Short answer to this Mr. Leurquin: I agree with Mr. Leurguin.We are not blind. Xcel, is an 11 billion dollar company, has 5 years before having to start and complete the conversion at Riverside in 2009. There's alot of budgets and politicians between now and then.
Longer answer: (On the coldest day of the year, when I'm enjoying the convenience of my heat and electricity very much, and my only regret is that I don't have another economic and environmentally sound choice for electricity...yet.) >From my experiences during this three year legal language, drawnout process, I think most people would agree, no business does a 1 Billion dollar improvement--"voluntarily." Xcel should be commended for their efforts to finally promote this project to the decision makers, the PUC in Dec 03. It was one of the very few times Xcel, Chamber of Commerce, MPCA, Attorn.General, and Environmental Groups like the Sierra Club, Izaak Walton League,CEN, and others were on the same side of the table. But I wonder why this hasn't ever "voluntarily" been proposed by Xcel before when so many experts (MN Dept. of Health, MN Pollution Control Agency, Mpls Env.Mgmt, and many others including Xcel) know that Xcel Riverside is 52 times more polluting than any other source in Hennepin County? How many people had to "know" before something was done in the Tobacco Industry? I wonder if the MN Pollution Control Agency didn't have over 200 people participate in the Xcel Riverside Air Permit public hearing and if they hadn't gotten over 300 comment letters in the course of two days regarding the Xcel Riverside and another Air Permit in North and Northeast Mpls. If environmental justice questions weren't raised by a large crowd and strong voices from residents at a meeting at the Northeast Bank, hosted by Xcel a couple years ago. Questions like: "Xcel converted the Burnsville Blackdog plant in a year, why don't residents of North, Northeast Minneapolis deserve anything less?" "Out of the 54 possible emission reduction proposals by Xcel--Is Riverside guaranteed to be one of them?" "Why do we have to wait until 2009, if Blackdog was converted in a year and similar process will be emplored at Riverside, why don't North/Northeast Minneapolitans deserve the same as Burnsville folks?" If after taking three years of countless "volunteer" hours educating the public, holding forums, sending letters, testifying at the capital, passing city resolutions, by the 65+groups, and taking countless hours of effort by Legislators like Senator Higgins, Anderson,Poggemiller; Representative Mullery, Ellison, Kahn, and many others to fight against Xcel's professional lobbyist abilities, what if MERP language legally didn't get passed? What if Xcel weren't guarenteed the funds to make the improvements and a profit? Where would "voluntary" be right now? Until all three projects are completed as promised by Xcel, and yes I do want to believe that Xcel will complete all three projects. But until the stacks come down at Riverside in 2009---"voluntary" means continued vigilance that it doesn't become anything more than "a forgotten rosy headline, and a non-legally binding handshake". Amy Luesebrink LBNA/SCNA staff REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
