Comments by Dman
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Posted on June 21 at 7:13 p.m.
Why do you assume I have not done any research? Are you an electrical engineer? You might be surprised.
Minnesota's wind customers will be unable to hook up to the lines coming out of the plant. Ottertail says so, independent electrical engineers say so and MISO says so. The only "wind" that can use these wires is the corporate wind in the Dakotas and Buffalo Ridge. (Ottertail talks about "wind" rather obliquely.)
The Minnesota people responsible for paying for the upgrade, can't use it. (And don't need the power of wind or BSII.)
Posted on June 13 at 1:38 p.m.
Sure wind need transmission, desperately. But OtterTail is not doing the underbuild lines for Minnesota's wind.
I don't know too much about Wind on the Wires but I didn't see the instructions for hooking a Minnesota windmill up to a 345 wire. Ask Otter Tail. They'll tell you that, if you can get them to answer.
The Law Judges and Commisssioners were told the same thing at the hearings, in front of Otter Tails executives and attorneys, and they never rose to deny that.
So, why so hostle?
Posted on June 12 at 7:28 p.m.
Minnesota's windfarms need transmission lines, but NOT the 345 kv lines. Minnesota wind cannot hook up to lines like that. Windmills are too small. That kind of voltage can only originate at a steam plant. And, those kinds of high voltage lines are not built to serve short distance of a couple of hundred miles. Ottertail won't even answer letters from Minnesota wind entreprenuers, I'm told. They want it all for themselves, from the Dakotas, wholesale to Illinois. Why should Minnesota rate payers finance that stufff? Ottertail has encouraged some misinformation. Which is why two law judges ruled against them, and three PUC Commisioners defered action on approval. That didn't just happen. It's sort of unpredcedented, I'm told.
Too bad.
Posted on June 8 at 5:51 p.m.
Do your own research, Otter Tail represents Dakota Montana Utilities, as one of the "partners" in Big Stone 2. They have the Montana customers, and Otter Tail presented a "study" in the record, claiming they need the Big Stone 2 power! (Meanwhile Great River Energy and Southern Minnesota utilities dropped out, because they don't need the power, and were about to "get caught". But no customers in the Morris, Canby, Granite Falls areas where the lines go. And thse are 345KV lines. They don't serve "customers" with huge lines like that. Read the record, you'll be as appalled as the Law Judges were with this application, if you're a fair minded person. And read the news, about selling on the spot market. Something's wrong.....and it's not the Utilities Commisssion. Too bad.
Posted on June 7 at 4:03 a.m.
Google around and you'll find that there are about 600 coal plants in the United States. Google further, and you'll find that these 600 chimmneys produce one/half of all the air pollution in the United States, the rest is mostly cars and trucks, and private furnaces.
According to the Center for Disease Control, about 24,000 to 30,000 people actually die from air pollution in the United States, and tens of millions more receive medical care for respiratory diseases which do not kill them.
That's about 600 people per week, or only one death per coal plant. Most people actually survive this stuff.
I think it's the surviving millions that join these groups and conspire to oppose coal power plants. Always bitching about something....
Posted on June 5 at 7:40 p.m.
Now, Otter Tail Power is in dire need of more power power
for Eastern Montana, and North Dakota, (where about a dozen coal plants already exist), and northwestern Minnesota. So It needs huge power lines in Southern Minnesota, the OTHER DIRECTION from Big Stone which do not serve ANY of it's territory. And these entrapted customers in the north get to pay for these southern lines.
And sometimes the "extra energy"" can be sold on the spot market for $400/meg. This is, of course "shared" with Otter Tails customers, if Otter Tail happens to get caught, otherwise, is free money. Excellent business plan, if customers believe it.
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Posted on July 7 at 11:53 a.m.
Some folks think a law degree should actually be a requirement for office. GWB is a good example of what happens when a non-lawyer gets in power....
On Congress needs more diversity at the Capitol