Minn. R. ch 7849 & 7850 Rulemaking? DEAD!
March 1st, 2022
Over nine years, and how many of those years going to St. Paul for meetings, how many hours of editing and commenting, of group meetings to go over changes, proposed suggestions, meaningful public participation…
Well, here’s the Minnesota Public FUtilities Commission in action:
RULES! PUC’s 7849 & 7850
October 12th, 2021
Can it be?!?! The rulemaking based on the 2005 statutory changes was published in the state register today. TODAY… 2005… SIXTEEN YEARS, and NINE YEARS since this 12-1246 docket was opened. Comments are due by November 17, more on that below.
The Public Utilities Commission did one hell of a job delaying until BILLIONS of CapX 2020, a/k/a CapX 2050 and Grid North Partners and MTEP MVP projects were rammed through. Public interest anyone? Naaaaaaah…
Here it is — First the Notice (60 page service list!), then Statement of Need and Reasonableness (SONAR) and then the proposed rules (yeah, 120+ pages):
Comments are due November 17th:
Here’s the catch — they are planning on putting these through without a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, UNLESS there are at least 25 requests for a hearing — I think that can be arranged. Here are the details, note that they must be “valid” requests, which means explain in short what you want differently in the rules:
ONWARD! SIXTEEN YEARS… UNREAL!
Reply Comments on Minn. R. Ch. 7849 & 7850
June 1st, 2017
At long last, the final round of Comments on the 5+ year long rulemaking have been filed. A five year long process to enact the changes consistent with legislation passed in 2005, 12 years ago. WHAT!?!?! Yes, that’s how long it’s taken. These are rules based on the Minnesota statutes for Certificate of Need (Minn. Stat. 216B.243) and the “Power Plant Siting Act” (Minn. Stat. Ch. 216E), which is transmission routing and power plant siting.
Here are the Reply Comments, and note there are very few:
Public Intervenors – No CapX 2020, U-CAN, North Route Group & Goodhue Wind Truth – FINAL_May 31 2017
McNamasra GWT Reply_20175-132415-01
Commerce EERA Reply_20175-132345-01
ITC Midwest_Reply_20175-132421-02
Next step — on the agenda at a future Public Utilities Commission meeting, where they’ll discuss changes, hopefully we’ll have oral argument of the parties and comments from the public, and then the rules are formally released to the public for public comment, a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, and then back to the Commission for approval. Probably it will be August… given the public comment period and hearing, this will be at least a SIX YEAR PROCESS!
Rulemaking Initial Comments – Minn. R. Ch. 7849 and 7850
May 12th, 2017
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission rulemaking for Minn. R. Ch. 7849, Certificate of Need, and 7850, Routing and Siting, is slowly moving forward. Here are the final drafts up for review before they go to the Commission for a rubber stamp and release for general comment:
Final initial comments on drafts were due on Monday and here they are, in alphabetical order:
20175-131687-01_Goodhue Wind Truth – Marie McNamara
20175-131650-01-1_Great River Energy
20175-131683_ITC Comments and Attachments
20175-131686-01_NoCapX – U-CAN – NRG & GWT
Reply comments are due by 4:30 p.m. on May 31, 2017. eFiling is preferred! If you need to register to eFile, GO HERE! It’s easy, quick, and makes filing a breeze. Get to work — there’s a lot here to comment on!
March 9 – PUC rulemaking Ch. 7849 & 7850
February 24th, 2017
Yes, it’s been a long march. We’ve been slogging through for years — this Public Utilities Commission rulemaking began in 2012. We’ve been going to these PUC sponsored Advisory Group meetings, holding our own small group and public meetings about these rules, reviewing and commenting, and by we, I’ve been joined by Suzanne Rohlfing, of North Route Group (CapX 2020 intervenor group in Hampton-La Crosse docket) and Marie McNamara, of Goodhue Wind Truth (intervenor group in Goodhue Wind/AWA docket) who have hung in there all these years. So early next month, we’re going before the Commission with the draft rules. Four plus years! It’s about time!
We sorely needed rulemaking, there were major statutory changes in 2005 (2005 Session Laws Ch 97 – Transmission Omnibus Bill from Hell), and substantial holes in the process, which all came out in the CapX 2020 Certificate of Need and Routing dockets (CapX 2020 is why the 2005 statutory changes were rammed through, to facilitate Xcel’s transmission dream). I’ve filed a few Petitions for Rulemaking to push these forward, the one below was 2011!
And we’ve been working on rules for Minn. Ch. 7849 and 7850 for over four years now. The docket was opened and first Comments solicited in December 2012. Finally, this Notice yesterday, that the drafts that will go to the Commission:
And notice of the Commission meeting issued today!
To look at the docket, go to the PUC SEARCH PAGE and search for docket 12-1246. I’ve posted links to the drafts on this docket. It’s important that the public be able to review what’s gone on over the last four years!
And after this, wind rules, Minn. Rules Ch. 7854, are next! Yes, PUC, we will hold you to this!