Big Stone Ii

Despite a metro-area city backing out of the project, representatives for the proposed Big Stone II power facility say they remain optimistic about the plant’s future, while opponents are still saying that it means dirty power for the Dakotas and Minnesota.

A week after the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved transmission lines needed to build the 500 megawatt coal-fired Big Stone II power plant near the South Dakota border, the Environmental Protection Agency has opposed issuing a permit for operation of the facility. The Obama administration’s EPA, on the last day of the application review [...]

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) unanimously approved the Certificate of Need for a transmission line project necessary for the construction of the Big Stone II coal-fired power plant in Milbank, South Dakota.

Despite a room full of citizens opposed to the plants construction for environmental concerns, many holding signs and some dressed in animal costumes, the PUC did not deliberate on the coal-fired facility itself or the environmental impacts that it may have, focusing instead on the cost of the project and its implications for utility rate payers.

The director of NASA’s Goddard Institute has asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty to oppose the Big Stone II coal-fired plant at the source of the Minnesota River. Dr. James Hansen is a renowned climatologist who was born, raised and educated in Iowa. Hansen advocates for the use of alternatives to coal in order to reduce [...]

A financial research firm that was ahead of the curve on red-flagging Bear Stearns Companies’ bad investments is now warning a Kansas utility that expanding a coal-burning power plant would also fall under the financially dubious column. Innovest’s report, “Sunflower Electric Power: Carbon Risks Outweigh Benefits of Holcomb Expansion” (pdf), says looming federal carbon legislation [...]

Bank of America is estimating federal carbon regulations will cost coal-burning power plants between $20 and $40 per ton of carbon emissions, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s more than twice the estimate being used by backers of the proposed Big Stone II power plant in their reports to the state.

A group of utilities [...]

In the news again: A controversial transmission line project that will carry electricity into Minnesota from a new coal-burning power plant beyond our border. I’m not talking about Big Stone II, but rather Arrowhead-Weston, a 220-mile, 800-megawatt transmission line connecting Duluth with Wausau, Wis. Project managers flipped the switch on Tuesday, powering up the line [...]

Utilities trying to build new power plants should plan on paying a premium to burn fossil fuels, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) said in a vote Thursday.

Environmental groups seized on the news as evidence that Big Stone II, a proposed coal-fired power plant near the Minnesota-South Dakota border, is not financially feasible to build.

“Today’s [...]

A coalition of environmentalists fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant near the Minnesota-South Dakota border said it suspects the project’s investors are underestimating the impact of future carbon regulations on its finances.

The group of utilities backing the Big Stone II power plant, slated to be built near Milbank, S.D., filed new documents with Minnesota utility [...]