…a growing chorus of landowners and tribal groups is calling for Enbridge to remove the old pipeline if the new one gets the OK. They’re concerned about potential pollution from the old pipe, that it could become buoyant and pop out of the ground or that it could potentially act as a water conduit underground.<\/p>\n
“When you’re done with something, clean it up. It’s that simple,” said Richard Shustarich, 77, who lives along the current Line 3 route just outside Grand Rapids, Minn….<\/p>\n
[Shustarich] had no problem signing an easement to give Enbridge permission to add another line in 2010. He said they’re a safer way to transport oil than trains.<\/p>\n
“I figured that was a smart way to do it,” he said. “But I hadn’t thought that Enbridge would disrespect the people who allowed them to go on their property, you know, for a few thousand bucks.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This parallels the concern many have about copper sulfide mining to the east of this area in Minnesota. Mining companies, petroleum companies, energy and mining companies in generally, typically talk the talk before they build a project, but later on, fail to walk the walk, leaving the environment, communities, everything and every one, in the lurch.<\/p>\n
Enbridge has an argument that we are better off leaving it in place because removing it could be tricky, there are so many pipes in the ground, crossing each other, in this area. Clearly, the state should have gotten assurances when the line was put in, in the form of a removal fund, originally.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the Southwestern part of the state,<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, they\u2019re paying me to let the wind blow,\u201d [Minnesota farm owner Conrad] Schardin [said].<\/p>\n
Today, Schardin is … reaping the benefits of wind turbines on his land and on the surrounding farms. But just like other Minnesota farmers, he still grows corn and soybeans. The wind turbines, Schardin recently told the Independent, is just one of his \u201crevenue streams.\u201d But the turbines also play well with his philosophy when it comes to farming.<\/p>\n
\u201cMother Nature, she always wins. You can\u2019t fight her. I have always said that,\u201d Schardin said. And when it comes to wind in southwest Minnesota, there\u2019s no sense in fighting it. So Schardin decided to work with the wind.<\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
\u201cA group of farmers and businessmen \u2014 we started Community Wind North. There is a group of seven of us and we put up a 30 megawatt wind project up in Verdi Township. I\u2019m on the Verdi Township board and we put up 12 turbines up in Verdi Township here,\u201d Schardin said.<\/p>\n
Schardin said the 30 mega watt wind turbine project cost about $58 million to put up. He said Community Wind North received financial help from an equity partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got three turbines on land we own,\u201d he said. \u201cWe leased the land from other local farmers. We started out with 150 investors and we lost some over deaths over the years. It\u2019s been a good project for the investors and you know they got a good return on their investment. So far it\u2019s been a good deal. It was a risky thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schardin said Community Wind North is now working with its third partner.
\n…<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like the people who are against it either don\u2019t have one, or have a turbine close to them and not getting the benefits of it. I know Sioux Falls, Lincoln County and South Dakota, they fought it, and they had a lot of false information.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is an interesting story, go read the rest here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two interesting stories in the news today about energy, both in Minnesota. First, Minnesota residents want Enbridge to remove its old pipeline. Enbridge says it is better to keep it in place. (This would all be contingent on the replacement of the pipeline.) From MPR:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5034],"tags":[715,5187,720],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Nebraska-Wind-Farm.jpg?fit=588%2C325&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5fhV1-7AP","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29261,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29191\/revisions\/29261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}