A proposed ultra high voltage power line would cross Minnesota’s Great River Road National Scenic Byway and would run through the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Even though the utilities are required by Minnesota law to have at least one alternative, they have provided no alternate route across the Mississippi River and no alternative that would avoid the National Wildlife Refuge.

<sigh> But we continue to fight!  Read the rest of the media release here.

He wrote the following for the Winona Daily News.

I’m writing to share knowledge accumulated through decades of studying the health effects of high-voltage power lines, such as the CapX2020 power line proposed to come through southeast Minnesota.

As a medical doctor and Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at University at Albany, SUNY, I believe that the health risks posed by long-term exposure to magnetic fields are serious, especially to children and fetuses.

There is definitive scientific evidence that exposure to magnetic fields from power lines greater than 4 milligauss (a level significantly less that what is expected to occur near this proposed power line) is associated with an elevated risk of childhood leukemia. Some scientific research indicates an elevated risk at levels of 2 milligauss. A home not near a power line will usually have a level of less than 1 milligauss.

Scientific evidence also links magnetic field exposure to cancer in adults as well, particularly leukemia and brain cancer. There is strong evidence that lifetime exposure to magnetic fields above 2 milligauss is associated with an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases in adults, including Alzheimer’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

With many aspects of human toxicology, there is uncertainty as to which mechanisms may be responsible for increased human disease with exposure to power line magnetic fields. However, there is a large body of evidence showing ways in which magnetic fields, including the frequencies from power lines, affect tissue at a cellular level.

Some people may be unusually sensitive to exposure to magnetic fields. A recent study demonstrated that children living within 100 meters of a power line who lacked a gene to repair DNA had a 400 percent greater chance of developing leukemia than other children with a similar exposure

Based on this scientific information, I would make these public health recommendations:

Information should be publicly available regarding the calculated magnetic field strength from a power line at various distances.

In many locations along the route, magnetic fields from the CapX2020 power lines will exceed levels that create health risks, particularly over time as more electric power is used.

High-voltage power lines should be routed to prevent power line magnetic fields in homes from exceeding 4 milliguass. Every effort should also be made to avoid long-term exposure to magnetic fields above 2 milligauss.

Public health precaution also suggests that high-voltage lines be located as far as possible from homes, schools, playgrounds and child-care facilities. In areas of dense population where routing away from homes and other sensitive uses is not possible, power lines should be placed underground in such a way as to reduce human health impacts.

The letter at the Winona Daily News is here.  If you are affected by this, or concerned, follow that link and register your comment.

Say ‘No!’ to CapX2020 transmission line

Published Nov. 3, 2009

Xcel Energy claims there is a growing demand for power — that’s why they want to build massive 15-story high transmission lines (paid for by rate-payers) and take people’s land (eminent domain), cutting through scenic Minnesota onto La Crosse, Madison, and points east to sell the power there.

The proposed routes for these lines will cut through century-old farms, and impact 25,000 private property landowners, who have a small voice compared to Xcel, D.O.T, DNR, and other government agencies.

We don’t need CapX. Xcel had nearly a “12 percent drop in peak demand” from 2006-2008, and reductions continue in ‘ 09 (Xcel energy SEC filings). Efficiency efforts are working and power use is down. CapX gained approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on old data.

Thankfully, the Citizens Energy Task Force and two other groups are formally appealing the “need” in the Minnesota Court of Appeals, but the legal power of the utilities is daunting. Utilities profit by building high voltage lines that we pay for.

A better approach is to upgrade existing lower voltage lines as needed, and invest in smart grid technologies that will carry us into the future. Contact your legislators and tell them we don’t need CAPX2020.

Dean Regnier
Mazeppa

It points north on a compass. It turns the motors in hair dryers and refrigerators. And it emanates from high-voltage power lines.
But is a magnetic field harmful to human health?

Read the rest of the article at TwinCities.com, or archived here.

This victory for environmental and renewable energy advocates adds to the stack of legal reasons for questioning the “need” for CapX2020 ultra-high voltage power lines (proposed by Xcel Energy and 10 other utilities, including Otter Tail Power). Citizens Energy Task Force (CETF) is currently appealing the “Certificate of Need” which was approved this summer.

CETF Attorney Paula Maccabee explains that this new development could seriously impact CapX2020: “The collapse of Big Stone II is significant for the huge CapX2020 interstate power lines that were designed to rely on coal power, even more than renewable energy, to justify and finance their projects. Big Stone II and CapX2020 were closely tied together. As the house of cards of central station coal-fired power falls, the CapX2020 power lines must also be reexamined.”

Following are key issues connecting the Big Stone II collapse & the potential impact on CapX2020:

• Big Stone II power plant has been scrapped due to the poor economy and uncertainty about the future of coal;
• Big Stone II was assumed in two out of the three scenarios predicting that the CapX2020 transmission line projects were needed;
• Big Stone II was assumed in the base model for the Southwestern Minnesota Study used by the CapX2020 utilities to justify the Brookings power line;
• The current Brookings Project includes a connection at the Hazel Creek substation that was designed specifically to connect with the Big Stone II coal plant;
• In the CapX2020 cases, the Administrative Law Judge acknowledged that it was not possible to determine what impacts changes in the Big Stone II project would have on CapX2020.

Citizen Energy Task Force advocates locally dispersed energy that can be transmitted without new ultra high voltage lines and is 9 times less costly, according to a study released Sept. 15, 2009 by the Minn. Dept. of Commerce. Read more here:

The Fate of CapX2020 — “Need” is Legally Challenged: On October 9, 2009, CETF filed a detailed 45-page brief [available by clicking here] challenging the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s decision to certify the CapX2020 projects and challenged the La Crosse Project and “upsizing” the CapX2020 lines as contrary to law. “A groundswell of opposition from residents and customers in both Wisconsin and Minnesota propelled us to a formal legal appeal,” stated Paula Maccabee, “We’ve demonstrated major flaws in the methods used by the utilities to show a “need” for the project, including new evidence showing a significant drop in peak energy demand. The CapX2020 power line crossing the Mississippi River also violates laws and policies designed to protect national wildlife refuge areas.” The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission questioned CETF’s right to have an appeal heard in the Minnesota Court of Appeals but on October 15, 2009, the Court of Appeals ordered that the case will move forward to be decided on its merits. Read the media release here:

Meanwhile, the eleven utilities involved with CapX2020, including Xcel Energy, Riverland Energy, Otter Tail Power Company and Dairyland Power are currently considering power line routes which are posted on www.capx2020.com and will be announcing preferred routes for the Minneapolis/La Crosse line in Nov./Dec. 2009. Watch for more appeal updates as they progress. Full appeal document is posted on www.cetf.us.

Additional information on renewable energy is available at www.ilsr.org, www.nawo.org and www.c-bed.org

A community educational effort has also been launched in order to inform residents of both MN and WI about the importance of an energy future that involves local, clean renewable energy. Read more at: www.powerlinetruth.org

(PDF version here.)

On September 9, 2009, Citizens Energy Task Force filed a formal appeal challenging the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission’s decisions to certify the CapX2020 projects and challenged the La Crosse Project and “upsizing” the CapX2020 lines as contrary to law.

Our attorney Paula Maccabee, filed a detailed 45-page brief (here) on October 9, 2009, along with several hundred pages from the hearing record.

• CETF argues in our brief that the Court of Appeals should reopen the question of need and send the decisions approving the CapX2020 power lines back to the Commission because demand for electricity has declined below any of the levels the utilities studied to justify the CapX2020 power lines.
• CETF asks that the Commission’s certificate of need for the LaCrosse line (from the Twin Cities to LaCrosse Wisconsin) be reversed due to violations of environmental law and conflicts with state and federal laws and policies to protect national wildlife refuges from power lines. Local needs for electricity can be met with local, lower voltage transmission that doesn’t cross the Mississippi River in a national wildlife refuge.
• Finally, CETF challenges the authority of the Commission to upsize the CapX2020 projects, since there was no showing that they were needed.

NoCapX and UCAN, two other community groups opposed to the CapX2020 projects, have also appealed the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission decisions.

Watch for more appeal updates as they progress.

LAKE ELMO, MN 55042 Phone: 651-770-3861

PRESS RELEASE                                                                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 21, 2009                                                                      Contact:  George Crocker    cell 651-491-9726

Transmission For Local, Distributed Electric Generators Much Cheaper Than Conventional Transmission Development, Finds New Minnesota Utility Study.

A new study released on September 15th by the Minnesota Department of Commerce contains very good news for those who want to develop renewable energy resources in a way that maximizes the economic benefits to Minnesota, and that keeps electric bills as low as possible.

The study was ordered by the Minnesota legislature in 2007 as part of an effort to encourage more locally owned wind energy projects.

The newly released Phase II report (Sept. 15, 2009) confirms and reinforces the findings of the Phase I study made public in June 2008: Link directly to the study report here: http://tinyurl.com/kmbgtd, also at www.nawo.org and www.energy.mn.gov

-    The existing transmission system can accommodate a great deal
(over 650 megawatts {MW}) of new, strategically sized and located
electrical generation capacity; and more importantly,

To get the same amount of new renewable energy to consumers, it is
vastly cheaper to strategically enhance the existing system in a
dispersed and incremental fashion than it is to build the new big
conventional powerlines needed by large, remote wind farms.

Taken together, the studies found that 1,200 MW of projects between 10 and 40 MW each could be added to the system for a cost of about $100,000 per MW in new transmission infrastructure costs.  For comparison, the transmission costs are nine times higher for new generation capacity that will use the “Brookings Line” (one of three proposed ultra-high voltage/conventional power lines called CapX2020).  “Brookings” would be needed primarily by large remote wind farms—at a cost of about $930,000 per MW.

“The findings confirm that it is cheaper to expand renewable energy by interconnecting many smaller scale projects rather than building extra-high voltage transmission lines like CapX2020 to interconnect a relatively few very large scale projects,” says George Crocker of the North American Water Office, one of the groups that had lobbied for the studies.  “And smaller scale projects enable local ownership, which generates far more economic benefits to Minnesota than large scale wind energy projects usually owned by large, absentee multinational corporations.”

Crocker argues that the studies, if used by state policy makers, could have a major impact.  “For the first time, Minnesota agencies, regulators and utility managers have developed and used a rigorous analytical method to compare the cost of conventional central-station transmission development with that of transmission that encourages distributed, community-based electrical generation power plants.  If state officials use this method in the future to determine the proper set of new powerlines, in terms of size, location, and timing, it could not only spur hundreds of locally owned energy projects but could save the state’s electricity consumers billions of dollars by avoiding unnecessary new transmission lines.

Meanwhile, the CapX2020 high voltage power line project continues with the approval process with a projected cost of nearly $2 billion.  A “Certificate of Need” was granted in Aug. ‘09 and routing hearings will commence this fall.  Opposition groups continue to challenge the process and NAWO has collaborated with citizens groups currently appealing the Minn. Public Utility Commission decision on “Need”: Citizens Energy Task Force (www.cetf.us), No Capx2020.info and U-CANMN.com.

For more information on community based energy development (c-bed.com) and transmission study details, contact George Crocker, founder, North American Water  Office.  Cell: 651-491-9726

North American Water Office (NAWO) is a non-profit organization chartered in 1982 to educate people about solutions to environmental problems caused by society’s waste.  www.nawo.org