A little holiday gift for my good friends at NSP/Xcel Energy:

The issues I’m concerned about, at this point, are primarily transmission related:

This should be intense, guaranteed, but fun, eh?

PUC Freeborn Mtg 2-6-2020

July 21st, 2020

Here’s the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission “deliberating” and deciding to DENY our Petition for Environmental Assessment Worksheet. What a concept, environmental review of a wind project. It’s never happened in Minnesota, and 2,500+ MW of wind sited, sans wind specific criteria and rules. DOH!! PUC has actual and constructive notice that there are noise problems with wind. Another DOH!

PUC on Freeborn 12-31-2019

July 19th, 2020

Oh, look out, now that I’ve learned how to clip snippets from videos, there’s no stopping me!!

This is the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s deliberation and decision from December 19, 2019, on Xcel/NSP (they never use the name consistently) Application for Amendment of the Freeborn Wind Project site permit:

A Most Bizarre PUC Meeting!

July 17th, 2020

Freeborn Wind was on the Commission’s agenda yesterday:

Note the narrow issue, “What actions should the Commission take regarding the April 21, 2020 Request to Amend the Site Permit with a Special Condition?

Suffice it to say, the meeting went off the rails… You have to listen to this to believe it (this old fart managed to youtube it!). Commissioner John Tuma’s going rogue moment is forever preserved:

The day before, less than 24 hours before the meeting, Commissioner Tuma filed this, and note, it was eFiled, but it was not served, was NOT on the agenda, was not related to the agenda item for this docket, and was only received by subscription, no 10 day notice, and no notice to Oakland and London townships, and parties had NO opportunity to participate in this “discussion” of Tuma’s “Motion” to pre-empt local control (earth to Mars, Minn. Stat. 216E.08, Subd. 2 anyone?):

So, on that note…

… and from Oakland and London townships:

And my comments to “Host” as this was going on, and again, we were shut out:

Listen to the snippet of the meeting, above, OMFD!


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

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

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?