The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a key opponent to the Big Stone II coal plant and transmission line project in South Dakota and western Minnesota, is not objecting to the CapX 2020 certificate of need.<\/a><\/p>\n That the CapX transmission lines would not be linked to construction of a coal-fired power plant, which \u00e2\u20ac\u0153makes all the difference in the world,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Beth Goodpaster, an attorney with the environmental group. <\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But Beth, you know better…<\/p>\n For those not hip to the connection between coal and CapX, and specifically the connection between Big Stone II and CapX, and for those who don’t know of the MCEA, ME3 (Fresh Energy) and Izaak Walton “Wind on the Wires” transmission deal… Here are two points to consider:<\/p>\n 1) Big Stone II is assuredly linked to CapX 2020. Their Phase V electrical studies showed that as a necessity and they’re doing the Phase VI studies, linking it to CapX 2020.<\/p>\n Big Stone Phase V Presentation<\/a><\/p>\n That link is shown in the CapX SW maps:<\/p>\n 2) This is the part to read carefully. An outgrowth (malignant?) of the SW MN 345kV “It’s for wind” NOT transmission line proceeding, the Izaak Walton League, ME3 (now Fresh Energy) MCEA and NAWO (George Crocker, who established C-BED, the business) was that all these folks did a deal:<\/p>\n Settlement Agreement – MCEA, Waltons, ME3, NAWO filed with PUC 6\/23\/03<\/a><\/p>\n So when you wonder why they’re not in this fracas, well, perhaps this explains…<\/p>\n And if that doesn’t quite convince you, well, look at this:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wind on the Wires\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gets $8.1 day after settlement flied<\/a><\/p>\n And look at the terms of the deal and compare with terms in this 2005 transmission bill that George Crocker and Bill Grant walked through the legislature, “a deal, a package deal, and it’s a good deal.” You can send them thank you notes for this bill that makes CapX 2020 possible:<\/p>\n 2005 Transmission Omnibus (Ominous) Bill from Hell<\/a><\/p>\n And so this is why we’re where we are today! The utilities are clear where they’re coming from, but the NGO’s are a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There was some commentary in a recent article from Beth Goodpaster, of MCEA: The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a key opponent to the Big Stone II coal plant and transmission line project in South Dakota and western Minnesota, is …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"sw-mn-its-not-for-wind-map.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/nocapx2020.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/sw-mn-its-not-for-wind-map.jpg\")
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