Xcel files DEIS Comments in WI docket
(What’s up with this letterhead — will somebody tell these folks that there is no “CapX 2020” entity?)
WOW, that was fast… the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released on November 9, 2011, and already, on November 28, less than three weeks later, they’re filing this:
Be sure to read Appendix A — it’s a hoot!
Hmmm. Xcel says the oil units at French Island are old pieces of polluting junk. Doubtless this is true. But they identify only two times when “critical” loads were exceeded, once in 2006 and once in 2010. This hardly implies, as suggested by Xcel, that these old stinkers would have to run as baseload if the proposed transmission line isn’t built.
On the other hand, there is an urgent need to shut down the garbage burners at French Island, and put the kabosh on various highly-polluting “biomass” projects in Wisconsin. Maybe WI needs to take another look at the whole state picture!
And what’s this about “generation trapped in Minnesota?” This sounds like “build generators we don’t need, then build transmission to give then “outlets.” That is, something to do. Hmmm–generation “trapped” in the Dakotas needs access to Minnesota. Generation trapped in Minnesota needs access to Wisconsin. Can we do this two-step all the way to the Atlantic Ocean? Then what?