NEWS RELEASE
Adhoc committee for Regional Impacts Disclosure 218-327-2737 8-4pm m-f
For Immediate use
EQB decision postponed on MN Power request for exemption
St. Paul, MN - The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board has postponed until
April 20th a meeting (originally March 30) that was expected to rule on
Minnesota Power's request that a construction permit for its proposed
12-mile leg of the proposed Arrowhead-Weston project be granted without the
public scrutiny the process requires under the Minnesota Power Plant Siting
Act. The MEQB did not provide a reason for the cancellation. The agenda for
the canceled meeting noted that more than 1,300 individual comments had been
received from citizens in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Many of the comments
regard the disclosure of the regional environmental and social impacts of
the 345kV line. MEQB's legal counsel has informed the Board it may exercise
its discretion and grant a "summary denial" of the exemption application at
this stage, ending the need for public hearings on the question of whether
to prepare environmental impact statements. If, instead, the MEQB calls for
a public hearing on the question, it must determine whether the scope of
study should include regional impacts. Citizen groups in Minnesota, Manitoba
and Wisconsin argue that the line is part of a regional project, and
therefore must be considered in regional terms. An Ad Hoc Committee for
Regional Impact Disclosure has formed to call on Minnesota Power to drop its
request for an exemption, and to disclose publicly the full regional impacts
of the project, including questions about the source of the power to be
distributed, and the ultimate beneficiaries of the Arrowhead-Weston line.
The group has placed newspaper and radio ads (KDAL and WEBC) in Duluth. To
date, Minnesota Power continues to maintain that there will be no impacts of
the project outside of Minnesota, and that therefore no regional impacts
should be considered, even though the proposed line will not serve any
Minnesota customers. -30-