TODAY! 6 p.m. – Dry Cask SEIS Mgt
February 16th, 2022
In-person meeting tonight — MASK UP!
READ THE DRAFT SUPPLEMENTAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT AND REGISTER YOUR THOUGHTS!
Xcel still has not disclosed what cask they plan to use. They also have said they don’t need a NRC license amendment, but the Xcel testimony in the rate case says otherwise. See p. 56-58:
Be there, or be square!
Red Wing City Council Workshop
January 27th, 2018
Today the Red Wing City Council started its Day 2 of the Council Workshop, and it was worth going to, but too early o’clock. Getting the last Icelandic Almond Roll was some consolation!
Here is what was part of yesterday’s discussion… really…
What’s that? It’s a shield, under the bench, one for each of the City Council members and staff , to pull out in case of terrorist attack.
Oh well, they already did it, and this was mostly a report on what had been done. Rumor has it that these were about $8,000 each, or $50K+ total… Oh my…
Onward… today first was a discussion of painting on Barn Bluff. I rather enjoy the painting cropping up on the outcrop. But I also hear that this bluff is a sacred Dakota area. I’ve seen the flag on the bluff, it hasn’t been there all that long, and to me, that flag there is inconsistent with respect for Dakota tradition. Flagpole and flag here in upper right hand corner of this borrowed photo:
Today, from the discussion, I learn that the flag was sited right in the midst of a burial area! WHAT?!?! And this is not the first time siting is an issue, probably this happens a lot here, but I do know it was also an issue with the siting of the Red Wing lay down yard, where that Lot and building and storage area was right within the Water Tank Mounds area and that was not fully disclosed during that permitting, nor was the timing of agency involvement and review correctly disclosed during the Ash Mine permitting proceeding. Looks to me like the City has a pattern of inadequate investigation of and respect for Dakota sacred and burial areas. Falling through the holes, being pushed through, how do we fix this, assure it doesn’t keep happening, and make amends?
And then on to the “Public Hearing Process Discussion.” Oh my… Here’s the background from the workshop packet:
Overland’s $0.02: The discussion of civic engagement and “Public Hearing Process Discussion” morphed into a “no public comments on agenda items where there has been a Public Hearing at Planning Commission” as a council policy and taking it off the Council President. NO, not OK. The “No public comments” is bad policy. I note that 2-3 council members felt it was important for the public to be able to address, face to face, the decision makers. YES, it is. And when that is not allowed, it is the job of those council members to stand up for the public!
Today’s discussion, from the packet, was framed in binary, either Option A, where board/commission brings recommendation to Council, “No public input would occur at the Council meeting.” Option B, Boards and commissions have a lesser role in government decisions. Public input often happens at both the board/commission meetings and the City Council meetings.
Note the framing — problematic, as Option A would as policy eliminate public comment at CC meetings on agenda items. NOT OK! Option B frames it as allowing public comment at meetings means “boards and commission have a lesser role in government decision.” NOT OK! The notion that allowing public comment means undermining the Planning Commission is absurd. If there’s crucial determinative “new information,” then it should go back to the Planning Commission with a clear directive, and mindful that the Planning Commission is an “Advisory” Planning Commission, they are NOT the decision makers.
The framing of the options was off, and impact of this framing was to guide toward making it Council policy not to allow comment. NOT OK! Was that intended or not? Who knows… The framing was NOT OK for two reasons, first, public comment should as policy be allowed and encouraged. Second, the decision not to allow public comment has been a decision of the Council President, and he’s accountable for that. NOT OK! I do think that bullet was dodged, and instead a more reasonable Option C, that public comment WILL be allowed, and if Council has issues about what’s proposed, it will go back to Board/Commission. It took a lot of objecting and targeted statements to pull this into encouraging public participation, and not further limiting it as a matter of policy. We shall see…
MN’s Renewable Development Fund HF235/SF214
February 3rd, 2017
Some have said that the Renewable Development Fund is sacred. WRONG. The Renewable Development Fund is profane, not sacred, all the way from its origins to its uses. It’s now under scrutiny at Minnesota legislature, and institutional memory is nowhere to be found in this discussion. See HF 235 and SF 214.
The Renewable Development Fund (RDF) came into being in the 1994 Prairie Island bill, and was to be a per cask compensation fund for the Prairie Island Indian Community for storage of nuclear waste next door and extension of Prairie Island nuclear plant life. That compensation was turned into the RDF in a late night deal by “environmental” groups lobbying, of which Bill Grant (now Deputy Commissioner, Dept. of Commerce, formerly and then Izaak Walton League) was an integral part, Michael Noble (ME3, now “Fresh Energy”), and George Crocker (North American Water Office) too. Prairie Island Indian Community was supposed to get priority in grants, but that never happened. The RDF was administered by 3 from Xcel, plus Bill Grant, and one other “environmental” rep. The composition of the group giving out the grants has changed, and there is now someone from PI on it, but that’s recent. (Full Disclosure: I represented Florence Twp. fighting the “in Goodhue County” alternate site mandate for nuclear waste and the Township worked very mindful of, and often in tandem with, PIIC, where it fiercely refused to acquiesce to Xcel and say “STICK IT THERE” to PIIC. The working relationship continues and PIIC is now largest private landowner in Florence Twp.).
1994 Prairie Island bill — Ch. 641, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=1994&type=0&doctype=Chapter&id=641).
The RDF was a material term of the 2003 Prairie Island bill, where as part of the deal millions of RDF money was to go to the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project. Bill Grant was primary again, and when the Mesaba Project was stricken in one House session, a red-faced Tom Micheletti came flying down the hall yelling at Grant “We had a deal, we had a deal!” That deal was later added back in, and Micheletti’s Excelsior Energy coal gasification plant, Mesaba Project, was added to the factors to keep PI open. “Environmental groups” got massive grants to promote coal gasification. Micheletti got $10-12 million from RDF for Mesaba (and lots more from IRRB and DOE) and other regulator perks in the 2003 law, like exemption from CoN, and a mandated PPA with Xcel. (Full Disclosure: I represented MNcoalgasplant.com against Mesaba Project, and with CAMP and help from Xcel, we got the details of coal gasification, that project was killed, and the info killed others nationwide, but Mesaba still has a site permit in Taconite from PUC valid until 2019!)
2003 Prairie Island bill – Ch. 11, MN Session Laws (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/?year=2003&type=1&doctype=Chapter&id=11)
On Monday, January 23, the Red Wing City Council voted to accept a $2 million grant from RDF to install a garbage grinder, a project they’ve been lobbying for for years, where they’ll take in garbage from the whole county, grind it up, and burn it in Xcel’s garbage burner here, its air permit expired in 2009! GARBAGE!!! DOH! GARBAGE is not clean, it’s toxic! The purpose of all this is to keep the incinerators open and burning. (Full Disclosure: I have been representing clients being screwed by Xcel’s plan for “ash mining” in their incinerator ash landfill in Red Wing, part of which includes a plan to build a Red Wing laydown yard and crusher on a site half of which is designated Water Tower Burial Mounds — yeah, really. That’s been exposed:
My partner, Alan Muller, is an incineration expert and has worked with groups to stop RockTenn; Midtown Burner in Phillips, Rockford City and Township; HERC uprate, etc. See the Tyler Hills Neighbors Comments: Comment Extension for Lab USA EAW & Xcel & Lab USA Solid Waste)
The RDF has been a slush fund for deals enabling nuclear, promoting coal gasification, and greasing the skids for scams of great financial and environmental magnitude and impact. It should be shut down and turned over to Prairie Island Indian Community as originally intended.
Comments on Lab USA EAW & Water Tanks Mounds
January 5th, 2017
I’d requested information on the Lab USA project from MPCA and City of Red Wing, and got some info last week:
Hey Red Wing — MPCA’s Lab USA documents here!
And they granted an extension for Comments due to the delay in providing primary documentation for review (DOH!) — Comments are now due January 19, 2017:
Lab USA’s Ash Processing Facility – Red Wing – EAW – Comment period extension (p-ear2-119c)
Hiding in the MPCA’s EAW, Appendix B, is this map, above. The map shows the Water Tanks Burial Mounds, and the western end of the area is about 1/2 of the Red Wing Laydown Yard and Crusher site. Oh my! I’d noticed that factoid and included in my comments for the Tyler Hills Neighbors (p. 14):
Note the Red Wing Laydown Yard and Crusher site, on the right hand side of that clearing:
They also want to run a drainage ditch through and put ponds in that area — note they did NOT include the ponds in this depiction of drainage plans!
Here’s one with the “ponds” (no real plan yet, City of Red Wing is supposed to file that before they build it!) and note that the scenic easement as depicted here is further south than it is in another map, where the scenic easement overlaps the southern edge of the clearing (all of these maps are from the EAW, fyi):
Turns out I’m not the only one that noticed that encroachment of the Red Wing project (click for document or larger view):
Look at that, “direct consultation with the Office of the State Archaeologist and the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council…” Do ya think Prairie Island Indian Community might be interested, have an interest?!?!
Here’s the Comment from the Indian Affairs Council (click for document or larger view):
Uprate for Prairie Island Nuclear Plant?
May 30th, 2012
(that’s dear departed Kenya doggy in front of the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant back in 2004 or so)
Uprate Xcel Energy’s Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant? I think not…
Today was the deadline for filing comments to Xcel Energy’s Changed Circumstances Petition. Here it is:
And what’s been filed so far:
City of Red Wing (misses the boat, doesn’t address need, only $$$)
Prairie Island Indian Community – BULLS EYE!!! Very well done!
And Alan and I filed joint Comments:
