A message from MEQB staff member, Bob Cupit (651-296-2096):
A brief description as to how the process works
The MEQB ordered public hearings on the Exemption Application of Minnesota
Power (MP) back in November 1999. Typically, when the Board orders a public
hearing, an
independent Law Judge manages the hearing process without any further
involvement by the agency until the final decision. In this case however, the
Judge, after having her scope of hearing challenged, has referred the question
of scope back to the MEQB. After the MEQB makes a decision on the scope, the
Judge will then restart the hearing process, and after the hearing record is
complete, the MEQB will then decide whether to grant or deny the exemption
application.
At the scheduled MEQB meeting on March 30, the Board will again take up the
hearing scope question. It had been laid over from the February 17th meeting
after lengthy discussion. At this point, staff expects that the Board will
have essentially the same arguments before it, and that the discussion will
continue where it left off before. We are uncertain how much additional
testimony, if any, the Chair will allow at this second meeting. Any pertinent
written materials received by noon on March 23 will be forwarded to each of
the Board members (the Board will be made aware of the large volume of
Wisconsin citizen comments received to date).
The two options that staff has presented to the Board are to either expand the
scope of hearing to include impacts outside the state of Minnesota, or to
limit the scope to impacts inside the state of Minnesota. The Board discussed
a third option at the February meeting, which would deny the exemption
application now on a finding that the project would create significant human
and environmental impact. Presumably, MP would then file a new application for
the full route designation process, which would include consideration of
alternatives, preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment (same as an
EIS), and mandatory public hearings. Staff expects this option to be discussed
again on March 30, but cannot speculate as to whether it has majority support.