide to whoever will take it.  Here?  We shall see…  And is any of this related to Senate File 3504/House File 3708 (they are identical) introduced on March 15th and 12th 2018??  Circumventing the PUC to get instant rate recovery for rehab of Prairie Island nuclear plant?  We know how Monticello came in at twice the cost.  How would that go here?  PUC review of that might hamper Xcel.  Can’t have that, can we… and we know CAE loves nuclear.

MNGreenEnergyFails.com

Registrant Contact

Name: Peter Zeller

Organization: Center of the American Experiment

Street: 8421 Wayzata Blvd., Ste. 110

City: Golden Valley

State: MN

Postal Code: 55426

Country: US

Phone: +1.6123383605

The Terrible Mini-Trump of Minnesota — and the Progressive Who’s Running Against Him

This is an odd article.  Lewis is indeed terrible, and doesn’t even live in the district (not a requirement for Congress — that needs to be changed), and Angie Craig is a “progressive” NOT!  They’re both wealthy corporate toadies, with Craig’s flavor distinctly DFL and edging a bit left, but more in the middle, and not nearly far enough to be labeled “progressive” nor to offset the extreme reactionary Republican politics of Lewis.

But what’s most odd about this is the articles’ digging into the politics of oil in Minnesota, of pipelines, and of environmental groups doing the deals that benefit the Koch Bros.  It’s good to see this receive some scrutiny.  From the article:

Environmental issues are big in Minnesota, and one of the biggest polluters in the state is located in the district: the Pine Bend refinery, south of St. Paul, owned by the Koch brothers.

NOTE: PINE BEND/KOCH REFINERY IS LOCATED IN THE 2nd CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.

The article then starts in on the EPA and the Clean Water Rule, contested by Republicans, and we know well of Republican efforts to eliminate the EPA.  But it also correctly reports that “our” Sen. Amy Klobuchar vote with Republicans against the Clean Water Rule, and only after pressure changed her vote the next time it came up.  There’s nothing green about Sen. Amy Klobuchar!

As for the refinery, here’s how they work, buying out local governments and “environmental” groups — from the article:

The refinery became notorious in the 1990s for toxic pollution, especially of the water. Flint Hills Resources, the Koch brothers’ company that runs the refinery, paid millions of dollars in environmental fines in the 1990s and 2000s. At the same time it launched a major greenwashing effort, which continues today: help for Minnesota ducks, support for Minnesota Public Radio, funding a children’s theater festival in St. Paul. An example of the Koch spin: As part of a 2013 plan to expand the refinery, the company announced that it had signed an agreement with two environmental groups to “cut greenhouse gas emissions at the refinery by about 52,000 metric tons per year.” Cutting emissions—what could be better? Except that the “cut” is “about a fifth of the total expected increase from the project.” That means the net increase in greenhouse-gas emissions will be 260,000 metric tons—into the air south of the Twin Cities—every year.

“… pollution… especially of the water.”  ???  Here’s the deal referenced above, one that anyone challenging pipelines, refineries, water pollution, and air emissions, should be aware of, a deal between “Flint Hills Refinery,” Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) (can you believe that name?!?!) where the “environmental” orgs backed off on their air emissions permit challenge:

FHR Pine Bend Settlement Agreement- FINAL SIGNED

This deal was found online, on the EIP website, and then was removed from the page but the link remains (Here’s the link to EIP posting — download HERE NOW before it disappears).  I’d posted this back in 2013:

MCEA deal with the Koch Bros?

A cool $1 million went into a fund to “reduce PM 2.5” through a diesel program, that’s the part that was made public.  Is there other money passed out for this agreement?  And there’s this:

And this:

And this:

And most importantly, the Confidentiality clause!

Were there other deals?  This one was to be kept “confidential.”  (Again, the link to EIP posting — download HERE NOW before it disappears)  From my years of work and association with United Citizens Action Network (U-CAN) against the CapX 2020 transmission project, and knowledge of their isolation in fighting the MinnCan pipeline, which went from the Bakken oil fields to the Pine Bend/Koch refinery, that NO “environmental” groups intervened against that pipeline, and that only MPIRG tried to help U-CAN, it’s hard to believe that there was not a deal of some sort.  The silence was deafening.

To look up the MinnCan pipeline docket, go HERE and search for dockets 05-2003 for the Route Permit and 06-02 for the Certificate of Need (Note the pipeline company is sometimes “Minnesota Pipeline Company” and “Koch Pipeline Company.”).  Note the lack of an Environmental Impact Statement, the due process issues, and NO intervenors in the Certificate of Need, and none of the “environmental” orgs in Minnesota intervened in routing either… what a mess that was.

Do tell — what are the positions of Jason Lewis and Angie Craig on the air and water pollution from the refinery in CD2?  Where are the Minnesota “environmental” organizations on the air and water pollution from the refinery and the Bakken BOOM! oil trains in CD2?

Photo fair use from the Star Tribune

Here we go again.  Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) and… get this… the Environmental Integrity Project, have teamed up to do a deal with Flint Hills Resources, owned by Koch Industries, our great and good fiends, the Koch Bros.

Why is Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington D.C. entity, even involved in this?

Here’s the deal — download HERE it NOW before it disappears (they took it off the page, but the link still works) — here’s the captured Agreement:

FHRPineBendSettlementAgreementFINALSIGNED

Both are bragging about it in press releases:

EIP-MCEAPressRelease4-16-2013

Here are the parts of the above agreement that are a problem — they have agreed to not object to this project, and they have agreed to SUPPORT the project — does this sound like CapX 2020 all over again?  They have also agreed not to assist others in any way, and to keep these requirements confidential!  It’s enough to make me wonder if there are, as there have been in other deals, other agreements.  Well, here are the specific parts that are so offensive and which are deemed confidential (click each piece for larger view):

The confidentiality provisions are disturbing — that they’re not to disclose the fact that they’re making their supportive comments as a material term of this agreement, and not to disclose these terms to anyone, “including but not limited to local, state or federal governing or regulatory bodies and agencies, and members of the public.”  GOOD GRIEF!

Thanks to the STrib for getting this out in the open: