As I mentioned
before,
here are the August 25 Grant County PUD minutes. Not much was recorded about the "Highwood Project" other than the commission had decided to not participate.
Thanks to RL for sending this
link, which gives a more in depth view of what happened.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting. "Facts are a stubborn thing" as I believer found John Adams once said. These minutes are fact of record and will 'contradict' some of the spin
regarding the 'non-issue' nature
of the PUD's decision and effect
on the HGS load forecast.
The PUD commissioners deal exclusively with energy issues and have an invaluable clean energy asset - hydro - at their disposal to help firm future windfarms and solar sites. They're looking at
the future technology potential of carbon-capture and sequestration (CCS), but that's years away and no way was Highwood designed with that in mind.
I do believe the PUD commission examined the facts of HGS, including escalating costs, several litigation challenges and fiscal difficulties and will not
'rush to judgement' and they have
two commissioners up for re-election.
R & D into CCS is appropriate, but not at the expense of retarding capital investment into proven wind, solar and emerging renewable energy developments, including nanotechnology advances to drive cost of solar way down. There may be suitable CCS capabilities later but not every community can accomodate sequestration, just like
not every area ideal for windfarm, solar sites, geo-thermal, tide energy, etc.
Let's us encourage Congress to extend the renewable energy production tax credits so new energy development advances and Montana windfarms don't stall - again.
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