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Viewpoint: Lessons from Three Mile Island aren’t over

By on April 8, 2019 in Energy, Environmental Justice, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy

Note: This was published in the Red Wing Republican Eagle on April 5, 2019. It is a shorter version of this previous post.

Alan Muller is an environmental consultant. He has been executive director of Green Delaware, an environmental and public advocacy organization in Delaware, since 1995, and before that was a contract consultant DuPont Co.’s engineering department. Muller focuses on environmental and health issues including energy; waste; incinerators; air, water and land quality and pollution; and climate change.

To ignore the human impacts of the nuclear industry is a moral failure

Forty years ago, on March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear power reactor in central Pennsylvania partially melted down and experienced at least one explosion.

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40 years on, have we learned the lessons of Three Mile Island?

By on March 28, 2019 in Childrens' Health, City of Red Wing, climate change, Energy, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy
Monticello nuke plant with tall stack for venting radioactives.


[Note: A version of this distributed by email had the wrong title. Apologies!]

40 years ago, on March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 2 nuclear power plant melted down and experienced a hydrogen explosion.  (Unit 1 has continued to run all these years but likely will be shut down soon as it loses a lot of money for the owners.) 

Days afterwards: “Governor Thornburgh advised pregnant women and pre-school age children to leave the area within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility until further notice. This led to the panic the governor had hoped to avoid; within days, more than 100,000 people had fled surrounding towns.”

The cause was a combination of equipment failures, design defects, and operator errors.

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Action Alert: Minnesota Public Utilities Commission: Withdraw funding for increased garbage incineration!

By on January 12, 2016 in "biomass", air pollution, City of Red Wing (Minnesota), Energy, Garbage Incineration, Goodhue County, Minnesota, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, MN Public Utilities Commission, Nuclear Power, Xcel Energy

If you want, skip the gory details and go directly to the action items lower down!

As someone with a longstanding interest in energy and environmental issues, Minnesota can be a little strange.  The state, or at least the central part of it, often seems like a wholly owned subsidiary of Xcel Energy (Northern States Power Company).  I’m appalled by the ease with which Xcel seems able to impose its will, and the lack of dignity and self-respect with which officials and self-proclaimed energy/environmental advocates kowtow, grin and shuffle, for Xcel.  Worse, I’m living in Red Wing, blessed with two Xcel nuclear reactors, Prairie Island 1 and 2, two Xcel garbage incinerators ( an old convertedcoal plant) and an Xcel nuclear waste parking lot, all within the city limits.  As far as what Xcel has to offer, Red Wing has it all!

There are so many interlocking scams going on, involving so many entities and so many moral and intellectual failures, that it can look and feel overwhelming.  I’m going to focus on one here and ask for your help: Continue Reading →

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Five of Minnesotas eight Congresscritters voted to weaken/block EPA regulation of coal ash:

By on August 2, 2015 in Bills, coal ash, Energy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Minnesota Power, Uncategorized, Xcel Energy

Congress makes the wrong move on coal ash rules

H.R. 1734 and Senate companion bill S. 1803 are intended to prevent EPA’s (weak) coal ash regulation rule from going into effect.  165 Democrats voted against 1734 and only 19 voted for it.  239 Republicans vote for it and only ONE against.  Stats here. Continue Reading →

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Promised updates on details of mega-horrible bills….

By on March 19, 2015 in "biomass", air pollution, climate change, Energy, Incineration, Minnesota energy policy, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Uncategorized, Xcel Energy

This is the promised further detail on the “mega-horrible” bills being heard in a Senate committee at 4:00 pm this afternoon (Thursday, March 19th.

For the utility “deregulation” bills

see Carol Overland’s Legalectric.org post, “the problems with SF 1735″ .  Overland has been practicing utility regulatory law for a long time and knows the history behind the present scams.  This is complicated stuff that just can’t be reduced to sound bites, but here are two anyway:  (1) Utilities, expecially Xcel Energy, can pretty much afford to buy off everybody, and (2) Nobody in Minnesota government or politics seems to be publicly standing up for ratepayers, the environment, or the public interest.

Attorney General Lori Swanson has the authority to act on behalf of the public.  Ask her to do so:  (651) 296-3353 or 1-800-657-3787, Attorney.General@ag.state.mn.us.

[Note:  There is a “delete-all” amendment to S. F. 1431 which we received at 10:30 pm.  This new version does not seem to correct any of the problems people are objecting to.  It has new sections, some of which seem to raise new concerns.]

[Update:  The AG’s office DID appear at the hearing and oppose both the original bill and the delete-all amendment.  Kudos to Lori Swanson.]

For the “Energy Omnibus Bill, S.F. 1431,” see below

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RED ALERT: oppose mega-horrible utility deregulation bills

By on March 18, 2015 in Energy, Garbage, Legislative, Minnesota energy policy

Well, I’ve been trying to warn about this.  On March 9th I wrote:

“The breadth and depth of NSP’s [Xcel’s] current efforts to gut the utility regulatory process and impose its will on Minnesota energy policy is breathtaking.  Stand by for more details on this.  And: expect some really horrible legislation to sneaked through the Minnesota Legislature.”

The really horrible bills are here: Continue Reading →

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