PSC REF#:102053 Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Page 2912 RECEIVED: 09/30/08, 6:17:45 PM 1 BEFORE THE
2 PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION OF WISCONSIN
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4 APPLICATION OF WISCONSIN POWER AND) LIGHT COMPANY d.b.a. ALLIANT ) Docket No. 5 ENERGY FOR AUTHORITY TO CONSTRUCT ) 6680-CE-170 A NEW COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC ) 6 GENERATION UNIT KNOWN AS THE ) NELSON DEWEY GENERATING STATION IN) 7 CASSVILLE, GRANT COUNTY, WISCONSIN)
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9
10 EXAMINER EDWARD MARION, PRESIDING
11 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
12 VOLUME 9
13
14
15
16 Reported By: LYNN M. BAYER, CM 17 JENNIFER M. STEIDTMANN, RPR, CRR Gramann Reporting, Ltd. 18 (414) 272-7878
19
20 HEARING HELD: TRANSCRIPT PAGES: 21 September 29, 2008 2912-3130, Incl. 22 Public Service Commission EXHIBITS: 23 Madison, Wisconsin (None.) 24 4:00 and 6:30 p.m. 25 Page 2913
1 A P P E A R A N C E S
2 WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT COMPANY:
3 THOMAS M. PYPER, Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, S.C.,
4 33 East Main Street, Suite 300, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
5 RITCHIE STURGEON, 4902 Biltmore Lane, Madison,
6 Wisconsin 53718
7
8 ALLIANT ENERGY:
9 RON GRABER, 4902 North Biltmore Drive, Madison,
10 Wisconsin 53703
11
12 AMERICAN TRANSMISSION COMPANY:
13 PATRISHA SMITH, N19 W23993 Ridgeview Parkway W,
14 Waukesha, Wisconsin 53188
15
16 CITIZENS UTILITY BOARD:
17 KIRA LOEHR, Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP, 122
18 West Washington Avenue, Suite 900, Madison, Wisconsin
19 53703
20 DENNIS DUMS, 16 North Carroll Street, Suite
21 530, Madison, Wisconsin 53703
22
23 CLEAN WISCONSIN:
24 KATIE NEKOLA, 122 State Street, Suite 200,
25 Madison, Wisconsin 53703 Page 2914
1 OF THE COMMISSION:
2 ERIC CALLISTO, Chairman
3 LAUREN AZAR, Commissioner
4
5 OF THE COMMISSION STAFF:
6 SCOT CULLEN
7 JOHN LORENCE
8
9 OF THE PUBLIC:
10 WILLIAM H. HOWE, 300 South Fillmore, Prairie du
11 Chien, WI 53821
12 TONY BARTELS, IBEW Local Union 965, 1602 South
13 Park, Room 220, Madison, WI 53715
14 FORREST CEEL, Local 2150 of the IBEW,
15 N56 W13777 Silver Spring Drive, Menomonee Falls, WI
16 ROBERT T. BLOCK, 2237 Fox Avenue, Madison, WI
17 53711
18 PAMELA J. KLEISS, PSR Wisconsin, 2712 Marshall
19 Court, #2, Madison, WI 53704-2282
20 LEEAN WHITE, 729 Denniston Street, P.O. Box
21 298, Cassville, WI 53806
22 DALE SCHULTZ, State Senator, 515 North Central
23 Avenue, Richland Center, WI 53581
24 RAY SAINT, Boscobel Developers, Ltd., 1038
25 Wisconsin Avenue, Boscobel, WI 53805 Page 2915
1 RICK IRWIN, IBEW Local 965, 1602 South Park
2 Street, Room 220, Madison, WI 53715
3 JOHN PATCLE, Grant County Board, 6049 Dutch
4 Hollow Road, Potosi, WI 53820
5 JERRY LEWIS, Carpenters Local, 3413 Crabapple
6 Lane, Janesville, WI 53548
7 DENNIS RICE, 218 East Dewey, Cassville, WI
8 FRANK FIORENZA, Village of Potosi, 119 East
9 Street, Potosi, WI
10 JERRY WEHRLE, City of Lancaster Mayor, 357
11 North Taylor, Lancaster, WI 53813
12 LOUIS W. OKEY, Village of Cassville, 100 East
13 Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806
14 SUE DIETZEN, Village of Mazomanie, 133 Crescent
15 Street, Mazomanie, WI 53560
16 FRED DOMANN, 2306 Stumptown Road, Platteville,
17 WI 53818
18 JIM KOLBE, Village of Hazel Green, 2315
19 Scrabble Creek Drive, Hazel Green, WI 53811
20 DAVID WILLIAMS, 404 South Park Street,
21 Apartment 3, Madison, WI 53715
22 GEORGE KRUEGER, Platteville Area Industrial
23 Development, 52 Meins Drive, Suite 104, Platteville, WI
24 53818
25 RON BRISBOIS, Grant County Economic Page 2916
1 Development, 1800 Bronson Boulevard, Fennimore, WI 53809
2 JEFF CHRISTIE, Brooks & Christie Forestry
3 Consultants, 492011 Walnut Pond Lane, Gays Mills, WI
4 54631
5 CHARLES PUGH, 1015 W. Fourth Street,
6 Platteville, WI 53818
7 RICHARD GORDER, Wisconsin Farm Bureau
8 Federation, 5683 East Pleasant View Road, Mineral Point,
9WI
10 LARRY JEFFETT, Grant County Farm Bureau, 11792
11 County K, Lancaster, WI 53813
12 RICHARD E. KOLB, Scenic Rivers Energy
13 Cooperative, 231 North Sheridan Street, Lancaster, WI
14 53813
15 FERRON HAVENS, Wisconsin Agribusiness Council,
16 P.O. Box 46100, Madison, WI 53744
17 JOHN RUTKOWSKI, Allied Stone, LLC, 850 Wilson
18 Street, Fennimore, WI 53805
19 TOM OKEY, 622 Denniston Street, P.O. Box 627,
20 Cassville, WI 53806
21 JILL FAUROTE, 314 West Dewey Street, P.O. Box
22 24, Cassville, WI 53806
23 PARICIA A. OKEY, 622 Denniston Street,
24 Cassville, WI 53806
25 JACK and JOAN BAUSCH, 405 West Bluff Street, Page 2917
1 Cassville, WI 53806
2 LEONE MAYNE, 1017 East Bluff Street, Cassville,
3 WI 53806
4 ROGER L. SEDGWICK, Sedgwick Realty, P.O. Box 5,
5 5558 Keene Drive, Potosi, WI
6 AMBROSE and GERALDINE MUMM, 1110 Jack Oak Road,
7 Cassville, WI 53806
8 CINDY WHYTE, 502 East Amelia Street, Cassville,
9 WI 53806
10 MARY I. ESSER, 6334 State Road 81, Cassville,
11 WI 53806
12 JERRY A. AMES, 403 Ames Lane, Potosi, WI 53820
13 JIM REED, 3287 County O, Platteville, WI
14 GRETEL WINTERWOOD, Dubuque Audubon Society,
15 1555 Montrose Terrace, Dubuque, IA 52001
16 HAROLD A. DAUS, 135 Preston Drive, Platteville,
17 WI 53818
18 EILEEN NICHOLS, Platteville City Council, 1115
19 Perry Drive, Platteville, WI
20 BARBARA DAUS, 135 Preston Drive, Platteville,
21 WI 53818
22 LACHLON GABEL, 9691 Slabtown Road, Lancaster,
23 WI 53813
24 STEVEN G. KIRSCHBAUM, 109 West Dewey Street,
25 P.O. Box 302, Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2918
1 NICK GANTERBEIN, Anchor Inn Supper Club, 1018
2 East Bluff Street, Cassville, WI 53806
3 DOUGLAS R. SCHAUFF, Chairman, Town of
4 Cassville, 9973 Rattlesnake Road, Cassville, WI 53806
5 MARK KARTMAN, 108 West Bluff Street, P.O. Box
6 642, Cassville, WI 53806
7 LORI SCHOLL, Alliant Energy, 1026 East Bluff,
8 Cassville, WI 53806
9 MATT PLOESSL, Alliant Energy, 1021 East Bluff,
10 Cassville, WI 53806
11 ERICA SCHOLL, 1026 East Bluff Street,
12 Cassville, WI 53806
13 TARA SCHOLL, 1026 East Bluff Street, Cassville,
14 WI 53806
15 KATE VOGT, P.O. Box 568, Cassville, WI 53806
16 LARS BERGAN, Vernon County, WI
17 AMY KARTMAN, 108 West Bluff Street, Cassville,
18 WI 53806
19 KURT WARRINGTON, JR., Carpenters Union 314,
20 13071 Willis Lane, Bagley, WI 53801
21 KEVIN WARRINGTON, Carpenters Union 314, 1511
22 South 11th Street, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821
23 DENISE PLOESSL, P.O. Box 448, Cassville, WI
24 53806
25 JOE PLOESSL, 601 Mulberry Drive, Cassville, WI Page 2919
1 53806
2 STEVE and SUE KIRSCHBAUM, 208 Denniston Street,
3 Cassville, WI 53806
4 CAROL BEALS, 45 Commerce Street, Platteville,
5 WI 53818
6 RYAN DRIESSEN, 439 West Hawthorne Drive,
7 Waupun, WI 53963
8 DANIEL and DIANE GLASSMAKER, 506 West Dewey
9 Street, P.O. Box 327, Cassville, WI 53806
10 TIMOTHY E. McGUIRE, 523 Mulberry, Cassville, WI
11 53806
12 RICHARD JASZCZYK, DACA & Company, LLC, 420 West
13 Maple Street, Lancaster, WI 53813
14 NANCY KLOSSING, 8285 Adams Lane, Cassville, WI
15 53806
16 BRIAN EVERHART, 930 Hillcrest Circle,
17 Platteville, WI 53818
18 JIM MILLER, OPCMIA 599 Area 204, 1201 Post
19 Road, Madison, WI 53713
20 MARGOT L. KING, 1010 Seventh Avenue,
21 Platteville, WI 53818
22 KAREN A. ENNESSEN, 3893 Mill Creek Road,
23 Dodgeville, WI 53533
24 WILLIAM M. WOOD, Town of Wyalusing, 12118
25 Highway P, Bagley, WI 53801 Page 2920
1 MORRIS SCHAUFF, 5561 Oak Lane, Cassville, WI
2 53806
3 KATHLEEN TIMMERMAN, 5927 Millstream Lane,
4 Cassville, WI 53806
5 BRUCE FRITZ, Fritz Family Farms, 230 West
6 Cherry, Lancaster, WI
7 KEN and DELORES WILLIAMS, 501 Amelia Street,
8 Box 465, Cassville, WI 53806
9 PHILIP BERES, 7269 County Road VV, Cassville,
10 WI 53806
11 MALCOLM GREELEY, 111 Martha Street, Blue
12 River, WI
13 SHARON BONTREGER, 9719 State Road 81,
14 Cassville, WI 53806
15 MIKE LAND, Virchow Krause & Company, LLP, 10
16 Terrace Court, Madison, WI 53718
17 THERESE LEAB, 1500 Jack Oak Road, Cassville, WI
18 53806
19 LANCE WAMSLEY, 4416 Armar Drive, #9, Cedar
20 Rapids, OA 52403
21 MATT LORSCHETER, 6481 Highway 81, Cassville, WI
22 53806
23 JIM WAMSLEY, 6657 Camel Ridge Road, Cassville,
24 WI 53806
25 MARY GLASS, P.O. Box 494, Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2921
1 LINDA SCHMIDT, 1229 East Amelia, Cassville, WI
2 53806
3 JENNIFER E. FURE, 316 Fredrick Street,
4 Cassville, WI 53806
5 RODNEY JOHNSON, Grant County Board, 507 West
6 Street, Blue River, WI 53518
7 STEPHEN J. ADRIAN, District 14 Grant County,
8 12722 County Road V, Glen Haven, WI
9 ANN CONLEY, 8132 Adams Lane, Cassville, WI
10 53806
11 DAVE WIEDERHOLT, 1300 Jack Oak Road, Cassville,
12 WI 53806
13 BRIAN G. CONLEY, IBEW Local 14, 8132 Adams
14 Lane, Cassville, WI 53806
15 GARY R. DRESEN, 10524 Highway 133, Cassville,
16 WI 53806
17 HARRY and SHIRLEY HARTWICK, 616 West Bluff
18 Street, P.O. Box 313, Cassville, WI 53806
19 RICK DeWITTE, 11121 St. Charles Road,
20 Cassville, WI 53806
21 THOMAS J. WHYTE, 502 East Amelia Street,
22 Cassville, WI 53806
23 MARYANN C. CADWELL, 622 Mulberry Drive,
24 Cassville, WI 53806
25 CINDY LENZ, Alliant Energy, 18178 199th Avenue, Page 2922
1 Maquoketa, IA 52060
2 TAMMY REYNOLDS, 5673 Far Nuf Road, Cassville,
3 WI 53806
4 AMY HAUK, 8047 Burton Lane, Potosi, WI 53820
5 LORI FURE, 5956 Chaffie Hollow Road, Cassville,
6 WI 53806
7 OWEN and JUDY ADRIAN, 11214 Settlement Road,
8 Cassville, WI 53806
9 E. G. McLEAN, Woodman Farm, 14-818 State Road
10 133, Woodman, WI
11 TERRY WILDES, Plasterers & Cement Masons Local
12 599
13 PAT HAAS, 659 Denniston Street, Cassville, WI
14 53806
15 NORMAN HAAS, 57 Denniston Street, Cassville, WI
16 53806
17 MICHAEL HUNDE, Rottochopper, Inc., N1573 Bunlun
18 Hill Road, Rockland, WI 54653
19 LUKE PLOESSL, 112 West Bluff, Cassville, WI
20 53806
21 DAVID and PATRICIA WOOD, 10985 Garden Prairie
22 Road, Cassville, WI 53806
23 MARK D. HOFFMANN, IBEW Local 159, 1602 South
24 Park Street, Madison, WI 53715
25 HELEN McNETT, P.O. Box 522, Cassville, WI Page 2923
1 53806
2 KEITH McNETT, 412 Denniston, Cassville, WI
3 53806
4 RICHARD and ALICE CERWIN, 206 West Bluff
5 Street, Cassville, WI 53806
6 MONROE J. and JUDITH A. ADRIAN, 305 West Dewey
7 Street, Cassville, WI 53806
8 ROBERT ALLEN LEE, 714 West Front Street,
9 Cassville, WI 53806
10 TROY LAMBERT, Lambert Forest Products, 20534
11 Aspen Avenue, Warrens, WI 54666
12 CHARLES DIETRICH, 611 West Front Street,
13 Cassville, WI 53806
14 MARK MASTERS, 2782 County Farm Road,
15 Dodgeville, WI 53533
16 RAYMOND KIRSCHBAUM, 301 West Bluff Street,
17 Cassville, WI 53806
18 KENT MAUST, Carpenters Union, Box 344, 238
19 First Street, N.E., New Albin, IA 52160
20 KAY WOOD, 11149 Woodland Heights, Cassville, WI
21 53806
22 JAMES WILLIAMS, Cement Masons Local 599, W 411
23 County K, Stoddard, WI 54658
24 JOHN T. HIGGINS, OPCMIA, 8034 West 100th
25 Street, Palos Hills, IL Page 2924
1 FRANCES C. IBARLEY, 585 County Road Z,
2 Sinsinawa, WI 53824-9701
3 LOREN CADWELL, 422 East Dewey Street,
4 Cassville, WI 53806
5 PAULINE D. UPPENA, Village of Cassville, 621
6 East Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806
7 SHERRY ROBINSON SCHAUFF, Village of Cassville,
8 109 East Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806
9 KATHERINE ROBINSON, Village of Cassville, 109
10 East Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806
11 MICHAEL S. GOODMAN, 540 West Olin Avenue,
12 Madison, WI 53715-2169
13 PAUL THAMES, 801 East Cherry, Lancaster, WI
14 53813
15 RUSS METCALFE, 504 Denniston Street, Cassville,
16 WI 53806
17 ROBERT A. VOGT, 118 East Amelia, Cassville, WI
18 53806
19 JOANN FEIST, 585 County Road Z, Sinsinawa, WI
20 53824
21 MARCY MARCOS, 585 County Road Z, Sinsinawa, WI
22 53824
23 DONNA KARTMAN, 9110 Highway 133, Cassville, WI
24 53806
25 JUDY SCHUPPNER, 8496 State Road 133, Cassville, Page 2925
1 WI 53806
2 BART NIES, P.E., Village of Cassville, 100 West
3 Amelia Street, Cassville, WI 53806
4 MARGOT KING, Platteville, WI 53818
5 JERRY LINDER, City of Boscobel, 1006 Wisconsin
6 Avenue, Boscobel, WI 53805
7 MARJORIE B. ACKERMAN, P.O. Box 54, Cassville,
8 WI 53806
9 RONALD R. and JEANNE A. RITTENHOUSE, 609
10 Mulberry Drive, Cassville, WI 53806
11 KURT NOWKA, Kiesling Properties, 113 North
12 Second Street, Mount Horeb, WI 53572
13 CLARENCE FURE, 406 West Bluff Street,
14 Cassville, WI 53806
15 LELAND and NANCY ESSER, 10585 Dodge Road, Glen
16 Haven, WI
17 DEAN LICHT, IBEW Local 14, 9480 Highway 53,
18 Fall Creek, WI 54742
19 ANNETTE WARTZMIEN, 3334 Breezy Hill, Fennimore,
20 WI 53809
21 GARY and SUZANNE KIRSCHBAUM, 6061 State Highway
22 81, Cassville, WI 53806
23 TERRY HAYDEN, UA Local 434, 912 North View
24 Drive, Mosinee, WI 54455
25 BRAD BIDDICK, Rural Route 1 Popcorn, 11623 Page 2926
1 State Road 80, Livingston, WI 53554
2 JEFF REYNOLDS, Alliant Energy, 490 Shakerag
3 Street, Mineral Point, WI 53565
4 JEFF NACK, 3M Company, 801 North Marquette
5 Road, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821
6 TROY PITTZ, Alliant Energy, 4176 View Point
7 Drive, Mineral Point, WI 53565
8 MELVIN L. HOUGHTON, 638 Denniston, P.O. Box
9 126, Cassville, WI 53806
10 ARLIN ZIEMANN, IBEW Local 953, P.O. Box 3005,
11 Eau Claire, WI 54702
12 ERIN DAMMAN, 5571 Ralph Road, Oregon, WI 53575
13 DAVID and KATHY HOCKHAUSER, 1256 Jack Oak Road,
14 Cassville, WI 53806
15 ROSEMARY WIEST, 1033 East Bluff, Cassville, WI
16 53806
17 JAMES and THERESA REYNOLDS, 413 East Dewey
18 Street, Cassville, WI 53806
19 PAM PETERSON, 550 East Jefferson, Viroqua, WI
20 54665
21 LINDA KLAUER, 717 East Bluff Street, Cassville,
22 WI 53806
23 BERNICE STRATTON, 11712 Highway VV, Cassville,
24 WI 53806
25 MARGARET SCHAUFF, 6389 Highway 81, Cassville, Page 2927
1 WI 53806
2 GRACE LORSCHETER, 6481 Highway 81, Cassville,
3 WI 53806
4 KATHY RUSSELL, DK Russell Construction, 10996
5 Highway 133, Cassville, WI 53806
6 BILL HEINZELMAN, Box 7, Lancaster, WI 53813
7 LAURIE KEOPMAN, Box 192, Cassville, WI 53806
8 JULIE UPPENA, 145 North Avenue, Dickeyville, WI
9 53808
10 JANET JANSEN, 2727 Old Highway, Cuba City, WI
11 53807
12 ROBERT D. HUDSON, 20958 State Road 133,
13 Cassville, WI 53806
14 RICHARD PELLOCK, 637 Mulberry Drive, P.O. Box
15 444, Cassville, WI 53806
16 RICHARD ESSER, 9560 Camel Ridge Road,
17 Cassville, WI 53806
18 CHARLES ERRTHUM, Alliant Energy, 10290 Dodge
19 Road, Glen Haven, WI 53810
20 ALLAN A. JANSEN, 910 Badger Road, Hazel Green,
21 WI 53811
22 CRAIG WAGNER, Sheet Metal Workers Local 18,
23 5425 West Vliet Street, Milwaukee, WI 53208-2118
24 TRACY BAUSCH, Village of Cassville Deputy
25 Clerk, Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2928
1 MARLENE ESSER, 9560 Camel Ridge Road,
2 Cassville, WI 53806
3 JEFF HAVIND, Carpenters Local 1143, 2421 Larson
4 Street, La Crosse, WI 54603
5 JASON WILLAMS, Carpenters Local 1143, 2421
6 Larson Street, La Crosse, WI 54603
7 MARK BROUWACKER, Operating Engineers Local 139,
8 Madison, WI
9 LOUIS PODY, Plumbers Local 75, 6200 Gisholt
10 Drive, Suite 101, Madison, WI 53713
11 JOHN HUBER, 2505 West State Street, Janesville,
12 WI
13 JOHN A. MERRITT, 1605 Center Avenue,
14 Janesville, WI 53545
15 SCOTT WATSON, 6217 Piedmont Road, Madison, WI
16 53711
17 GREGORY W. PIONKA, 232 Pheasant Lane,
18 Janesville, WI 53546
19 KATHY KACHEL, P.O. Box 166, Bagley, WI 53801
20 GRANT LOY, 11153 Annaton Road, Stitzer, WI
21 MICHAEL STINSON, 9174 Isanti Street, N.E.,
22 Blaine, MN 55449
23 RON HANKO, 5202 Monument Lane, Madison, WI
24 53704
25 BONNIE J. KOTEWA, 501 Denniston Street, Page 2929
1 Cassville, WI 53806
2 SHEILA R. ACKERMAN, Box 242, 113 West Dewey,
3 Cassville, WI 53806
4 MIKE CAREY, Carpenters Union, 5202 Monument
5 Lane, Madison, WI 53704
6 COREY R. STARR, E9401 County Road SS, Viroqua,
7 WI 54665
8 BARBARA KIENITZ, 654 Denniston Street, P.O. Box
9 164, Cassville, WI 53806
10 LAWRENCE E. HOUGHTON, 1021 East Dewey,
11 Cassville, WI 53806
12 CLARK JENSEN, Laborers Local 140, 3014 South
13 Locust Avenue, Holmen, WI 54636
14 STEVE SEVERSON, Teamsters 695, 1920 Ward
15 Avenue, Suite 7, La Crosse, WI 54601
16 WILLIAM J. BEEKER, IBEW Local 14, 1920 Ward
17 Avenue, Suite 8, La Crosse, WI 54601
18 ROGER AVECHAMP, Local 464, 4760 Bennett Road,
19 Benton, WI 53803
20 JOHN TYDRICH, Local 965, 1602 South Park
21 Street, Madison, WI
22 MICHAEL BROCKWAY, Carpenters 314, 25960 Penny
23 Benton Road, Benton, WI 53806
24 ROB GRABER, Wisconsin Power & Light, 4902 North
25 Biltmore, Madison, WI Page 2930
1 DAYLE COBURN, P.O. Box 298, Cassville, WI
2 53806
3 MIKE PYNE, IBEW 965, 1602 South Park Street,
4 Madison, WI 53715
5 IVAN HOFFLAND, 61231 Vineyard Road, Prairie du
6 Chien, WI
7 RALPH NOBLE, 10064 Highway 61, Lancaster, WI
8 PAUL ZIMMERMAN, Wisconsin Farm Bureau
9 Federation, 1241 John Q. Hammons Drive, Madison, WI 53705
10 JAMES LEE KACHEL, 10037 Kishwaukee, Bagley, WI
11 53801-0166
12 LINDA S. ADRIAN, Grant County Board of
13 Supervisors, 150 Preston Drive, Platteville, WI 53818
14 GARY RANSOM, P.O. Box 458, Cassville, WI 53806
15 THOMAS BOUZEK, 1005 East 3rd, Wauzeka, WI
16 53826
17 VINCE HUNDT
18 VINCENT LOEFFELHOF, 3432 Spoonwood Lane, Cuba
19 City, WI 53807
20 KIM KLAUER, 717 East Bluff, Cassville, WI
21 53806
22 DON RUSSELL, D.K. Russell Construction, 10992
23 Highway 133, Cassville, WI 53806
24 MARK W. BARTELS, Village of Cassville, 100 West
25 Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2931
1 JAMES McMAHON, P.O. Box 655, Cassville, WI
2 53806
3 FABER RUNDE, Town of Jamestown Town Chairman,
4 Box 236, Kieler, WI 53812
5 THOMAS BENISH, North Central States Regional
6 Council of Carpenters, 7714 Westman Way, Middleton, WI
7 53562
8 GENE D. SAMUELSON, IBEW 965, 5316 Nor Cypress
9 Drive, Milton, WI 53563
10 WILLIAM GILBERT, Futurewood Corp., 9676 Kruger
11 Road, Hayward, WI
12 BEN BALLWEG, 415 Cedar Street, P.O. Box 644,
13 Cassville, WI 53806
14 THOMAS BENNETT, Scenic Rivers Energy
15 Cooperative, 8995 Cemetery Road, Lancaster, WI 53813
16 JESSE AVERKAMP, Local 464, 4760 Bennett Road,
17 Benton, WI 53803
18 WILLIAM BIEFEN, Grant County Board, District 2,
19 Montfort, WI 53569
20 DENNIS SHANNON, Local 78, 361 Galena Street,
21 Benton, WI 53803
22 MARK A. STEAD, Grant County Board, 700
23 Broadway, Platteville, WI 53818
24 LORI NEMITZ, P.O. Box 23, Cassville, WI 53806
25 HOLLY ASKER, 310 East Dewey, Cassville, WI Page 2932
1 53806
2 JANE BERNHARDT, P.O. Box 397, Cassville, WI
3 53806
4 BRENDA M. SCHNERING, 630 Mulberry Drive,
5 Cassville, WI 53806
6 ROGER and REITA BREUER, 1022 East Dewey Street,
7 Cassville, WI 53806
8 SARAH ANNE KAMINSKI, 585 County Road Z,
9 Sinsinawa, WI 53824
10 CATHY ELWELL, 4252 Kelly Lane, Potosi, WI
11 53820
12 PETER CORBY, 4252 Kelly Lane, Potosi, WI 53820
13 LOYLE K. WOOD, P.O. Box 194, Cassville, WI
14 53806
15 ELAINE S. WOOD, 1244 Jack Oak Road, Cassville,
16 WI 53806
17 CHARLOTTE SOLARZ, 511 County Road Z, Hazel
18 Green, WI
19 PATRICK WILSON, 2222 Hoeschler Drive,
20 La Crosse, WI 54601
21 ROBERT SMITH, M.D., P.O. Box 154, Cassville, WI
22 53806
23 BETH SMITH, 306 East Bluff, Cassville, WI
24 53806
25 JULIE DEAN, 701 East Bluff, Cassville, WI Page 2933
1 53806
2 BRAD WEST, B & G Forms, 10465 County Y,
3 Cassville, WI 53806
4 GREG LENZ, 5964 Dietrich Height, Cassville, WI
5 53806
6 GRETEL WINTERWOOD, Dubuque Audubon, 1555
7 Montrose Terrace, Dubuque, IA 52001
8 ALICE RICHTER, P.O. Box 172, Cassville, WI
9 53806
10 MARK SETHNE, 191 Fountain Bluff Lane,
11 Platteville, WI
12 DAN BOHLIN, End-O-Way, LLC, 10854 Robin Lane,
13 Stitzer, WI 53825
14 DON FERBER, Four Lakes Group Sierra Club, 4280
15 Allis Avenue, Madison, WI 53716
16 GORDON J. KREMER, 605 Mulberry Drive,
17 Cassville, WI 53806
18 ELOISE KIRSCHBAUM, P.O. Box 602, Cassville, WI
19 53806
20 LOREN M. JUNK, 209 East Amelia Street,
21 Cassville, WI 53806
22 JEFFREY A. CURRY, 6706 8th Avenue, Platteville,
23 WI 53818
24 BRIAN NICHOLS, Nichols Custom Chopping, LLC,
25 9241 McClaskey, Mount Hope, WI 3816 Page 2934
1 PAUL A. UDELHOVEN, 310 East Amelia, Cassville,
2 WI 53806
3 SHARON SWEET, 2108 Louisburg Road, Cuba City,
4 WI 53807
5 ROBERT BERNHARDT, 306 East Dewey, P.O. Box 294,
6 Cassville, WI 53806
7 SUSAN BERNHARDT, P.O. Box 194, Cassville, WI
8 53806
9 ALFRED J. MULLER, 10609 Cadwell Road,
10 Cassville, WI 53806
11 THOMAS VONDRUM, 701 West Front S.E., Cassville,
12 WI 53806
13 COLLEEN KAWALSKI-PLOESSL, 9776 Camel Ridge
14 Road, Cassville, WI 53806
15 GINA VONDRUM, 701 West Front Street, Cassville,
16 WI 53806
17 DARLENE OKEY, Okey Construction, 314 East
18 Dewey, Cassville, WI 53806
19 IRENE WOOD, 417 East Amelia Street, Cassville,
20 WI 53806
21 EVELYN CONLEY, 623 West Front Street,
22 Cassville, WI 53806
23 KATHY BREUER, 7781 Grant River Road, Cassville,
24 WI 53806
25 MAISLA REYNOLDS, P.O. Box 53, Beetown, WI Page 2935
1 53802
2 KELLI FURE, 521 West Amelia Street, Cassville,
3 WI 53806
4 WAYNE PLOESSL, 9776 Camel Ridge Road,
5 Cassville, WI 53806
6 BILL BREUER, 7781 Grant River Road, Cassville,
7 WI 53806
8 NEIL SENG, 8509 Chase Ridge Road, Potosi, WI
9 53820
10 KENNETH J. SCHAUFF, 409 East Amelia Street,
11 Cassville, WI 53806
12 PRESTON and DELORES TANAKA, 513 West Amelia
13 Street, Cassville, WI 53806
14 AMY OKEY, 601 West Front Street, Cassville, WI
15 53806
16 ROD WILLIAMS, Local 140 La Crosse, 4395
17 Loerfholtz Road, Platteville, WI 53818
18 DARLENE SCHAUFF, 5729 Chaffie Hollow Road,
19 Cassville, WI 53806
20 ARNOLD D. JANK, Cassville, WI 53806
21 JANET UDELHOVEN, 310 East Amelia Street,
22 Cassville, WI 53806
23 MARY PLOESSL, 1214 East Dewey, P.O. Box 358,
24 Cassville, WI 53806
25 FRANCIS E. BAUER, 213 East Dewey, Cassville, WI Page 2936
1 53806
2 TERRY ROE, 217 East Front Street, Lot #1,
3 Cassville, WI 53806
4 ELLEN K. ROE, P.O. Box 72, Cassville, WI 53806
5 BRIAN HARRIS, 117 West Bluff Street, Cassville,
6 WI 53806
7 GENE and TERRI LEY, 618 East Dewey, Cassville,
8 WI 53806
9 DARCY PLOESSL, 112 West Bluff, Cassville, WI
10 53806
11 CLIFF TENNESSEN, 11150 St. Charles Road,
12 Cassville, WI 53806
13 GARY and DEB BARTELS, P.O. Box 368, 722 East
14 Amelia, Cassville, WI 53806
15 SHAWN L. MUMM, 9677 Highway 133, Cassville, WI
16 53806
17 MARY LEE, 714 West Front Street, Cassville, WI
18 53806
19 BRIAN MUMM, Cassville, WI 53806
20 DENNIS BAUSCH, Chief, Cassville Fire
21 Department, 10010 Highway 133, Cassville, WI 53806
22 SUE BARTELS, 1018 East Dewey Street, Cassville,
23 WI 53806
24 BAE RUTH KIRSCHBAUM, 1320 Jack Oak Road,
25 Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2937
1 MICHAEL D. LIEURANCE, 939 East Walnut Street,
2 Lancaster, WI
3 CHARLES WINTERWOOD, 1555 Montrose Terrace,
4 Dubuque, IA 52001.
5 LAURA COGLAN, 18284 Doyle Road, Blue River WI
6 MATTHEW DIGMAN, 460 Henry Hall, Madison WI
7 53706
8 JEFF GLASS, 116 East Amelia, Cassville, WI
9 REX DAY, 11829 Campbell Hollow Road, Prairie du
10 Chien, WI 53821
11 MAUREEN VAN DEN BOSCH, 1883 Cty Q, Montfort, WI
12 53569
13 JENNIFER FEYERHERM, 122 West Washington Street,
14 Suite 830, Madison, WI 53703
15 DAVID BRANSON, 912 North View Drive, Mosinee,
16 WI 54455
17 WILLIAM THIBODERU, 605 E. Amelia Street,
18 Cassville, WI 53806
19 PAUL CUTTING, 1800 Bronson Blvd, Fennimore, WI
20 53809
21 STAN HOLLMANN, 1800 Bronson Blvd, Fennimore, WI
22 53809
23 TIM BAYE, 605 Schreiner Park Road, Lancaster,
24 WI 53813
25 SHANE LARSON, 2815 Kennedy Road, Jamesville, WI Page 2938
1 53545
2 AMY MORLEY, PO Box 325, Cassville, WI 53806
3 MARVIN CARTWRIGHT, 1657 Lenwood #1, Green Bay,
4 WI 54303
5 MIKE MYERS, 987 Coltview Drive, Platteville, WI
6 53818
7 ROBERY KEENEY, 320 North Aarlocker, Mount Hope
8 DENNIS SWEET, 2108 Louisburg Road, Cuba City,
9 WI 53807
10 DENNIS OKEY, 314 E. Dewey 531, Cassville, WI
11 53806
12 KERRY McCABE, 985 North Court, Platteville, WI
13 53818
14 RONALD D. HULST, 1034 Jack Oak, Cassville, WI
15 LINDA HULST, 1034 Jack Oak Road, Cassville, WI
16 ROCKY SKEMP, 6706 7th Avenue, Platteville, WI
17 RICHARD BENSON, 149 State Road 81, Platteville,
18 WI 53818
19 DON BURKE, 1057 Pole Line Road, Waukon, IA
20 53172
21 MONTE SCHOLL, 1026 E. Bluff, Cassville, WI
22 MARJORIE ADRIAN, 218 W. Bluff, Cassville, WI
23 CURTIS HART, 5755 West Road, Potosi, WI 53820
24 CARL TIMMERMAN, 5927 Millstream Lane,
25 Cassville, WI 53806 Page 2939
1 MATTHEW E. WALKER, 521 E. Amelia Street,
2 Cassville, WI 53806
3 LAWRENCE KRUGER, 513 Dennison Street,
4 Cassville, WI 53806
5 JOHN LAU, 915 East Bluff, Box 665, Cassville,
6 WI 53806
7 JULAINE ADELHOFER, 1430 Jack Oak Road,
8 Cassville, WI
9 WILFRED ADELHOFER, 1430 Jack Oak Road,
10 Cassville, WI
11 VERNA MERGON, 7806 Pride Road, Glen Haven, WI
12 DALE BONTREGER, 9719 State Road 81, Cassville,
13 WI 53806
14 MARY M. ECKSTEIN, 206 W. Dewey Street,
15 Cassville, WI
16 PATRICK R. SCHROEDER, 3945 Hypoint Road,
17 Lancaster, Wisconsin
18 LARRY WOLF, 437 Arbor Oaks Lane, Lancaster, WI
19 NEIL GARDNER, 8837 Oak Road, Glen Haven, WI
20 53810
21 ROBERT SCALLON, 106 Madison Street, Boscobel,
22 WI 53805
23 WILLIAM T. JASCOE, 1500 Jack Oak Road,
24 Cassville, WI 53806
25 BOB SEITZ, 10 East Doty Street, #500, Madison, Page 2940
1WI
2 STEVE BOOKS, 211 South 2nd Street, Mount Horeb,
3WI
4 DAVID BERNER, 75 North Benson Street,
5 Platteville, WI 53818
6 DAVID WILSON, 150 W. Alona Lane, Lancaster, WI
7 53813
8 ANDREW VERGER, 945 St. James Circle,
9 Platteville, WI 53818
10 LYNN VERGER, 945 St. James Circle, Platteville,
11 WI 53814
12 LEONARD PLUEMER, 10161 Quarry Road, Lancaster,
13 WI 53813
14 JIM McCAULLEY, 522 West North Street,
15 Dodgeville, WI 53533
16 MARK KRESOWIK, 122 West Washington Avenue,
17 Suite 830, Madison, WI 53703
18 DAVID P. WIEDERHOLT, 4060 Braelan Lane, Hazel
19 Green, WI
20 TRAVIS TRANEL, 2231 Louisburg Road, Cuba City,
21 WI 53807
22 LARS BERGAN, E9986 Nelson Road, Westby, WI
23 54667
24 TIM DONOVAN, 35 Alden Avenue, Platteville, WI
25 53818 Page 2941
1 DAVID KUHLE, 1491 Hwy 80, Hazel Green, WI
2 53811
3 RYAN SCHRYVER, 2910 McKinley Street, Madison,
4 WI 53703
5 NILES A. DALSING, 1250 Jack Oak Road,
6 Cassville, WI
7 ROBERT W. POHLE, 314 E. Amelia Street,
8 Cassville, Wisconsin
9 DAVID BUSHNELL, 915 W. Main Street,
10 Platteville, WI
11 KEVIN RAISHECK, 5632 Kadu Drive, Lancaster, WI
12 53813
13 BRENT M. WICST, 10226 Cty Y, Cassville, WI
14 53806
15 GERALD JACKSON, 2506 North 84th Avenue,
16 Chippewa Falls, WI
17 WILLIAM J. BAUSCH, 11723 Hwy VV, Cassville, WI
18 BRIAN GENTRY, 2421 Larson Street, La Crosse, WI
19 54603
20 RICHARD F. RUNDELL, 1270 Perry Drive,
21 Platteville, WI 53818
22 KAREN R. GIBBS, 518 E. Dewey Street, Cassville,
23 WI 53806
24 MAYNARD JOHNSON, 2424, La Crosse, Wisconsin
25 TIMOTHY L. KIELER, Box 383, 3720 West Banfield Page 2942
1 Road, Potosi, WI 53820
2 KATHRYN HANK, 1416 Jack Oak Road, Cassville, WI
3 BARB WILLIS, 11165 Woodland Heights, Cassville,
4 WI 53806
5 MARY JANE QUINN, 585 County Road Z, Sinsinawa,
6WI
7 LINDA A. REYNOLDS, 8295 St. Road 133, Potosi,
8 WI 53820
9 MARY CADWWELL, 422 E. Dewey Street, Cassville,
10 WI 53806
11 PATRICK J. PLOESSL, 505 Denniston Street,
12 Cassville, WI 53806
13 CHRIS J. ESSER, 6334 Hwy 81, Cassville, WI
14 53806
15 TODD BEUCKE, 912 Northview Drive, Mosinee, WI
16 54455
17 BRODY GRANBERG, 2406 Ridge Road, Eau Claire, WI
18 54701
19 SANDRA K. ACKERMAN, 44 W. Amelia Street, Box
20 486, Cassville, WI 53806
21 THOMAS ACKERMAN, 414 West Amelia, Cassville, WI
22 53806
23 VERN LEWISON, 775 61st, Fennimore, WI
24 (FOR INDEX SEE BACK OF TRANSCRIPT.)
25 Page 2943
1 (Proceedings, 4:00 p.m.)
2 EXAMINER MARION: Ladies and gentlemen, if
3 I could please ask for your attention. I would like
4 to call to order at this time the proceedings for
5 this afternoon. So I would ask folks to kindly pay
6 attention, and welcome to everyone.
7 My name is Edward Marion, I'm the
8 administrative law judge. And my job this afternoon
9 is to preside over the hearing, which simply means
10 that I will call up witnesses to testify, roughly in
11 order of the appearance slips as they were given to
12 me. Where I am aware of certain problems that folks
13 have expressed to us where they need to be heard
14 sooner rather than later, I've tried to make some
15 accommodations, particularly for our public
16 officials who have other things they need to do.
17 We have a stenographer, a court reporter,
18 if you will, who has to take everything down that
19 folks say. There may be a time that I will ask her
20 to go off the record or that one of the parties to
21 the case, one of the attorneys will ask that we go
22 off the record. But that will be very rare and
23 certainly the exception. So it's important that
24 only one person speaks at a time.
25 And I hope you all understand that this is Page 2944
1 a hearing and not a meeting so that you won't so
2 much be able to ask questions of either the
3 applicant utility or the Public Service Commission
4 staff or each other; but rather this is an
5 opportunity for you and folks who will be arriving
6 between now and our second session at 6:30 to
7 testify about the project that's before the Public
8 Service Commission and to give the Commissioners
9 your opinion as to whether you think it's a good
10 thing or not, whatever you wish to say about it.
11 I will be administering an oath in the
12 following form. I will ask you if you swear or
13 affirm that the testimony you are about to give
14 shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
15 the truth. So people who are comfortable swearing
16 can say yes to that; and people who simply want to
17 promise to tell the truth, say yes to that as well.
18 There is a possibility that as a
19 witness -- and I do ask the witnesses to take a seat
20 up here by the microphone -- there is a possibility
21 that as a witness you may be asked a clarifying
22 question by one of the attorneys who are here
23 representing either the Public Service Commission
24 staff or one of the other formal parties to this
25 proceeding. This is a court-like proceeding, Page 2945
1 although we're in a gymnasium -- and I want to thank
2 Cassville's school system for its hospitality --
3 with the informality that the surroundings suggest,
4 I will try to conduct proceedings this afternoon
5 with as much formality as a trial or as a hearing as
6 I can because that really is the forum that we're
7 in.
8 So what I'm going to do right now is call
9 the case to order and then I'm going to call names
10 of witnesses to come up and speak. I don't have an
11 arbitrary time limit that I hold people to. But
12 given the tremendous turnout this afternoon and the
13 number of individuals who wish to testify, I'm going
14 to say that between three and five minutes is going
15 to be about the limit of the testimony that I think
16 we can practically accommodate for most of you.
17 You've all seen, if you've seen the
18 appearance slips that have been handed out in the
19 front, that there are other ways to get your
20 opinions heard by the Commissioners and known to the
21 Commissioners without actually testifying. One is
22 to put your comments down in writing on the
23 appearance slip; and if there isn't enough room on
24 the front, you can take it to the back. If for some
25 reason you prefer to write on a separate piece of Page 2946
1 paper, you can offer that to me or any member of the
2 Public Service Commission staff who will be
3 available to help out in the back. Also, you can
4 get on the internet through any computer and our web
5 site has an access link so that you can make
6 comments electronically, and those will then be
7 filed and go before these Commissioners and be
8 considered just as fully as if you made those
9 comments orally face-to-face this afternoon.
10 I can't think if I have anything else.
11 Let me ask right now before we do get started if
12 anybody, especially the parties, have a question
13 about how we're going to proceed this afternoon?
14 (No response.)
15 EXAMINER MARION: Okay. So at this time,
16 I will call to order Public Service Commission of
17 Wisconsin docket 6680-CE-170, which is the
18 application of Wisconsin Power & Light Company,
19 doing business as Alliant Energy, for authority to
20 construct a new coal-fired electric generation unit
21 known as the Nelson Dewey Generating Station in
22 Cassville, Grant County, Wisconsin. I'd like to ask
23 the parties right now to enter their appearances for
24 the record, please.
25 MR. PYPER: Thank you, Your Honor. For Page 2947
1 the applicant, Wisconsin Power & Light Company, Tom
2 Pyper of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek; and also at the
3 counsel table with me is in-house counsel Attorney
4 Richie Sturgeon.
5 MS. NEKOLA: Kate Nekola for Clean
6 Wisconsin.
7 MS. LOEHR: Kira Loehr on behalf of CUB,
8 and Dennis Dums for CUB.
9 UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: Louder,
10 please.
11 EXAMINER MARION: Okay. The attorneys are
12 just stating their names. And we have so far
13 Mr. Pyper representing the utility and Ms. Loehr and
14 Ms. Nekola representing the Citizens' Utility Board
15 and Clean Wisconsin, which are two of the
16 intervenors.
17 UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE SPEAKER: I would
18 suggest if you stand up and speak in this direction
19 when you're speaking, we would be able to hear them.
20 EXAMINER MARION: Okay. That's a
21 reasonable request. If counsel does have anything
22 to say, you can stand up; and perhaps, as we say it
23 in the theory, cheat toward the audience so that we
24 can both see you and the audience can as well and
25 maybe they can also hear you better. Page 2948
1 Any other appearances to note for the
2 record? Okay. At this time, I will call -- and I
3 apologize in advance, I'm going to mispronounce
4 probably at least every other name; and rather than
5 take the time to ask you how to pronounce your name,
6 I'll just stumble through it and I bet you'll
7 recognize it.
8 Mr. John Lorence is representing the
9 Public Service Commission staff.
10 MR. LORENCE: John Lorence from the Public
11 Service Commission.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Our first witness will
13 be Mr. Frank Fiorenza, who is the Village President
14 of the Village of Potosi.
15 Good afternoon, sir. Would you please
16 stand and raise your right hand.
17 FRANK FIORENZA, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
18 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. Please be
19 seated, and you may proceed with your statement.
20 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
21 BY MR. FIORENZA: I am not a resident of
22 Cassville. I live in the nearby community of Potosi
23 just down the river from Cassville, and I am the
24 village president. And my name is Frank Fiorenza.
25 I know this project is important for Page 2949
1 Cassville, but it is equally important for
2 surrounding communities, for the State of Wisconsin
3 and for the tri-state region. For many years, this
4 corner of Wisconsin was grown, but slowly or not at
5 all. It is not as advanced economically as other
6 sections of Wisconsin, nor do we have the diversity
7 of job opportunities. Wages are lower and jobs that
8 were once available in surrounding communities no
9 longer exist. In order to grow and to provide jobs
10 to keep people here and to bring people here, power
11 is needed. If this plant can spur additional
12 economic development, we all stand to benefit.
13 I know there is concern about a
14 coal-powered plant. I am not an environmental
15 scientist, but I believe technology today can put
16 out a cleaner product; and if what I have read about
17 this plant is correct, that 20 percent of that power
18 can be generated using alternative fuels, that is
19 all a step in the right direction. As for coal, I
20 would love to see no coal burned anywhere. But I am
21 a realist and I know that that is not going to
22 happen overnight. I would like to see alternatives
23 explored; but between now and the time alternatives
24 to coal are fully developed, we need power to light
25 and heat our homes, to run our microwaves, to power Page 2950
1 our washers and dryers and computers, in short,
2 provide us with the standard of living that we have
3 become used to.
4 In the last eight and a half years in the
5 Potosi/Tennyson area, 44 new homes have been added
6 and in the township 50 homes have been added. We
7 need a reliable power source to fuel economic
8 development that can bring jobs and provide wages.
9 No region, least of all southwest Wisconsin, can
10 continue to prosper by still living in the '70s.
11 While the construction, operation and
12 maintenance of this plant will create hundreds of
13 highly skilled job opportunities, the real benefit
14 to the State of Wisconsin is that business will have
15 reliable power available when they need it to help
16 grow Wisconsin's economy. A reliable self-source of
17 baseload power will also serve as an attraction for
18 businesses considering expanding into Wisconsin.
19 In Potosi, we have completed several
20 projects including the $7 million restoration of the
21 former Potosi Brewery and incorporating into it a
22 national brewery museum designed to tap into
23 tourism. In its first three and a half months, it
24 has already attracted approximately 20,000 to 25,000
25 visitors. There is interest in a hotel coming to Page 2951
1 the village. But at this time, developers are
2 waiting to see what is going to happen here in
3 Cassville. In other words, development in my
4 community is directly tied to the power plant
5 expansion here in Cassville. I think this is the
6 case with so many communities in southwest
7 Wisconsin. Developers need the assurance that their
8 investment in the region will not be wasted. A
9 reliable power source brings that assurance.
10 For all of these reasons, I therefore
11 strongly support the Nelson Dewey expansion. Thank
12 you.
13 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you very much,
14 Mayor.
15 (Witness excused.)
16 EXAMINER MARION: Next witness is Jerry
17 Wehrle, the Mayor of Lancaster.
18 JERRY WEHRLE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 EXAMINER MARION: Please be seated.
20 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
21 BY MR. WEHRLE: Thank you, ladies and
22 gentlemen, for appearing here this afternoon to be
23 part of this informational session. As the Mayor of
24 Lancaster, which is the county seat of Grant County
25 which you happen to be sitting in too, it's also Page 2952
1 considered the heart of the upper midwest. I also,
2 as I -- I currently serve as fifth term Mayor of the
3 City of Lancaster, I am also the president of the
4 Wisconsin League of Municipalities, which involves
5 almost 600 cities and villages across the State of
6 Wisconsin, and the chairperson of the Local
7 Government Institute, which right now has
8 representatives from the counties, Wisconsin
9 Counties Association, Wisconsin Towns Association,
10 the Alliance of Big Cities, and the League of
11 Municipalities sitting at this same table discussing
12 things similar to what we're discussing today.
13 I've also previously served other
14 positions and organizations in southwest Wisconsin,
15 and I am a long life resident of this region. But
16 today I come to speak to you in my official capacity
17 as the Mayor of Lancaster and as a concerned citizen
18 of the State of Wisconsin.
19 At our August 18th council meeting, the
20 City of Lancaster officially pledged its support to
21 this project in Cassville. Let me read some of the
22 resolution that the council has asked me to read to
23 you people today:
24 Whereas, the City of Lancaster believes
25 that reliable energy is directly related to job Page 2953
1 creation and will serve as a strong economical base
2 for the State of Wisconsin, southwest Wisconsin and
3 the City of Lancaster;
4 Whereas, Alliant Energy, Wisconsin Power &
5 Light, is proposing to utilize biomass in Nelson
6 Dewey 3 and the establishment of a sustainable,
7 renewable biomass market in Wisconsin that will mean
8 additional sources of revenue to this area of
9 farmers, foresters, and agricultural operations,
10 that are almost probably unbeknown now at this
11 level, and with this biomass market also has a
12 potential to encourage the growth of native grasses
13 in southwest Wisconsin and better manage our forest
14 lands;
15 Whereas, the City of Lancaster strongly
16 believes that this flexible fuel plant is a step in
17 the right direction towards reducing our reliance on
18 fossil fuels and creating a new economical market in
19 Wisconsin and specifically this industry complex is
20 a fit for southwest Wisconsin;
21 Whereas, the cities require affordable
22 energy to meet their demands of citizens nowadays
23 for services while controlling the cost of
24 government, and we believe Alliant Energy, Wisconsin
25 Power, will also propose a balance and need to keep Page 2954
1 costs low and with the need to address growing
2 concerns about climate changes;
3 Therefore, be it resolved that the City of
4 Lancaster stands in support of Alliant Energy,
5 Wisconsin Power & Light's proposal to construct
6 Nelson Dewey 3 in Cassville and we also encourage
7 the use of 20 percent biomass at this plant.
8 I have witnessed firsthand the benefits of
9 reliable, affordable power source. For years
10 Wisconsin could count on below average rates and
11 above average reliability. Because of inaction and
12 lack of investment, perhaps caused by regulatory
13 climates of this state, we have slipped from that
14 former enviable position.
15 On the economical development front, we
16 face a reality that includes Wisconsin being subject
17 to neighboring states impacting directly our
18 reliability and ability to provide adequate power to
19 our citizens and businesses. I too have crossed my
20 desk as mayor have seen businesses that could be in
21 Wisconsin, in southwest Wisconsin, we do not have
22 the power presently for them.
23 Nelson Dewey represents a significant step
24 towards ensuring that Wisconsin better controls this
25 energy future. The reality is that electrical use Page 2955
1 will continue to increase. All the efficiency
2 programs in the world will not result in enough
3 savings to renew the net for significant baseload of
4 power. Coal will be a significant part of that
5 generation plant for this baseload now and into the
6 future. Even green industries require reliable
7 power sources to produce gearboxes for wind turbines
8 and glass for solar panels. And if we begin to see
9 mass production of electric cars, they too will need
10 constant power.
11 Southwest Wisconsin can and will be a
12 leader in energy. It can do so by expanding Nelson
13 Dewey's power plant and forcing investments in
14 renewables. This area has ample natural resources
15 to provide energy beyond what is needed and to be a
16 strong exporter of energy to other regions of the
17 state and other states.
18 Concern for this state's environment is a
19 reasonable role for the PSC. I appreciate your
20 careful consideration of Alliant's plan. And after
21 my review, I still think it's a step in the right
22 direction for our energy future.
23 Conclusion: No plan is perfect. All
24 plans must consider a number of constraints. All
25 good plans involve tradeoffs, weighing of benefits Page 2956
1 against harms. No plan can ignore economical
2 reliability. But in reviewing Alliant's plan, I
3 believe they have prudently considered options,
4 dealt with a number of constraints, and face the
5 economical realities that we cannot immediately
6 expect to secure our source in energy from 100
7 percent renewables at this time.
8 The utility has offered tradeoffs which
9 includes closing its coal plant and increasing their
10 commitment to wind and biomass. The State of
11 Wisconsin should move forward with this project to
12 add reliable, affordable base power as proposed.
13 Then all citizens should join me in challenging
14 Alliant to work diligently to live up to their
15 suggestion that as much as 20 percent or more
16 biomass can be included in a project, and press them
17 to continue significant investment into wind,
18 biomass and bio gas projects in and around the
19 state.
20 This project is good for the region and
21 good for the state. I urge your kindly approval.
22 Thank you.
23 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you very much,
24 sir.
25 (Witness excused.) Page 2957
1 EXAMINER MARION: Louis W. Okey, the
2 president of the Village of Cassville.
3 LOUIS W. OKEY, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
4 EXAMINER MARION: Please be seated, and
5 you may proceed.
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
7 BY MR. OKEY: I did think maybe you wanted
8 to have the opposition say something first, but I
9 guess I'm here, so I'll say what I've got to say.
10 I am the Village President of Cassville
11 and, you know, there is a direct tie between
12 affordable, reliable energy and job creation.
13 Cassville needs this plant. I hate to say it, but
14 this plant is viable. The Village of Cassville may
15 not survive if we don't have this plant.
16 As you know, most small towns have a lack
17 of jobs and so people are leaving. You know, we
18 don't have people to run your rescue squads, your
19 fire departments, and that just further exacerbates
20 the problem. A lot of times power lines plants are
21 not wanted and transmission lines are not wanted.
22 They are wanted in Cassville. You've got an
23 overwhelming majority of people with open arms that
24 will support this plant and want this plant. And
25 we're not naive, we've had power plants here for Page 2958
1 over 50 years. We've got a lower plant right in the
2 middle of the community which now is going to be
3 converted to biomass, and again, it's right in the
4 middle of Cassville.
5 The Alliant plant is just north of town,
6 but they've always been good corporate neighbors and
7 they're people that are friends and neighbors to
8 everybody here. And we want that plant to be built
9 here and we need that plant for this town to
10 survive.
11 And it isn't just Cassville. It's Grant
12 County. As Mayor Wehrle pointed out, southwest
13 Wisconsin has lost jobs. I believe Ron Brisbois,
14 the Grant County Economic Development director, can
15 attest to that. Because we don't have the power
16 infrastructure here, we've actually lost jobs in
17 this part of the state.
18 And the State of Wisconsin needs it. I
19 talked to Governor Doyle, I talked to the people
20 that are in -- they know that our surrounding
21 neighbors, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan all
22 have more baseload power than us. And what happens,
23 they have affordable, cheaper energy. And that
24 attracts businesses, and it attracts it away from
25 Wisconsin. So we need 24/7 baseload power here. Page 2959
1 And what better place to put it than in Cassville.
2 Something we don't want to forget, and it
3 was brought up early on, but it kind of gets lost in
4 the shuffle, is that because of the objection of the
5 transmission lines here throughout the State of
6 Wisconsin, if the plant is built in Cassville, it
7 frees up 625 megawatts of power that flows into the
8 state. Now, it doesn't flow into Cassville, it
9 flows into the State of Wisconsin. I'm not an
10 engineer, but I believe it's primarily down by
11 Rockford/Beloit area. So you've got to keep that in
12 mind, it's very, very significant to have 625
13 megawatts of power flow into the state. At no cost,
14 at no emissions, you know. It's just by building a
15 plant in Cassville, it frees up that congestion. So
16 that's something I hope you really consider.
17 And I do understand, you know, the cost.
18 The costs have escalated a lot. And those are
19 usually pretty much out of Alliant's control because
20 of what's going on in China, India and other
21 building projects that are going on. I understand
22 the costs are high. Ratepayers, you know, will have
23 to understand that. But I really don't see the
24 costs going down. And we do have river and rail
25 here in Cassville to help the ratepayers, you know, Page 2960
1 by barge and rail. And you can play those costs off
2 one another.
3 Again, the biomass part of it. I mean
4 that's going to provide jobs just in itself. You
5 know, Alliant's not going to be a biomass provider.
6 They're going to have other separate industries
7 spawn just to provide that biomass to them. So it's
8 going to help area businesses, farmers, any
9 entrepreneur that's going to supply that to the
10 plant.
11 So the economic development, the issues
12 are pretty much given. It's very important to
13 Cassville and Grant County. I know the opposition
14 hits on the environmental part of it. And I can
15 tell you I don't think there is one person in this
16 gym that is not for our environment and not for our
17 children's future. I know there isn't anybody in
18 here. But life is a balance; and it takes --
19 Alliant has to walk before it can run. It takes
20 time to develop the biomass market. They can't just
21 do it all right now, and they're trying to
22 understand some of the problems with coal and
23 they're trying to alleviate that.
24 You know, I ran track here at Cassville
25 High School in the early '70s and the emissions from Page 2961
1 sulfur would go right in your mouth, you could taste
2 it. Well, industry's come a long, long way. That
3 no longer is the case. And what Alliant is doing
4 here with this biomass is continuing that trend,
5 trying to get to renewable resources of energy that
6 will sustain us in the future. But again, this all
7 takes time. And I would hope you would give them
8 that time.
9 And I guess in conclusion here, again, it
10 isn't just Cassville, it isn't just Grant County.
11 It's the State of Wisconsin that needs this plant.
12 And I beg you, for Cassville's future, please build
13 this plant.
14 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you very much,
15 sir.
16 (Witness excused.)
17 EXAMINER MARION: Sue Dietzen.
18 Ms. Dietzen.
19 SUE DIETZEN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
20 EXAMINER MARION: Be seated and proceed.
21 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
22 BY MS. DIETZEN: My name is Sue Dietzen,
23 and I'm the clerk/treasurer for the Village of
24 Mazomanie. We're located approximately 20 miles due
25 west of Madison. Page 2962
1 The development of the state's electric
2 generating infrastructure must keep pace with the
3 state's energy demands. Alliant Energy's
4 projections show energy demands increasing
5 approximately 2 to 3 percent per year. With 2013
6 being the likely start date of the proposed plant in
7 Cassville, that means we're looking at a 10 to 15
8 percent increase in just five years.
9 Baseload power sources, like this flexible
10 fuels plant that Alliant Energy is proposing,
11 support the needed reliability to meet this growing
12 demand. It is my opinion that the State of
13 Wisconsin would want to keep ahead of the game
14 instead of falling behind when it comes to an
15 important resource such as electricity. We have
16 been told since the last time we had an electric
17 meltdown in the midwest that Wisconsin is very
18 vulnerable in the area of electricity because we
19 have very few feeder lines that go into the
20 adjoining states.
21 Let's take the initiative to keep up with
22 our electric needs and allow the Nelson Dewey 3
23 plant to be constructed. Thank you.
24 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you very much.
25 (Witness excused.) Page 2963
1 EXAMINER MARION: Folks, I didn't say
2 anything the first time you applauded, and I have to
3 ask you please to not applaud or otherwise show your
4 approval or disapproval of any testimony. It does
5 eat up time that we really need. So thank you very
6 much for your cooperation.
7 Mr. Fred Domann, please.
8 FRED DOMANN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
10 BY MR. DOMANN: Well, I'm opposed to the
11 construction of this coal-fired power plant at this
12 time for the following reasons. It seems to me that
13 the power companies, not only Alliant and Wisconsin
14 Electric Power, but all power companies in the
15 United States -- there may be an exception here or
16 there -- but these power companies haven't done
17 nearly enough, they haven't scratched the surface in
18 trying to conserve of our gluttonous consumption of
19 electricity. And we use it as if we're gluttons.
20 For example, I've offered the following
21 suggestion at a number of different venues. And by
22 the way, I'm addressing my remarks at the
23 residential consumption of electricity only, not at
24 farms, not at factories. I'm talking strictly about
25 residential consumption. Page 2964
1 Now, we all know that there is a real
2 concern for energy when you ask a person on the
3 street how many kilowatt hours did you use last
4 month. Practically no one can answer that. They
5 know how many dollars they paid, but they don't know
6 how many kilowatt hours of electricity they've
7 consumed.
8 Now, I've suggested the following, as I
9 said at a number of venues. For example, it seems
10 to me that the power companies -- the power company,
11 my power company, Scenic Rivers, could bill me a
12 certain amount for the first hundred kilowatt hours,
13 a different higher number for the second hundred,
14 third hundred, fourth hundred, fifth hundred, and so
15 on until eventually the cost of electricity makes
16 you realize how many kilowatt hours per month you're
17 using.
18 My goodness, look what it did for the gas
19 consumption this summer. Gasoline hit a measly four
20 bucks a gallon which is cheap among the
21 industrialized advanced countries of the world.
22 When I go to Canada, I pay much more than that; and
23 in Europe, they pay two -- at least two times that,
24 maybe two and a half times that.
25 So our energy is way too cheap. That's Page 2965
1 why we see houses being built that are Mc-mansions
2 for a family of three. If you lived in Hawaii, for
3 example, you would be paying 45 cents a kilowatt
4 hour for your electricity because it's hard to make
5 electricity in Hawaii until they learn how to tap
6 those volcanos maybe.
7 It seems to me that this is a wonderful,
8 wonderful opportunity for Alliant Energy to put
9 their creative caps on and think about -- well,
10 first of all, conserving on energy, getting
11 residential users to use less. My goodness, we use
12 electricity to dry our clothes, even those of us
13 that live in the desert, think about that. This
14 would be a good time for Alliant Energy to figure
15 out a way to generate electricity using some novel
16 approach. I happen to know that Alliant Energy has
17 invested money and effort in helping farmers
18 generate electricity with cow manure, methane.
19 Every community, Cassville, Lancaster, Platteville
20 or Iowa, we have lots of human sewage, there are
21 lots of farms in the area. Can't we use the methane
22 that we could generate from that waste and make
23 electricity. If Alliant is helping farmers do it,
24 couldn't they help the City of Platteville and
25 Cassville do the same? Page 2966
1 We need to stop our gluttonous waste of
2 electricity. I venture to say that you could go
3 into most any restaurant in the State of Wisconsin
4 today and go into the men's room, the light would be
5 on, there would be no one there. You sit at the
6 counter, you get what, you get a glass of ice water.
7 The vast, vast majority of that ice water gets
8 dumped down the sink. It costs energy, it costs
9 coal to make that ice. It ain't cheap.
10 Thank you very much.
11 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
12 (Witness excused.)
13 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Jim Kolbe, please.
14 JIM KOLBE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
15 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
16 BY MR. KOLBE: Good afternoon. I'm Jim
17 Kolbe. I'm the public works director at the Village
18 of Hazel Green. I'm also the jack-of-all-trades in
19 Hazel Green. Our major concern is we're one of the
20 82 communities in the State of Wisconsin that still
21 have our own electric power. You don't see that
22 very much. 82 is not very many when you figure how
23 many people in the State of Wisconsin are getting
24 power from Alliant or, you know, the rural ones.
25 I've watched the power double in the last Page 2967
1 two years. I've watched the last two months the
2 power going out of sight. We've got to shut off
3 these gas peekers, we've got to get back to
4 baseload. I mean it's a simplified thing as far as
5 I'm concerned. You know, my brother told me ten
6 years ago in Houston, Texas, he paid 12 cents a
7 kilowatt. I laughed and I said that'll never happen
8 in Hazel Green. Guess what, last month it was 10
9 and a half cents with PCAC charges in Hazel Green.
10 We're coming there, we're going to surpass them if
11 this keeps going.
12 I'm asking the Public Service Commission
13 for a lot of reasons. One is -- and I've made this
14 very plain over the years -- I feel rural Wisconsin
15 is being left out of the picture. You know,
16 everything goes to Madison, everything goes to
17 Milwaukee. Try to get a grant, and it's really hard
18 for us small communities that have very small people
19 to share this load. They want us to change stuff in
20 our wastewater plants, the water plants, it can't be
21 done. I mean the money -- you know, sometimes the
22 money is not there, and if it is, the big boys are
23 getting it. And they have enough people to split
24 that load.
25 So I'm saying for the people here if Page 2968
1 everything is true that what I'm hearing from
2 Alliant -- now, one of the main key issues, I know
3 Mr. Okey brought it up, was the emissions. If it's
4 true that if the plant goes in and with all three of
5 these together, there will be less pollution than
6 what these two are causing -- I just got done
7 touring that plant here a half hour ago. And if
8 that's true, I think that part of environment is
9 good.
10 I agree with this last gentleman that said
11 we need to tap other resources; but unfortunately,
12 we've been sitting on our hands for too many years.
13 We all know nuclear power is cheap to operate, it's
14 cheap to run, but what do you do with the waste.
15 Nobody wants it in their backyard, nobody wants it
16 there. We've got to figure out what to do with that
17 waste, maybe go back to nuclear power. Windmills,
18 you're going to see windmills popping up all over
19 the place. You know, water, I know the people who
20 are really environmental people are against hydro.
21 But I'm sorry, but hydro is there and we've got to
22 find a way to be able to run a new hydro plant and
23 stay with the environment and not hurt the fish or
24 hurt the environment.
25 So I myself as Grant County -- Cassville I Page 2969
1 know needs this, Grant County needs this, rural
2 Wisconsin needs this. We need to be able to import
3 fuel. Very few people know that in the State of
4 Iowa, how many municipals in the State of Iowa
5 actually have their own generator. There is a lot,
6 like five times as many as municipals here in the
7 State of Wisconsin. They can turn them on at any
8 given time and give them extra power in the State of
9 Iowa. We've just sat on our hands and done
10 absolutely nothing in Wisconsin.
11 Well, it's time to get off our hands, it's
12 time to get with the program, and forget Columbia,
13 it's got to come to Cassville.
14 So I hope that it does go through and I
15 hope the people at the Public Service Commission
16 take serious thought into this and don't leave out
17 rural America because we are rural America here.
18 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Kolbe.
19 (Witness excused.)
20 EXAMINER MARION: David Williams, please.
21 DAVID WILLIAMS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
23 BY MR. WILLIAMS: I'm a retired reference
24 librarian. After sampling the lights of big city in
25 Atlanta and Chicago, I got an early retirement and Page 2970
1 came back to live in Madison in 2004. My
2 grandfather, Dave Williams, used to own Rock County
3 Buick, Dave Williams Rock County Buick, the biggest
4 Buick dealership in southern Wisconsin. I loved him
5 dearly. I don't think he knew what he was doing in
6 the environment selling those gas-guzzling cars and
7 taking me for rides on the Rock River with his big
8 in-board motorboat. My other grandfather, Kyle
9 Langwise (phonetic), was a piano dealer and piano
10 tuner and had apartments where Union South is on
11 Granville Avenue in Madison at the University
12 campus. The Charter Street coal-fired plant was put
13 in there sometime in the early 1960s. He died of
14 lung canter in 1969, and I can't help but feel that
15 that might have something to do with it.
16 I'm not unappreciative with the pressures
17 mounting by a big company like Alliant Energy, but
18 even more by the stretch of economic decline in
19 towns like Cassville all across America. On the
20 other hand, as you know, there is clear evidence of
21 accelerating climate destruction and extreme weather
22 which promises to get much worse in this century.
23 Even if all the countries in this earth were to stop
24 all carbon emissions today, the pollution easily of
25 extractable oil and gas resources, coupled with Page 2971
1 increasing demands for these fuels by moving to
2 industrialized economies like China and India,
3 rising fuel prices are going to undermine, further
4 undermine economies like us which are so
5 overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels.
6 The first gentleman that spoke, an
7 official from the area, talked about being a
8 realist. I am sorry, sir, but I find tying
9 ourselves completely to the current carbon based
10 economy and our extravagant way of life and trying
11 to preserve that way of lie is a kind of crackpot
12 realism. Okay.
13 Now, I'm from Madison, so you can expect
14 that I'm going to have some wild-eyed radical
15 Utopian things to say and I'm not here to disappoint
16 you. I don't have an automatic easy answer of how
17 to fix the problems of Cassville or Lancaster or
18 other towns like that that are suffering, you know,
19 from our prolonged economic meltdown. All I can say
20 is it's going to take concerted national and
21 regional action by government, corporations, unions
22 and community groups to turn this country around.
23 So here's a wild-eyed radical thing that
24 I'm going to propose. This country needs to begin
25 now to transition to a post-carbon economy. Instead Page 2972
1 of bailing out financial speculators on Wall Street,
2 instead of wasting other trillions of dollars on
3 more wars to control emission of fossil fuel
4 deposits around the world, what we need instead is a
5 marshal plan or a new New Deal, a WPA, for billions
6 of under-employed Americans to work, such as
7 yourselves here in Cassville, on jobs such as
8 weatherizing and retrofitting buildings with solar
9 panels and wind turbines because water is going to
10 become even more of a resource, it's the contention
11 in this country that fossil fuels -- we need water
12 catch and filtration on all buildings, we need grey
13 water recycling, we need backup compost sanitation,
14 and in case the power grid goes out, we need to have
15 stoves to burn biomass and we need to have other
16 ways to surviving off the grid.
17 As climate changes and fossil fuel
18 depletion accelerates, it will also seriously
19 disrupt the current patterns of industrialized
20 agriculture. So we also need to be getting out
21 of -- in addition to attempted local organic
22 agricultural, aquaculture and edible landscapes, to
23 better guarantee a local fuel supply in the event
24 that the commercial food retailing network worldwide
25 and in North America starts to collapse. And when Page 2973
1 it is no longer feasible to jump in your car, drive
2 to the mall and buy products manufactured in China
3 or Bangladesh, we will need to build local workshops
4 and manufactories, and relearn the manual skills,
5 trades once practiced by our fathers and
6 grandfathers.
7 The heat is on, the climate destruction
8 and economic meltdown, and change is coming whether
9 we like it or not. Thank you.
10 (Witness excused.)
11 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. George Krueger,
12 please.
13 GEORGE KRUEGER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
15 BY MR. KRUEGER: Good afternoon. I'm
16 George Krueger. I'm the executive director of the
17 Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation,
18 about 30 miles southeast of here, and I do the
19 business retention marketing for the industrial park
20 and the City of Platteville. I'm also involved in a
21 ten-state multi-regional economic development
22 organization as the executive board member and
23 treasurer, I'm on the Wisconsin Economic Development
24 Association as exec. board member and treasurer,
25 Southwest Regional Wisconsin, Grant County and also Page 2974
1 Platteville. So I've got a lot of different
2 perspectives out of the region and where this power
3 plant fits in in our development strategies.
4 First of all, it's extremely important
5 from the start just on the construction jobs
6 themselves, good paying jobs -- and I'm sure you'll
7 hear a lot about that tonight. Also the operating
8 jobs at Alliant, as you can see here in Cassville,
9 are very important and they're important to our
10 entire area and region. And then thirdly, the
11 economic opportunities that this plant will help
12 with, not only on power, but also with biomass and
13 the industry of that that's been spawned. Because
14 one of the things we're working on in southwest
15 Wisconsin is to position ourselves at the energy
16 region. And we do have tremendous infrastructure in
17 this area to support that strategy.
18 On the industrial development side, power
19 supply is extremely important for many businesses.
20 It's our number one concern. And if you don't have
21 it, they will not come. We have passed on several
22 projects recently that could not be supported by our
23 current electrical capabilities. Data centers, food
24 manufacturing, and in Platteville we are expanding
25 our own manufacturing and we need the power, we are Page 2975
1 directly affected by this, and this is a very
2 important project for our economic development
3 strategy here in southwest Wisconsin.
4 We are an energy rich region. Biomass is
5 a great fit for us. We have the infrastructure and
6 support. And Louis Okey covered that very well.
7 Along with the transmission of the power onto the
8 grid. We are an energy importer in Wisconsin. And
9 we want to be more self-sufficient on this, and so
10 another example is the Badger State ethanol which
11 takes corn grown in the area and converts it to
12 ethanol, and now we have a service station in
13 Platteville that's selling our energy right here.
14 And this is the same type of a concept to be
15 self-sufficient.
16 And finally, as has been said already, our
17 power load is growing 2 to 3 percent a year. We
18 need the baseload power. The solar wind are great.
19 But we need consistent, reliable, economical -- and
20 I want to repeat economical -- power is essential
21 for our economic development and our economic well
22 being.
23 So I ask you to seriously consider and
24 approve this application for the Nelson Dewey
25 expansion. Thank you. Page 2976
1 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Krueger.
2 (Witness excused.)
3 EXAMINER MARION: Ron Brisbois with the
4 Grant County Economic Development.
5 RON BRISBOIS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
7 BY MR. BRISBOIS: I am Ron Brisbois with
8 Grant County Economic Development Corporation. And
9 of course, we support the project for the various
10 reasons stated, for the job creations and the
11 biomass opportunities.
12 I've been working with business entities
13 on the biomass side of it to make sure that there is
14 going to be a good, reliable source for the biomass
15 for Nelson Dewey as well as other projects in the
16 State of Wisconsin. I'm very excited about the
17 opportunities we're seeing for -- with that coming
18 down the pike.
19 But one thing I also wanted to touch on,
20 what the previous testimony was, from the standpoint
21 we need this power now. We have a shortage, and I
22 didn't realize that until we had these two projects
23 come along this year, that we have a true need on
24 our power grid with these high tech companies. And
25 that really opened, you know, our eyes to the need Page 2977
1 for baseload power. And if Nelson Dewey would have
2 been on line -- Nelson Dewey 3 expansion would have
3 been on line, we would have been able to provide for
4 projects. But without it we cannot. And I think
5 that's just showing the initial stages of the need
6 that we're going to be seeing in the future.
7 Now, we support wind farms, alternative
8 energy, and those are great projects. We've been
9 working on several proposed wind farms in Grant
10 County. The last week, I went to a town board
11 meeting on one of those projects, 100 megawatt wind
12 farm, and that project, there was a strong vocal
13 opposition to the siting of that 100 megawatt wind
14 farm in this county. Now then, I'm hoping that that
15 -- that this indicates that that project is still
16 very much a maybe. If it's not going forward, I
17 consider it a major obstacle.
18 But nevertheless, Nelson Dewey is a real
19 solution that we have to our energy needs. And I
20 guess right now that's the real solution that we
21 have put it -- presented to us, and it's a very good
22 project and I fully support it.
23 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
24 (Witness excused.)
25 EXAMINER MARION: Jeff Christie, please. Page 2978
1 JEFF CHRISTIE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
2 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
3 BY MR. CHRISTIE: My name is Jeff
4 Christie, and I'm a co-owner of Brooks & Christie
5 Forestry Consulting Company, and we represent
6 hundreds of landowners throughout Illinois,
7 Wisconsin and Iowa.
8 My testimony is going to be somewhat
9 prejudiced. I'm in favor of the forests here. And
10 in doing so, I think the whole business of the -- of
11 utilizing biomass is going to be a great improvement
12 to the forests here because we're able to basically
13 do the weeding of our gardens here. It's going to
14 be able to supply the power plant with the needed
15 fuel and also improve the forests here.
16 Utilizing the biomasses will improve the
17 forests. Presently the harvests that include the
18 removal of the small diameter trees of the less
19 desired species would greatly improve our forests
20 here today that we have. And presently the
21 Wisconsin DNR is currently developing biomass
22 harvesting guidelines to help ensure that any of
23 this biomass harvesting is going to be done in a
24 responsible way that's going to protect the forest
25 industry. Page 2979
1 So we are definitely here in support of
2 the construction of this plant, and more so the
3 opportunity for landowners then to realize some
4 income from this and to improve our forests as we
5 see them here today. Thank you.
6 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
7 (Witness excused.)
8 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Charles Pugh.
9 CHARLES PUGH, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
11 BY MR. PUGH: I'm Charles Pugh. I'm a
12 resident of Platteville. I'm against the building
13 of the plant, expansion of the plant, and I'll
14 mention my -- go over my concerns briefly. This
15 coal plant, if it is approved and constructed, will
16 emit mercury which is already a severe problem all
17 over Wisconsin. Not only in the lakes, but actually
18 everywhere. We always just are concerned most about
19 the, you know, surface waters, but.
20 This plant will emit higher particulates
21 and higher greenhouse gases than any alternates,
22 such as wind generators or even the natural gas
23 plant which would be much cleaner.
24 I believe that the plant will be too
25 expensive for consumers like myself. Most certainly Page 2980
1 in the short run, but probably worse actually in the
2 long run where we'll be maybe stuck with a plant
3 that needs to be retrofitted or discarded.
4 Alliant's promotions and advertising that
5 this plant will burn significant biomass appears to
6 me to be a smokescreen. There is a banner out here,
7 right over here on Dewey Street which addresses
8 burning switchgrass and bio fuels and doesn't
9 mention coal at all. And I believe that the plant
10 is primarily being designed to burn various grades
11 and various types of coal. That's it.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Pugh.
13 (Witness excused.)
14 EXAMINER MARION: Richard Gorder, please.
15 RICHARD GORDER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 MR. GORDER: I have a full written
17 comment. Can I present that to you?
18 EXAMINER MARION: Yes. Thank you.
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
20 BY MR. GORDER: My name is Richard Gorder.
21 I'm from Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and I'm a dairy
22 farmer. I also happen to serve as a district
23 representative of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau
24 Federation and represent the counties of Lafayette,
25 Grant, Crawford, Vernon, Richland and Iowa County. Page 2981
1 I also serve as vice president of the Wisconsin Farm
2 Bureau Federation.
3 Mr. -- Fellow Commissioners, let me just
4 say that we are in full support, to begin with, of
5 this process and this plant. I have served on
6 various committees throughout the state. One in
7 particular is the NRCS State Technical Advisory
8 Committee. I mention that simply because there is
9 certain concerns out there relative to the biomass
10 issue and conservation. I also have served on
11 various non-point committees and nutrient management
12 committees, have served as a county commissioner,
13 and also served the term on the Southwest Regional
14 Planning Commission, also an entity that is very
15 interested, I would think, in seeing this project go
16 forward.
17 I'm here today representing the 43,000
18 farmer members of our organization. And they are in
19 full support of completion and the biomass entity of
20 this project. We are a grass roots organization
21 where our policy filters from the grass roots up.
22 It isn't coming from staff, it isn't coming from the
23 board of directors. And let me just very briefly
24 read to you our policies, it's just two sentences,
25 and let me just say this has been on our books for Page 2982
1 many years, this wasn't policy that was simply
2 presented for today's appearing. "Wisconsin Farm
3 Bureau supports the construction of new generation
4 coal-fired plants in the areas of states
5 experiencing expanding electrical demands in order
6 to eliminate the need for long-distance transmission
7 lines and to ensure adequate electricity at
8 affordable rates. Further, we support the state and
9 national energy policy which includes energy
10 conservation, increased domestic production, and
11 marketing of renewable fuels and energy, including,
12 but not limited to, ethanol, bio-diesel, broad-based
13 fuels, methane, water, wind and solar."
14 These are our policies and these are the
15 policies in which we base our support on. One of
16 our additional policies is the 25/25 policy that has
17 been on our books for a number of years where we are
18 to receive -- or to manufacture 25 percent of our
19 energy needs from natural -- from biomass resources
20 by the year 2525. And I might point out the
21 governor has also adopted the 25/25 initiative and
22 it fits very nicely in -- with Governor Doyle's
23 declaration of energy independence in July of 2006.
24 We want to commend Alliant Energy. We
25 began discussions with Alliant Energy. They weren't Page 2983
1 going to move forward on this unless they had the
2 backing of the agricultural community. And they've
3 worked with us, we've had a number of meetings; and
4 until agriculture was willing to sign on, Alliant
5 wasn't ready to move forward.
6 We find this to be a very positive move,
7 and we commend Alliant in this. We would also have
8 to understand that there is a number of acres out
9 there, base acres, that could be available for this
10 biomass portion of the energy facility. We realize
11 that they probably will be needing some expansion of
12 some maybe national policy, maybe what we'd call a
13 modified CRP so that land could be -- stay in the
14 CRP, wouldn't be holding back any of the row crop
15 production. And whether you call it CRP plus or
16 modified CRP, we'd probably need some help on a
17 national level so we could harvest those CRP acres
18 in a conservation-minded way and not affect the soil
19 or water of the state. And certainly there are no
20 better stewards in the State of Wisconsin than its
21 farmers.
22 Needless to say, Wisconsin has been a
23 leader and continues to be a leader in the bio
24 energy field. And we, along with the university,
25 have worked in establishing the grant that was Page 2984
1 awarded by the Department of Energy here last year.
2 And we are in complete support of working with Dean
3 Molly Jahn.
4 Let me just say there has been a lot of
5 comment and I don't need to further talk about the
6 local benefits and the needs for this. I would only
7 say that it is agriculture who most generally wakes
8 up in the morning and hits that light switch and
9 lights come on. We are dependent on a reliable
10 energy source for us to conduct our business. And
11 it is usually agriculture that is one of the last to
12 turn the light switch out at light. We are in full
13 support of this and would ask the Commissioners to
14 advance this project. Thank you.
15 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
16 (Witness excused.)
17 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Larry Jerrett.
18 LARRY JERRETT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
20 BY MR. JERRETT: I'm Larry Jerrett. I am
21 a farmer from Lancaster area. I also happen to be
22 the Grant County Farm Bureau president. Grant
23 County Farm Bureau does support the Alliant and
24 Wisconsin Power & Light Company's proposed project
25 at Cassville Nelson Dewey plant. With the uses of Page 2985
1 biomass at the Nelson Dewey plant, it would be up --
2 it would open up new revenue for area farmers. And
3 also logging operations. And create business
4 operations for delivery and supplying of that
5 biomass to the plant.
6 Of the 130,000 acres of corn, some of that
7 corn fodder could be used to produce those -- part
8 of the biomass to help -- that need -- will help be
9 needed to operate that plant. Grant County Farm
10 Bureau has also supported the plant being at
11 Cassville. Any questions?
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
13 (Witness excused.)
14 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Richard Kolb.
15 RICHARD KOLB, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 BY MR. KOLB: I'm Richard Kolb, and I'm
18 the CEO of Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative. And
19 Scenic Rivers is headquartered in Lancaster,
20 Wisconsin.
21 I am appearing here today to speak in
22 favor of the expansion of the Nelson Dewey
23 Generating Station in Cassville. And also I might
24 mention that the 24 electric cooperatives in
25 Wisconsin are represented in Madison by the Page 2986
1 Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives, as well as
2 numerous other farm cooperatives who are represented
3 by the WFC. The WFC is on record in support of this
4 proposed expansion.
5 Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative serves
6 approximately 14,000 primarily rural meters in
7 southwest Wisconsin. And this is mostly in Grant,
8 Crawford and Lafayette Counties. Although we are
9 quite small in relation to Alliant Energy, we
10 oftentimes find ourselves in competition with
11 Alliant for new commercial industrial loads and new
12 subdivisions. I only bring this part of it up to
13 illustrate that promoting Alliant Energy and its
14 objectives are not normally part of my business
15 goals. However, I do feel in this case that it is
16 in the best interest of Alliant Energy, but also in
17 the best interest of all of us in Wisconsin, for
18 this proposed expansion to be approved.
19 Now, many people have already talked about
20 the economic benefits in our area, and that is
21 extremely important to us at Scenic Rivers Energy
22 Cooperative. However, I'm going to skip over some
23 of the comments I had in that regard because they've
24 been covered very well.
25 One of the main factors that I felt that I Page 2987
1 should zero in on today, and it has been mentioned
2 briefly, is that this plant will allow for the
3 import of approximately 600 megawatts of more
4 electric power into the State of Wisconsin. This
5 great increase of import capability due to a 300
6 megawatt plant expansion is truly an advantage that
7 should not be slighted. I know of no other way that
8 we can achieve this type of import capability
9 without having to spend a great deal of money on
10 long transmission lines which, as we have seen
11 recently, that's not easily accomplished.
12 Now, I go to many meetings over the years
13 to La Crosse, Wisconsin, which is the headquarters
14 for Dairyland Park Cooperative; and the way the
15 cooperatives are set up electrically is that
16 Dairyland Park Cooperative owns the generation and
17 our cooperative and the smaller ones in the state
18 just distribute it to the members.
19 And when I go to these meetings in
20 La Crosse, I recall several times over the years
21 that they have told us that there is a lot of cheap
22 power out there in -- to the west and also from
23 Illinois. But we can't get it here to Wisconsin and
24 sell it to you so your members could serve -- can
25 save money because there is too many transmission Page 2988
1 constraints. So those transmission constraints have
2 prevented Dairyland Power from purchasing low cost
3 energy from other states, and that has prevented our
4 members from realizing economic benefit.
5 Now, also on many of the articles we read
6 in our current utility publications, the problem of
7 transmission constraints is placed in the top as
8 major concerns that we face. This increase of 600
9 megawatts of import capability will significantly
10 address the constraints Wisconsin utilities face in
11 bringing in power from the other states. It's not
12 just Alliant that will benefit from this, but all of
13 the municipal, investor-owned and cooperatives in
14 the State of Wisconsin will benefit from this
15 increase in import capability.
16 Now, we have seen tremendous increases, as
17 many of you have heard, in the cost of coal
18 delivery. So bringing the coal to Wisconsin is
19 becoming very costly. However, there are -- the
20 advantages that is seen is that in the western
21 states that are close to the Powder River basin,
22 they can transport the coal shorter distances and
23 they can produce electricity cheaper. So with this
24 import capability, we hope to get some of that power
25 into here. Page 2989
1 However, I think the best and perhaps most
2 beneficial result of this increase is that we will
3 now be able to bring a great deal of renewable
4 energy into our state. The utilities of Wisconsin
5 are obliged to meet renewable energy portfolio
6 standards in the upcoming years that are very
7 ambitious in their scope. It is my opinion that it
8 is questionable that these standards can be met in a
9 reasonable cost-effective manner without the import
10 of substantial amounts of renewable energy from the
11 states west of us for the most part.
12 Now, specifically when I speak of
13 renewable energy in this regard, I'm talking of wind
14 energy. According to the American Wind Energy
15 Association, as of March 2008, the State of
16 Minnesota ranked third in the nation in installed
17 wind energy generation, and Iowa ranked number four.
18 The State of Wisconsin ranked number 18. In fact,
19 both Iowa and Minnesota have eight and a half times
20 more installed wind generation than does the State
21 of Wisconsin.
22 Now, I'm not saying this as a slam on
23 Wisconsin's efforts because the same American Wind
24 Energy Association also estimates that Minnesota has
25 ten times more wind energy potential than Wisconsin, Page 2990
1 and Iowa has more than nine times the wind energy
2 potential that Wisconsin has.
3 So as you can see, this issue of importing
4 more power into the state is very important. For
5 the price of a 300 megawatt plant, we can also bring
6 in 600 megawatts of power. It won't be constant.
7 It will have to be at various points when the flows
8 allow it and when the states have that power
9 available to us. But I think it's a great advantage
10 that we can't pass up, so I ask the Commission that
11 you approve the expansion of the Nelson Dewey
12 generating plant. And the result will be that more
13 renewable energy will be produced at Nelson Dewey,
14 and that will also have the opportunity to tap into
15 the vast potential of states surrounding us that
16 have a lot of low cost renewable energy available.
17 Thank you.
18 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
19 (Witness excused.)
20 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Ferron Havens.
21 FERRON HAVENS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
23 BY MR. HAVENS: I'm Ferron Havens,
24 president of the Wisconsin Agribusiness Council. We
25 represent the farm -- the food and fiber systems of Page 2991
1 Wisconsin and the farmers in the agribusiness that
2 make that happen. And we'd like to thank the Public
3 Commission more for being here listening to all of
4 this testimony, and I'd like to applaud the
5 Cassville residents for just a friendly and
6 attractive and supportive town.
7 The Wisconsin Agribusiness Council is in
8 full and strong support of this proposal for the
9 Nelson Dewey 3 project because we think it's a win
10 in so many areas. Maybe not as many wins as this
11 little gym and the one next door has had over the
12 years, but we think it's a win across the board for
13 the following reasons.
14 We think it's a win because the Nelson
15 Dewey project is going to be a cutting edge
16 state-of-the-art power plant. Not only is it going
17 to provide very effective, affordable, reliable,
18 consistent energy to our state, it's going to be on
19 the cutting edge because of the renewable energy
20 they're going to also burn, the 20 percent bio
21 fuels.
22 We think that that's a step in the right
23 direction from an environmental standpoint and from
24 an alternative energy standpoint. If we had done
25 this back when the Brewers had their last big win in Page 2992
1 '82, we wouldn't be in this position. But we're in
2 the position now we need to start looking at energy
3 renewables.
4 We think it's a big win for the farmers in
5 the area. We think that the farmers here need a
6 consistent source of revenue, and this is going to
7 provide for those farmers because now they've got a
8 source for some of their products that they're
9 already producing, and I think farmers -- I'm also
10 including those landowners including the tree
11 people. As Jeff had pointed out a few minutes ago,
12 this is going to be phenomenal for those farmers who
13 produce products that is going to help them generate
14 income, but also provide renewable energy to our
15 power plant.
16 The added benefits, and some of them have
17 already been talked about, it'll be improved
18 wildlife habitat with the switchgrass. We're going
19 to have the possibility of improved soil and water
20 management with improved conservation practices, and
21 we're going to have better managed forests, and
22 everybody knows a better managed forest is more
23 productive. So it's a win from that side.
24 We think it's a tremendous win for the
25 local economy. Estimates are showing this to be a Page 2993
1 $1 billion dollar industry impact, 600 to 900 jobs
2 just in the construction stage, another 25 to 30
3 jobs for the operation of the plant, another 25 to
4 50 jobs for the related industries that would be
5 involved, like the transportation and the local
6 markets and so forth. So it's a win for the
7 Cassville, the southwest part of the state and the
8 whole area's economy.
9 Lastly, we think it's a win because we
10 think of Alliant Energy as being the leader in the
11 industry of renewable energy. They're being bold in
12 the activity of going out and looking at ways to
13 bring in additional energy besides what's
14 traditional. We all in this city and this community
15 would like to see renewable energies across the
16 board, but they're not there yet. And until we get
17 those alternative energies to be reliable,
18 consistent and affordable, we need to use what's
19 working for us today.
20 For that reason, we strongly support the
21 project of the Nelson Dewey 3 project and hope that
22 you'll pass it and get it up on speed. Thank you.
23 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Havens.
24 (Witness excused.)
25 EXAMINER MARION: William H. Howe, please. Page 2994
1 WILLIAM H. HOWE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
2 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
3 BY MR. HOWE: Thank you. Alliant Energy,
4 the entire industry is doing us a favor. We, as the
5 public, will slowly participate in programs of using
6 alternate fuels, sun energy and various types of
7 savings for us as citizens. But it comes as a cost.
8 The nice part of it is we don't understand all of
9 it.
10 We're looking at utilizing switchgrasses.
11 I was at a recent meeting in Minnesota and they're
12 talking about utilizing this as a fuel source, as a
13 source for the other fuels that we have assisting
14 them in our gasoline reductions, assisting
15 agriculture in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota.
16 Our heartland of the midwest.
17 We are giving these things for energy.
18 We're giving the Mississippi River and our
19 tributaries to the utilities again and again, and we
20 need to have cooperation from the utilities.
21 They're going to put in a huge amount of
22 cheap piling in this facility in Cassville. They're
23 going to take away some public access at Cassville.
24 There is an impact on the power lines, not only in
25 Cassville, but all throughout the major parts of the Page 2995
1 United States. And the utilities have historically
2 been reluctant to assist in providing the funds, the
3 Department of Natural Resources of our adjoining
4 states, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, to participate in
5 the programs of re-enhancement of the Mississippi
6 River and the deltas of the tributaries.
7 We need to have the energy people start
8 funding the programs. We are just spending right
9 now the balance of some 20 to 30 million dollars in
10 La Crosse area on Raft Channel and a series of
11 things. I was at a conference two years ago when
12 they talked about pool 11 and the need for pool 11
13 and pool 9. Pool 10, pool 10 was 20 million. Pool
14 11? They started at 20 and bounced to 50 or 60
15 million dollars of environment out here that we need
16 help on.
17 Now, we know that the power companies are
18 not going to give us those kinds of money. They
19 have been reluctant religiously in the past for the
20 amount of money that they've contributed to our
21 environmental needs.
22 I ask today that the Public Service
23 Commission, the Department of Natural Resources of
24 our states, our federal agencies that assist in
25 these programs, to do something to encourage the Page 2996
1 funds. Future generations should have an
2 environment out here that is worthy of their
3 abilities, and thanks to past generations for giving
4 us a resource that is one of the prides of the
5 United States. Thank you.
6 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
7 (Witness excused.)
8 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Tony Bartels.
9 TONY BARTELS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
11 BY MR. BARTELS: Thank you. I'm Tony
12 Bartels. I'm the business manager of International
13 Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 965.
14 I too am from Madison. However, the
15 message here today is a little bit different than
16 some we've heard before, but similar in many -- to
17 most of what we have heard. The time is now is what
18 I would like to start out with. And what the time
19 is now for is economic development. If you look
20 across our state right now, unemployment is at the
21 highest levels probably many of us have seen in our
22 lifetime.
23 We have seen a downturn throughout this
24 part of the state. Whenever we come out in this
25 area, we find homes in shambles, we find rundown Page 2997
1 communities, and we heard from the mayor on what the
2 economic impact of this plant can be for this
3 community. Yes, the time is now.
4 Let's talk a little bit about that
5 economic impact. While they talk about 30 percent
6 increase in the amount of permanent, full-time
7 positions right here at the Nelson Dewey plant with
8 the addition of Cassville's Nelson Dewey 3 plant,
9 it's not just those 30 percent increase. Think
10 about the number of jobs that are going to be put on
11 the books just relative to providing that renewable
12 energy. The trucking industry, the farmers, all of
13 the processing, and it goes on from there. I'm sure
14 roads will have to be changed and other economic
15 changes within this community in order to deal with
16 that.
17 Now, with that construction of the plant,
18 think of the four plus years of construction just
19 building it. Four to 500 jobs in this community for
20 the next four to five years. I sat and talked to
21 hotel owners, restaurant owners, who are just
22 struggling to get by. For this construction
23 project, this is the boost they need in order to
24 move forward within this economy.
25 The last thing I want to spend a little Page 2998
1 bit of time on is let's talk about fuel
2 diversification. I was brought into the utility
3 industry over 20 years ago. I was hired to work in
4 Wisconsin Power & Light more than 20 years ago
5 because they built a coal plant in Sheboygan,
6 Wisconsin, Edgewater Unit 5, the last one that was
7 put on line as a coal plant. Since then I've
8 watched gas plants, I've watched coal plants
9 converted to gas, I've watched our energy prices
10 continue to rise through that period. But I'm also
11 here sitting before you and very proud of this fact
12 that as of this last month, we are having the first
13 good family supporting wind turbines going to be
14 represented by Local 965 throughout this State of
15 Wisconsin. So it's our first in the wind energy.
16 Now, yes, there is other wind turbines within the
17 state, but it's the commitment that we are starting
18 to see from the utilities.
19 Now, let's move on to switchgrass,
20 biomass. If you look at this and say, hey, we don't
21 want any more coal, I understand people talk that
22 way. But I ask you this, if this is the type plant
23 that could put on 20 percent of renewable energy to
24 operate this facility, what kind of market is that
25 going to develop and where is that going to take us? Page 2999
1 When I started over 20 years ago, there weren't any
2 wind turbines that I saw that was generating. I
3 also know today that when the wind is not blowing
4 those turbines aren't turning. I know today that
5 when the sun's not shining the photable (phonetic)
6 tapes aren't working. And I know today that we
7 talked about conservation and many of those other
8 things. But what are the answers we hear? The
9 answers we hear are, well, let's create the electric
10 car. The electric car, how are we going to power
11 that electric car? I think we're going to need some
12 fuel to do that, and what is that fuel. Is the fuel
13 the wind, is the fuel the renewable energies, is the
14 fuel coal, is the fuel nuclear.
15 The answer to many questions before us is
16 the time is now for the economic development, the
17 time is now to take switchgrass and renewable fuels
18 and put them into some place to develop the
19 technology so that all of us can be assured that in
20 the future there will be a better, greener tomorrow
21 with safe, reliable power for all of us here. Thank
22 you.
23 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Bartels.
24 (Witness excused.)
25 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Forrest Ceel, Page 3000
1 please.
2 FORREST CEEL, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
3 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
4 BY MR. CEEL: Good afternoon. My name is
5 Forrest Ceel. I'm president of Local 2150 of the
6 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
7 We're the largest such local in the State of
8 Wisconsin, although I'll say up front our
9 organization will have no job benefits in the
10 construction of this plant or the operation or the
11 maintenance of this plant. Also I'd like to thank
12 Chairman Callisto and Commissioner Azar for having
13 this hearing in town where it's going to be most
14 affected.
15 I just want to talk about my perspective
16 from my organization. I've represented my
17 organization on Governor Doyle's Energy and
18 Efficiency and Renewables Task Force about three or
19 four years ago, a lot of that's now turned into law.
20 And I recently served on the Global Warming Task
21 Force that Governor Doyle appointed about a year and
22 a half ago. The results of that task force are very
23 ambitious. They seek to have 25 percent of the
24 energy generated in 2525 by renewable sources,
25 whether in Wisconsin maybe from wind or solar, or Page 3001
1 from out of state brought into the transmission
2 grid. But that 25 percent figure, as ambitious as
3 it is, and I do believe that it can be met, perhaps
4 even surpassed, still leaves 75 percent of
5 nonrenewable power sources needed to generate the
6 power that we need in the State of Wisconsin.
7 Someone referred earlier back to 1982, the
8 last time the Brewers went to the -- went anywhere.
9 And at that time had we done a few things in
10 Wisconsin, at that time, I think Alliant, NSP,
11 Wisconsin Electric had nuclear power plants on the
12 drawing boards. They pulled them back out of the
13 public fear. Had those plants been built, there
14 would be thousands of megawatts available in the
15 State of Wisconsin that would be putting zero global
16 warming emissions into the air and no mercury. But
17 we didn't build them. Now, 20-some years later on
18 we still need to have baseload power.
19 There is going to be a great future in
20 baseload power. Part of this was the task force
21 work. I do believe that wind's going to be made
22 more reliable, probably never dispatchable where you
23 can just hit a switch and ask for it, only God
24 controls that. But we will have probably nuclear
25 power in our future in Wisconsin; and hopefully as Page 3002
1 the decades roll by, we will find a way to build
2 coal power plants that have carbon capture and
3 sequestration. But we still need baseload power to
4 bridge us over the next 10, 15, 25 years. And a
5 plant like this is at least going in the right
6 direction to be using renewable sources to make 20
7 percent of its power.
8 I think Alliant's going in the right
9 direction of this and perhaps will end up in being a
10 leader in the industry so we can get to those
11 resources. Thank you very much.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Ceel.
13 (Witness excused.)
14 EXAMINER MARION: Robert T. Block, please.
15 ROBERT T. BLOCK, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 BY MR. BLOCK: I am here in opposition to
18 the building of this new coal power plant. My name
19 is Bob Block. I am a retired physician and
20 practiced in this state for 12 years in Green Bay
21 and for 24 years in Madison, Wisconsin.
22 The testimony I would like to offer is
23 personal and reflective of my experience as a
24 physician, and also my experience as a citizen of
25 Wisconsin with a family. Page 3003
1 The things I would like to talk about are
2 three diseases which are increasing in incidence by
3 coal-powered plants, which are really only a small
4 part of the picture of the things that I have seen
5 personally.
6 As a physician, over the approximately
7 35-plus years in practice, I saw asthma increase in
8 incidence and in severity. And this correlated with
9 a corresponding decrease in air quality. A coal
10 power plant does impact air quality as all of us are
11 aware. And it does then cause increased incidences
12 of various diseases, asthma is the one that I saw
13 personally.
14 As a grandfather, I am watching my only
15 grandson grow up with activity -- or attention
16 disorder/hyperactivity disorder, and appreciating
17 the burden of that disease firsthand. He is the
18 first in my extended family with a neurological
19 disease such as this, but not the last. Autism has
20 now appeared in a niece of mine. And this also can
21 be attributed to coal power plants. Coal power
22 plants emit mercury and mercury, as I mentioned
23 previously in this meeting, is very commonly in the
24 environment and will be increased by more coal power
25 plants. Page 3004
1 As I said, these three diseases are only a
2 small part of the downside of coal power plants, and
3 the health effects are quite -- even more extensive,
4 to the best of my knowledge. I would like to then,
5 therefore, urge that the costs of these diseases be
6 considered in the equation as far as the building or
7 not building of coal power plants. Thank you.
8 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Dr. Block.
9 (Witness excused.)
10 EXAMINER MARION: Pamela J. Kleiss.
11 PAMELA J. KLEISS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
12 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
13 BY MS. KLEISS: My name is Pam Kleiss, and
14 I represent Physicians for Social Responsibility in
15 Wisconsin, a membership organization state-wide of
16 870 health care professionals and citizens concerned
17 about toxins in the environment, sustainable energy
18 policy, and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
19 PSR Wisconsin submits that the total cost
20 impact of this plant proposal has not been included
21 in the cost estimates. A growing body of scientific
22 evidence indicates that the health care costs
23 associated with coal-fired generation are
24 quantifiable and significant. The costs are not
25 borne by the utility company, in this case Alliant Page 3005
1 Energy, but by many in a complex healthcare system.
2 Employers, state governments, and the citizens of
3 the region through their tax dollars, the costs they
4 pay for insurance and their out-of-pocket health
5 care expenses.
6 The pollutants that will be emitted from
7 this plant represent a significant challenge to
8 public health. Increased levels of particulate
9 pollution, in other words, soot, nitrogen oxide,
10 sulfur oxide, combined with volatile organic
11 compounds, lead to the formation of ozone. The
12 public health costs of coal-fired generated
13 pollution is well documented in this study, in a
14 study I brought along, commissioned by the Ontario
15 Medical Association for the Ontario Ministry of
16 Education, that's in Canada, and it was published in
17 2005.
18 The study compared the public health costs
19 of coal-fired generation to alternative sources of
20 electrical generation and documented four major
21 health impacts of air pollution: premature
22 mortality, which is science speak for death, early
23 death; hospital admissions; emergency room visits;
24 and minor illnesses, and was quantified in 2004
25 Canadian dollars. Page 3006
1 By assigning damage estimates in dollars
2 for each of these health impacts and comparing these
3 costs across electrical generation scenarios,
4 Ontario was able to compare not only the actual cost
5 of plant operations, but the impact of the plant's
6 emissions on public health. The study shows that
7 coal-fired generations without emissions controls
8 was the most costly of alternatives; and with
9 stringent emission controls, it reduced the health
10 costs by two-thirds. But the proposed Nelson Dewey
11 3 plant has even a greater health cost than those
12 studied, due to the use of the circulized fluid bed
13 technology. This technology in a coal-fired plant
14 increases the atmospheric concentration of
15 greenhouse gases and poses a significant health
16 concern.
17 This proposed plant would annually emit an
18 estimated 3.294 tons of carbon dioxide and nitrous
19 oxide in large amounts. That amounts to 160 million
20 tons of CO2 over the 50-year life of the coal-fired
21 plant. Increased concentrations of greenhouse gases
22 add to the health problems I've been talking about
23 and increase the risk of water-borne and
24 vector-borne disease due to climate change.
25 Examples of this are increased incidents of illness Page 3007
1 and loss of productivity due to asthma, West Nile
2 virus and Lyme's disease.
3 In addition to poor air quality and the
4 increased risk of disease, PSR Wisconsin is
5 concerned about the mercury generated by this plant.
6 Though not easily quantified in an economic sense,
7 the 196 pounds of mercury emitted each year will
8 only add to the toxic levels of methylmercury
9 carried in the bodies of women region-wide. This
10 methylmercury impacts the brain development of
11 fetuses and results in children born with
12 significant developmental delays.
13 State-wide, it's estimated that 1,200
14 newborns each year are impacted by methylmercury
15 exposure. PSR Wisconsin offers that the lifetime
16 cost of a single developmentally delayed or
17 neurologically impaired child is too much, and the
18 cost lost -- the cost in loss of productivity of
19 1,200 citizens each year is astronomical.
20 Alliant Energy has failed to give
21 Wisconsin a real energy solution to our energy needs
22 over the next 50 years. Giving the increasing costs
23 of health care and the estimated pollution loads
24 from this plant's proposal, we assert that the cost
25 of this proposal is not economical compared to Page 3008
1 alternatives.
2 For a more cost effective and healthier
3 future, we advise that the PSC support proposals
4 that increase energy efficiency of current energy
5 sources for both commercial and residential energy
6 conservation and invest in renewable energy sources,
7 like 100 percent biomass, wind and solar.
8 Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin
9 encourages the Public Service Commission of
10 Wisconsin to reject Alliant Energy's proposed Nelson
11 Dewey 3 coal-fired plant. Thank you very much.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
13 MS. KLEISS: May I leave this?
14 EXAMINER MARION: Yes.
15 (Witness excused.)
16 EXAMINER MARION: Ms. Leean White, please.
17 LEEAN WHITE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
18 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
19 BY MS. WHITE: I have lived in Cassville
20 for a little more than two years now and haven't
21 spoken out on any community issues until this time.
22 I'm painfully aware that I may alienate myself from
23 members of this community by speaking against the
24 proposal by Alliant Energy to build another
25 coal-fired plant in Cassville. Yet, I feel Page 3009
1 compelled to do so because this issue is important
2 to me, my family, this community and the
3 environment.
4 I was born and raised in Lafayette County.
5 I've lived in Wisconsin my entire life. And I'm
6 proud to be a resident of this progressive state. I
7 retired from state government as a human resources
8 manager after 31 years of state service. And I'm
9 proud of that.
10 First, let me state that I do believe
11 there is an increasing need for energy generation.
12 We are, as someone has noted so eloquently earlier,
13 a nation of energy consumers. At the same time, our
14 government and the general public are becoming more
15 aware of the need to conserve energy and to convert
16 to clean energy sources. Individuals and families
17 are taking small steps toward that end. However,
18 the efforts of the general public will be useless if
19 we continue to build coal power plants.
20 Only this past week, the State of Iowa
21 Environmental Council stated, and I quote, "The only
22 way we're going to really solve global warming is to
23 significantly increase our clean energy, our wind
24 energy and our solar energy and energy efficiency,
25 and find ways to shut down the coal plants," end Page 3010
1 quote.
2 I'm not an expert in matters of energy
3 generation. But I do know that coal plants are
4 inefficient and add significant amounts of pollution
5 to the land, air and water. I can see the residue
6 on buildings in my property. There are alternative
7 energy sources, and the people of Wisconsin need to
8 invest in those alternatives to ensure that we and
9 future generations will live in a clean environment.
10 I have concerns that go beyond air
11 quality. The environmental impact statement for
12 this proposal states that delivery of coal and
13 construction materials will occur primarily on
14 Highway 133 and the river. I live on Highway 81,
15 and I know that it's a preferred route for truck
16 traffic. Large numbers of heavy trucks will travel
17 the highway during construction and after
18 construction is completed. If this plant is
19 approved, eventually the DOT will need to
20 restructure the highway system, as someone else also
21 mentioned earlier, regardless of whether traffic
22 increases on Highway 81 or 133. The state may as
23 well budget for this right now.
24 As for barge and rail traffic, both are
25 somewhat unpredictable. The river floods, the river Page 3011
1 recedes. I love the Mississippi River. But it's
2 full of debris. The rails are already heavily
3 trafficked and in need of constant repair.
4 Mudslides earlier just this year caused a train to
5 derail on the Iowa side of the river, spilling
6 untold amounts of fuel and other debris into the
7 river just north of Cassville. There is nothing to
8 prevent the same thing from happening on the
9 Wisconsin side; and the more rail traffic there is,
10 the more likely it is to happen.
11 Cassville already has two power plants in
12 a community of less than 1,000 people. And the
13 community, as has also been noted earlier, is losing
14 population. I heartily applaud the community
15 leaders for trying to bring more jobs to the
16 village. But building another coal-fired plant is
17 not the way to do it. Cassville residents, myself
18 included, are proud of this beautiful area. And we
19 have a right to be. Ask anyone who visits this area
20 why they do, they tell you it's because there is a
21 beauty. Another power plant along the river will
22 not help Cassville promote itself as a tourist
23 destination.
24 One of the arguments in support of the
25 plant that seems to be popular in Cassville is job Page 3012
1 generation. In the short run that may be true. But
2 I ask you where will those workers come from. The
3 construction crews will likely come from other towns
4 and will be here only temporarily. As a human
5 resources professional, I can tell you that Alliant
6 Energy will need to hire experienced people to staff
7 the plant once it's up and running. Most of the
8 people of Cassville, to the best of my knowledge,
9 are not trained power plant operators. So it is
10 wrong to believe that the workers hired will be
11 current Cassville residents. In fact, the labor
12 pool for coal plant operators has been drying up
13 nationwide for a number of years, making it more and
14 more difficult to find qualified individuals to fill
15 those jobs.
16 The original proposal for this plant did
17 not include the use of any alternative fuel sources.
18 And Alliant's claim to do so is in response to
19 concerns about building a coal plant. How can I
20 trust this commitment from Alliant Energy when,
21 frankly, they haven't even removed a power plant
22 that's next to my house that they have condemned
23 twice, condemned by Alliant Energy employees. While
24 I have asked repeatedly for two years to have the
25 coal replaced (sic), Alliant continues to ignore my Page 3013
1 request. I ask you again, how can I trust that
2 Alliant Energy will live up to the commitment to
3 burn at least 20 percent biomass.
4 Finally, I firmly believe that property
5 values in this community will further decrease if
6 another coal plant is built. People look for a
7 clean environment in which to live. They don't look
8 for dirty air. We cannot afford decline of the
9 housing market beyond what's already facing this
10 nation and certainly should not be contributing to
11 it.
12 In closing, I just want to know that I am
13 an Alliant Energy stockholder and I cannot support
14 this project. Thank you for considering my
15 concerns.
16 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Ms. White.
17 (Witness excused.)
18 EXAMINER MARION: State Senator Dale
19 Schultz, please.
20 DALE SCHULTZ, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
21 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
22 BY MR. SCHULTZ: First I'd like to
23 congratulate the Public Service Commission for
24 coming down here and listening to the people of
25 southwestern Wisconsin. Since 1983, I've had the Page 3014
1 privilege of representing this 23rd solemn place
2 that we call southwestern Wisconsin. And I know the
3 people here to be caring, thoughtful, progressive
4 people who care about the environment, they care
5 about the quality of jobs, and the balance we need
6 to have in order for people to live, work and raise
7 families in this part of the state.
8 I want to say that I am a proud supporter
9 of this project. I am also a proud supporter of
10 Governor Doyle's 25 by '25 initiative. It seems to
11 me that this project alone is crucial in order to
12 meet that goal. But it's also important in terms of
13 our learning curve as we begin the process of
14 learning more about the utilization of biomass.
15 I know there are economic benefits from
16 this project and many people ahead of me have talked
17 about those. But it is probably the most important
18 thing for us to recognize that to have a future in
19 this state, we must have a vibrant economy and we
20 cannot ship billions of dollars out of this state,
21 we have to find value here locally. Lest you think
22 that this is only about support for a coal plant,
23 let me assure you that I have always proudly
24 referred to my part of the state as the energy
25 region of Wisconsin. We just recently had Focus on Page 3015
1 Energy out here giving seminars because we too, as a
2 community, understand the value of conservation and
3 its role in achieving the objectives that we all
4 seek in this state.
5 We have had discussions about wind siting.
6 Like this meeting, there are some differentiation
7 of, you know, whether it's a good idea or not. But
8 overwhelmingly we know we must enter into these
9 discussions because we all understand that wind
10 power is important to our future. I'm proud of the
11 fact that Cardinal Glass in Spring Green has been
12 gearing up to enter into the production of solar --
13 parts for solar collectors. And this state, I am
14 confident, will play a role in increased use of
15 solar power in this state. And I am doing
16 everything I can in each one of these cases to
17 assist to make progress. But I submit to the Public
18 Service Commission today that we cannot miss this
19 opportunity if we are serious about biomass in our
20 state.
21 What is so important about this project is
22 that we are going to learn a lot from it. And we
23 all want to utilize, those of us who live here, want
24 to utilize as much biomass as possible; and we will
25 be pushing the utility to do its level best, but Page 3016
1 this is uncharted territory. And we recognize that
2 we are entering into historic times.
3 I'm so proud of the fact that there are
4 people from both sides of the aisle here in this
5 room and in this state supporting this project. And
6 I think that that kind of enlightened non-partisan
7 discussion is critically important for Wisconsin to
8 make progress in this important area.
9 I ask you earnestly to listen to the
10 people here who have thought about this, discussed
11 this among themselves for literally years. You have
12 the opportunity to make a difference not only for
13 the entire State of Wisconsin and its biomass
14 objectives, but also for southwestern Wisconsin
15 where we recognize that this will help us be
16 recognized as full partners in the administration of
17 our state, where we will have the opportunity to
18 create both good paying jobs in the short term and
19 the long term, where we will have the opportunity to
20 develop a new biomass industry, where we will have
21 an opportunity to demonstrate not only to the state
22 but to the nation the soil and water conservation
23 benefits, the wildlife benefits, embracing biomass.
24 I ask you to give this project an
25 affirmative action by the Public Service Commission. Page 3017
1 Thank you.
2 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Senator
3 Schultz.
4 (Witness excused.)
5 EXAMINER MARION: Ray Saint, please.
6 RAY SAINT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
8 BY MR. SAINT: Without being redundant, a
9 lot of people have mentioned a lot of positives and
10 negatives already. However, they have mentioned
11 Hazel Green and as far as Platteville and Lancaster.
12 You keep going north, there is a beautiful community
13 called Boscobel in Grant County. That's what I'm
14 representing tonight, I'm representing the Mayor of
15 the City of Boscobel who passed a resolution
16 supporting this.
17 We're about I suppose 60 miles from here.
18 Grant County is about 1,200 square miles. You can
19 say why do we care about that. Well, I've served on
20 several committees with Louie Okey before who spoke
21 earlier. And economic development in Grant County
22 is just that, we view the county as a family and the
23 tri-county area as a matter of fact. If it helps
24 Cassville, it's going to help Boscobel.
25 Without being redundant again, I'm just Page 3018
1 going to state two things. I was at a Grant
2 County -- excuse me, a Wisconsin Economic
3 Development Association meeting in Green Bay a
4 little over a year ago, I think it was, and somebody
5 who I believe was from the Public Service Commission
6 or been affiliated with that had said that costs for
7 electricity had gone up 85 percent in the last five
8 years. And he said that the consumer, you folks and
9 myself and all of us, can't stand for another 85
10 percent increase over the next five years, we can't
11 afford that. So as a representative of Boscobel, we
12 applaud the fact that bio fuels is being part of
13 this project, looking for alternative ways to
14 provide power for all of us.
15 And the last thing I want to say is
16 several years ago now, I was at the Governor's
17 Conference on Economic Development as the director
18 of Economic Development for Boscobel -- I should
19 have mentioned that, and there was -- I got a chance
20 to talk to the plant manager for Daimler Chrysler
21 after he was done with his keynote speech. And I
22 asked him several questions. I said aside from
23 taxes or potential tort reforms or some other issues
24 in this state, what is the one thing you think would
25 prevent companies from coming to Wisconsin. And he Page 3019
1 looked at me and he said that it's something that
2 shouldn't even be on the table. He said it's
3 energy, electricity. He said they were building a
4 $400 million plant, I believe it was, going to
5 employ 125 people, and they weren't sure we could
6 get power to it. I think that's unacceptable. I
7 think the City of Boscobel Senate Commission thinks
8 the same thing.
9 The lady from Mazomanie mentioned earlier
10 that we -- why don't we stay ahead of the game. If
11 we don't support this plant in Cassville, in my
12 opinion we're not even going to be in the game.
13 The State of Wisconsin must focus on
14 creating energy so we continue to grow, and I'm
15 representing economic development now. And to have
16 economic development, you must be able to provide
17 what people need and companies need to come here and
18 prosper and employ people like us and our children
19 for many years to come. Thank you.
20 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
21 (Witness excused.)
22 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Rick Irwin, please.
23 RICK IRWIN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
24 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
25 BY MR. IRWIN: Good afternoon. My name is Page 3020
1 Rick Irwin, president of IBEW Local 965. I come
2 here in 100 percent support of the Nelson Dewey
3 Power Plant.
4 As we've heard before, the economy in this
5 state is really hurting. It's hurting in the
6 nation. Living wages are hard to come by. This
7 plant would bring living wages into the economy.
8 Not just in this county, but throughout the state.
9 I look at my grand kids, the seniors in school,
10 looking for jobs out there. 6 percent unemployment.
11 I heard on the news today could be 10 percent within
12 three months. That's impossible. This is United
13 States of America. We have to look out for the
14 youth of this country. Alliant's taken a huge step,
15 not only for the economic future here, but for the
16 youth of America. Thank you.
17 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
18 (Witness excused.)
19 EXAMINER MARION: John Patcle, Grant
20 County Board. Can you spell your last name for me.
21 MR. PATCLE: Patcle, P A T C L E.
22 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
23 JOHN PATCLE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
24 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
25 BY MR. PATCLE: I'm here tonight as a Page 3021
1 representative of the Grant County Board. On
2 September 16th, we passed a resolution in full
3 support of the Cassville power plant. It was 28
4 yes, one absent and two no.
5 Southwest Wisconsin needs this power
6 plant. It will do a lot for our economy here.
7 Thank you.
8 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
9 (Witness excused.)
10 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Jerry Lewis, please,
11 from Carpenters Local Union 314.
12 JERRY LEWIS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
13 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
14 BY MR. LEWIS: I support this. This is
15 going to be good for the economy. It's going to
16 give jobs all around the United States. It's going
17 to give jobs to most of the locals. It's going to
18 build more buildings. That's about it.
19 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
20 (Witness excused.)
21 EXAMINER MARION: Mr. Dennis Rice.
22 DENNIS RICE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
23 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
24 BY MR. RICE: I didn't write anything
25 prepared, so I'm going to do my best here. I'm a Page 3022
1 nuclear power plant engineer, been in the industry
2 for 30 years. Been watching over this project for
3 the last year with a lot of interest. Read a lot of
4 TV arti -- or newspaper articles. You know, I have
5 the Cassville newspaper -- any newspaper that
6 mentions Cassville I read. I comment a lot to it.
7 But anyway, I'm more -- I traveled all
8 over the country building power plants. And so I'm
9 looking more on a USA basis versus Cassville or
10 Wisconsin. I'm looking at what's good for the
11 public, what's good for America.
12 And one thing that's good is having
13 economical power. If we don't have economical
14 power, you're going to have manufacturing moving
15 over to China and manufacturing what could be
16 manufactured here and taking our jobs away. China's
17 building 80 power plants this year, putting them on
18 line, coal-fired with no emissions. This one has
19 all emission controls. I'm nuclear, not a
20 coal-fired expert. But I just got done working on a
21 coal-fired plant down in Canton, Illinois, putting
22 in an SO2 scrubber system in there. It's 99 percent
23 efficient. There is very little particulate out.
24 The coal-fired plants of today are very
25 clean. They're not perfect. But they're very Page 3023
1 clean, but they're economical. And you look at your
2 choices. And that's one thing I wanted to bring up,
3 hadn't been discussed yet, and lots has been
4 discussed. Okay. Your best source of power,
5 cheapest and cleanest, which is really hydro. But
6 there is no place to dam up anymore. Building a
7 hydro plant other than a few places is typically
8 a -- is very difficult. And probably expensive with
9 the property and it would be difficult. The
10 cheapest reasonable source that's available is
11 nuclear. That's why 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour is
12 the average cost of the nuclear power plants we
13 have. You go to a nuclear community, the people
14 love the nuclear plant. The community has got a lot
15 of money rolling into it. They got a lot of
16 talented people living there. It raises the whole
17 community there, the education level, it raises
18 everything. And you go to a nuclear plant, they
19 love it. You go about a hundred miles away, they
20 might hate it.
21 Then the next step after that is coal.
22 The average cost of coal -- I've said this is not
23 prepared, but my numbers are pretty accurate, I do a
24 lot of reading on this -- is 2.2 cents per kilowatt
25 hour. And coal is pretty clean. And coal used to Page 3024
1 be actually cheaper than nuclear, but nuclear has
2 gotten pretty good how they do business and coal's
3 had to add, you know, all these emission systems and
4 it all adds to it.
5 But the only systems -- the coal plant
6 they're building out here as far as I know is pretty
7 top of the line efficiency-wise. And per cost, and
8 per clean. You get around a coal-fired plant with a
9 modern system, the only thing you get out of the
10 smokestack is vapor is about it, water vapor. You
11 know, the old days, you get black smoke, you get
12 yellow SO2 coming out and NOx, and you had acid
13 rain, you had all that stuff. But that's years ago.
14 And, you know, next source above that,
15 you're looking at gas, gas turbines. Okay. You're
16 looking at about 4 and a half cents per kilowatt
17 hour. Quite expensive, plus there is a limit of the
18 supply of gas. There is gas around, but there is a
19 limit on drilling it. And now they're bringing it
20 on super tankers from China to different places.
21 Now, these are big super tankers with liquified
22 natural gas. They got one port in Boston goes right
23 past Boston. I mean, if that thing ever blew,
24 you're looking at almost a small atomic bomb. It's
25 dangerous. And plus most of the emissions that they Page 3025
1 talk about from a coal-fired plant is CO2, and
2 gas-fired plant, CO2. You know, they're both carbon
3 based -- you're burning carbon based product. That
4 simple.
5 Then you can look at windmills. Well,
6 windmills are pretty cool, you know. But the
7 numbers I see is around 6 cents per kilowatt hour.
8 I might be off a penny or two. And there are
9 certain places where you can build windmills. But
10 you need good wind. And they have good wind and
11 dirty wind. You know, there is a lot of windmills
12 going in in areas where the wind is going up a bluff
13 or coming from this direction, that direction. And
14 the gearboxes. General Electric used to have a
15 two-year guaranty on the gearboxes. They reduced it
16 to one year because they kept building windmills in
17 places where they don't belong. And plus with the
18 windmill economy, you know, they could naturally
19 help; but if you get too much going to windmills,
20 the next thing you're doing is, you know, having our
21 factories run on a windy day and then on a calm day
22 I guess everybody has a siesta or something. But I
23 don't know -- you know. You know, but they're good
24 to have some out there. But you don't want
25 thousands of them. None of our windmills -- to Page 3026
1 replace like a 600 megawatt plant is probably like
2 600 windmills. That's a lot of windmills.
3 And they typically say, well, this wind
4 farm is 100 megawatts. Well, the average windmill
5 only puts out a quarter. Because some days they
6 don't put out nothing. So it actually, you know,
7 they say it's a 100 megawatt wind farm that's
8 actually putting out 25 megawatts on the average.
9 But you still gotta worry when it's putting out
10 zero. You gotta have those baseload power plants
11 when it comes down to zero.
12 And then you got solar. Okay. Solar's
13 cool. Right now silicon is in huge demand, totally
14 being used for making computers, electronics, this
15 and that. And the cost of solar cells and solar
16 power is 18 to 30 cents an hour in the last article
17 I read. And these are credible numbers. If anybody
18 wants to -- I'll verify them. You know, so solar's
19 got its place.
20 But if we really want to do something for
21 the environment and if these groups care about the
22 environment, we need electric cars. And the
23 government shouldn't be subsidizing this and this
24 and this, I don't believe in that. Except things we
25 need, we should be subsidizing batteries, high Page 3027
1 density batteries. I think most people have two
2 cars in their driveway. Well, they could have their
3 Hummer and a little electric vehicle to go to the
4 grocery store or commute to work. It would save a
5 hell of a lot of our environment and save a hell of
6 a lot on our oil.
7 You know, to me things are quite simple.
8 But, you know, to have our factories go to China and
9 our jobs go to China where they're polluting big
10 time, you know, they almost didn't have the Olympics
11 because of all the coal-fired pollution.
12 EXAMINER MARION: I'm going to ask you,
13 Mr. Rice, to kindly try to wrap it up.
14 MR. RICE: Oh, I'm sorry. I got into a
15 little bit more than I planned.
16 EXAMINER MARION: Very interesting,
17 though.
18 MR. RICE: I'm glad. I thought I might
19 not be able to talk.
20 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
21 (Witness excused.)
22 EXAMINER MARION: Now would be a good time
23 to take a break. We're going to recess for ten
24 minutes.
25 (Recess taken from 5:57 to 6:10 p.m.) Page 3028
1 (Change of reporters.)
2 EXAMINER MARION: Ladies and gentlemen, I
3 will ask you to come to order. I am going to resume
4 the hearing.
5 I'd like to call the next witness to the
6 stand, please. Mr. Charles Winterwood.
7 CHARLES WINTERWOOD, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
8 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, please be
9 seated.
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
11 MR. WINTERWOOD: I'm a retired
12 pediatrician that provided healthcare for the
13 children of Southern Grant County for many years.
14 Coal-fired power plants are the largest
15 source of toxic mercury pollution in the U.S. They
16 emit 42 percent of the country's industrial mercury
17 pollution. When coal plants release mercury into
18 our air, it rains down into our lakes, rivers and
19 streams. The toxic mercury then makes it into the
20 bodies via contaminated fish.
21 There is presently a mercury advisory for
22 fish for my portion of the Mississippi River. That
23 means that women of child-bearing age and children
24 are limited in the number of fish they can safely
25 eat from the Mississippi River. Page 3029
1 One out of six women in this country
2 already has enough mercury in her body to put her
3 baby at risk. Mercury can cause brain damage,
4 mental retardation, other developmental problems in
5 unborn children and infants. In concentrated coal
6 producing regions, mercury can knock off as much as
7 six I.Q. points off of children. High mercury
8 levels in men can lead to increased risk of heart
9 disease.
10 Building coal plants in Cassville will
11 only increase mercury pollution.
12 Discontinuing the coal power plant will
13 not help in the long-run with this problem because
14 the Sheboygan plant will not last 50 years, the new
15 proposed plant in Cassville will. Why not burn
16 biomass in the existing Cassville line power plant
17 instead of building a new one? Why is there no plan
18 for a storage area for the biomass in the new
19 proposed power plant?
20 As a physician, when they are assessing
21 health of a fetus, they don't use 19th century
22 technology such as stethoscopes to evaluate the
23 fetus, they use modern technology like ultrasound
24 and fetal monitoring. Why do we insist on building
25 an antiquated coal power plant when we could be Page 3030
1 building clean alternative renewable energy sources.
2 Thank you.
3 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you,
4 Dr. Winterwood.
5 Laura Coglan, please.
6 LAURA COGLAN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
8 MS. COGLAN: As a resident of rural Grant
9 County, a sport fisherwoman and a sufferer from
10 asthma, I am gravely affected by the decision we're
11 discussing here; and as a citizen of Wisconsin, I
12 feel obligated to submit my opinion against this
13 plant.
14 Initially I was cautiously optimistic
15 about hearing about this new plant -- after hearing
16 about this new plant because, like many other
17 people, I heard mainly about the plant's capacity to
18 burn biomass; and as a matter of fact, we're hearing
19 about that almost virtually consistently this
20 afternoon. I did not hear that 90 percent of the
21 fuel will be coal or that it will be burning
22 petroleum based coke.
23 20 years ago in Europe, they banned the
24 use of coke because of the dangers to human health.
25 I did not hear about the increased emissions that we Page 3031
1 cannot afford, the rising price tag of construction
2 that we cannot afford, and the fact that this brand
3 new plant will be less efficient than other coal
4 plants built many years ago. How could this be
5 happening at a time when we know why we can no
6 longer eat fish from our lakes and streams and why
7 so many children, and even old people like myself,
8 have to suck on inhalers to get air into our lungs?
9 I wanted to go into the huge picture of
10 global warming here because I believe that every
11 single person knows in his or her heart that
12 willfully embracing such a blatant contributor to
13 global warming is wrong. We can no longer use the
14 cover of ignorance to rationalize mistakes as we
15 have in the past. We know that this is wrong. Even
16 politicians know it, and they're usually the last to
17 catch on. What happened to the Governor's promise
18 of 25 percent renewable power by 2025?
19 This is the time to stop spending on
20 unsustainable energy, use a little common sense to
21 conserve energy, upgrade existing plants and to
22 tighten our belts.
23 Thank you.
24 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
25 Matthew Digman, please. Page 3032
1 MATTHEW DIGMAN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
2 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
3 MR. DIGMAN: I'm Matthew Digman, and I'm
4 here to support this project on behalf of the UW
5 Biological Systems Engineering Research Group of
6 Dr. Kevin Shinners.
7 It is our research to develop ways to
8 harvest biomass, including perennial grasses and
9 corn stover or corn residues in a sustainable and
10 economic manner by increasing the value at the farm
11 gate through value added pretreatment, densification
12 and fractional harvest or targeted harvest.
13 One example of the project is a
14 densification project that we've been working on,
15 and we are able to densify biomass to the
16 volumetric -- to 80 percent of volumetric energy
17 content coal. We see this project as a first -- an
18 important first market for harvested biomass.
19 Thank you for your time and consideration.
20 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
21 MR. DIGMAN: And if I may, I have some
22 samples. Do you mind?
23 EXAMINER MARION: There's really very
24 little way that we can maintain those.
25 MR. DIGMAN: I don't mind. Page 3033
1 EXAMINER MARION: But thank you. That's
2 interesting.
3 Jeff Glass, please.
4 JEFF GLASS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
5 EXAMINER MARION: Please be seated.
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
7 MR. GLASS: My name is Jeff Glass. I'm a
8 local from Cassville my whole live. I've lived here
9 just about 50 years. My parents came in with the
10 lower power plant. They actually moved to Cassville
11 in '53, so I'm kind of a power plant brat whereas --
12 that's why I'm here, that's why my family came here,
13 that's why I raised my kids here, that's why we win
14 in state champions in basketball and football here.
15 So there's nothing wrong with what's going on.
16 I hunt, I fish; and this whole community
17 is watch dogs around here. We all live in
18 Wisconsin; we live in a beautiful state; we want to
19 protect that state. There isn't anyone in this room
20 that wants to pollute or do anything bad, and we've
21 lived here the whole time.
22 The whole 50 years of my life I've lived
23 in Cassville, and the one thing -- everybody's
24 touched on a lot of things, and everybody's research
25 is kind of okay I guess, you know; and you get right Page 3034
1 down to it, but one thing I will say and one thing I
2 want to bring up that no one, at least to my
3 knowledge, has touched on is the fact I've lived
4 here my whole life with an Alliant Energy Power
5 Plant in my backyard; and I trust them to get us
6 from where we are now to where we need to be.
7 There's some trade-offs there, but I trust Alliant
8 Energy to get us from where we're at to where we
9 need to be.
10 Thank you very much.
11 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
12 Rex Day, please.
13 REX DAY, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
15 MR. DAY: Good evening. I'm Rex Day.
16 I've been a logger in this area for, oh, been around
17 50 years; and with Alliant Energy, we have a great
18 reliable resource out there in the forest product.
19 Our forests in this area of the state, for years
20 everybody went in and took all the good stuff out.
21 They've reaped the harvest, nobody has ever taken
22 out any of the weed trees. What we need to do to
23 improve our forests and also have a reliable energy
24 source would be come in here and take these weed
25 trees out, and we will have a beautiful forest out Page 3035
1 of it and there will also be energy, it will renew
2 itself also.
3 I have in the past cut, clear-cut, several
4 acres of timber, and 30 years later you come back
5 and you wouldn't recognize the same area at all.
6 Matter of fact, there's been a lot of foresters in
7 the area that have came back and used those, their
8 same plots, for the way that the old growth has come
9 back after you open them up and let sunlight and one
10 thing and another into our areas.
11 So I think it's a very great thing, and
12 there is a renewable energy source out there. It
13 would be a win/win proposition for the forests and
14 for Alliant Energy.
15 Thank you.
16 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
17 Maureen Van Den Bosch.
18 MAUREEN VAN DEN BOSCH, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
20 MS. VAN DEN BOSCH: My name is Maureen Van
21 Den Bosch, and I'm a resident of Grant County.
22 Coal is a major contributor to our
23 environmental and climate problems globally. Coal
24 is not a solution. That we are discussing expansion
25 for the coal industry knowing all the damage burning Page 3036
1 coal creates seems ludicrous. Alliant, giving a
2 vague promise of maybe eventually using biomass
3 materials in the future, is not acceptable.
4 Alliant has already used deceptive
5 practices by having ads regarding expansion of the
6 Cassville plants without ever mentioning coal. They
7 are self-serving. Alliant should be working on
8 alternative energy. 81 more trains a year at 125
9 cars per train of coal coming into Cassville to burn
10 in Grant County is unacceptable. The mercury levels
11 of Wisconsin waters are already at dangerous levels.
12 The Mississippi River is a migratory bird route.
13 I empathize with Cassville and its
14 surrounding communities, but this plant expansion is
15 not a solution.
16 Thank you.
17 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. Gretel
18 Winterwood, please? Is Gretel Winterwood in the
19 room?
20 Jennifer Feyerherm.
21 JENNIFER FEYERHERM, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
23 MS. FEYERHERM: Hi. My name is Jennifer
24 Feyerherm, and I direct the Wisconsin Clean Energy
25 Program for the Sierra Club. Page 3037
1 Sierra Club is a nonprofit grassroots
2 environmental organization that works to explore,
3 enjoy, and protect our planet and special places,
4 natural wonders like the Mississippi, beautiful
5 places like the Nelson Dewey State Park, the air
6 that we breathe, the water that nourishes us and the
7 land that sustains us.
8 I am privileged to represent 15,000
9 members across the State of Wisconsin and hundreds
10 right here in Grant County. My job is to help them
11 engage on the issues that they find so important in
12 their lives. They get together and decide their
13 priorities and the things that they want to work on,
14 and global warming and clean energy is by far the
15 top issue that they come to me with concerns about.
16 We all want to be able to turn our lights
17 on, but we need to be able to do it in the most
18 environmentally sound, sustainable ways possible.
19 Our members are working hard across the
20 state and across the nation to increase investments
21 in green energy infrastructures that will grow
22 sustainable jobs right here at home. They're also
23 working hard to make sure that we don't preclude
24 those investments by bringing on more dirty,
25 unsustainable coal-fired power. Page 3038
1 There are three issues before us today:
2 Do we need to build another coal-fired power plant,
3 is it the most environmental sound proposal that we
4 can be looking at, and is it the most economically
5 sound proposal we have been looking at. I would
6 like to discuss those three issues.
7 First of all, do we need the plant. Well,
8 Alliant's estimates are coming in at showing the
9 energy rates are growing 3 percent a year, some
10 estimates I've seen are as high as 5 and 6; but when
11 you look at expert testimony from the Public Service
12 Commission and you look at other folks that are
13 talking about what energy looks like in Wisconsin,
14 we're seeing about a 1 and a half percent increase a
15 year. That's an increase that we can meet very
16 easily with investments in energy efficiency and
17 doing more with less and investing in renewable
18 energy.
19 If you look in the direction of state
20 policy, the Governor's Global Warming Task Force, or
21 the Governor's involvement in the Midwestern
22 Governors Association, both of those, both the task
23 force and the Midwest Governors Association, have
24 set rules to reduce our energy use by 2 percent a
25 year. The direction of state policy is to actually Page 3039
1 bring down the amount of energy that we're using.
2 We're headed to less energy use rather than more.
3 The next thing we're looking at is is this
4 an environmentally sound proposal, the most
5 environmentally sound one we can look at; and the
6 answer is it certainly is not. Coal is the dirtiest
7 fuel you can possibly burn in a lot of respects, not
8 the least of which is global warming. Global
9 warming is the biggest challenge of our time.
10 Scientists have explained that increased
11 flooding is one of the effects that we will see as
12 we continue to change our climate. Whether or not
13 last spring's floods can be attributed to global
14 warming, it certainly is a taste of what is to come
15 as we continue and if we don't act swiftly to curb
16 global warming pollution.
17 This proposed plant uses an inefficient
18 technology that will spew more global warming
19 pollution into our air over its lifetime. In fact,
20 even if it is to burn the biomass along with the
21 coal, it still is going to put out more pollution
22 per unit of energy than plants that rely on 100
23 percent coal. This is an unsustainable proposal in
24 terms of global warming pollution.
25 Companies like XCEL Energy have shown Page 3040
1 leadership and talked about reducing plans to reduce
2 their global warming pollution 20 percent and more.
3 Alliant needs to follow that lead and find a plan
4 that will cut global warming pollution.
5 Coal is also the dirtiest fuel we can
6 possibly burn in terms of fine particulate matter or
7 fine soot. We've heard a little about the health
8 effects from fine particulate matter, including
9 asthma, lung disease, lung cancer. Particulate is
10 also -- are particles that are so small that they
11 transfer from your lungs into your bloodstream where
12 they cause heart attacks and strokes. So when we
13 see health advisories -- and we're seeing more and
14 more health advisories in this region and across
15 Wisconsin for elevated levels of fine particulate
16 matter -- on days when our air pollution is high, we
17 see more frequent, more severe and more deadly
18 asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes. We
19 simply cannot afford a new source for this kind of
20 pollution in our state.
21 We're also seeing the Environmental
22 Protection Agency recognize that there are
23 communities in the State of Wisconsin that exceed
24 our air standards for fine particulate; and for six
25 counties in the State of Wisconsin, we're going to Page 3041
1 see more regulation so we can bring that level of
2 pollution down.
3 The environmental tax statement indicates
4 that no matter where they build this proposal, it
5 will adversely affect the air quality in Southern
6 Wisconsin. Grant County as well is right on the
7 boarder of violating EPA air quality standards. If
8 we add a new source of pollution, Grant County is
9 running a risk of seeing those increased regulations
10 as well that will affect the development in the
11 county.
12 Coal is also the dirtiest fuel to burn in
13 terms of mercury. We've heard a little bit about
14 mercury today. One in six women in child-bearing
15 age already carries enough mercury in her body to
16 put her children at risk. We can't afford new
17 sources of mercury.
18 So that brings us to the most economically
19 sound proposal we need to be looking at. It
20 certainly is not. We've seen the cost of this
21 proposal almost double since the beginning.
22 Ratepayers are going to have to foot the bill for
23 this proposal for decades to come for outdated dirty
24 technology while Alliant is guaranteed a rate of
25 return. Page 3042
1 Across the country we've seen investors
2 pull out of coal plant proposals left and right
3 because coal is becoming an increasingly risky
4 proposal. We've seen the cost of construction
5 elevated. We've seen the cost of coal rising. In
6 places it has doubled or tripled since the first of
7 the year. We have this misperception that coal is a
8 cheap fuel; it is not. The cost of coal is rising
9 rapidly.
10 And for every dollar that we spend on
11 coal, it is dollars that we are spending out of this
12 state. Wisconsin does not produce coal. So if we
13 insist on burning coal and building new coal plants
14 here, we are shipping millions of dollars out of our
15 state to bring the dirty pollution of coal in.
16 And there's the rising cost of
17 environmental regulations. We know that global
18 warming regulations are in the pike; and if we lock
19 ourselves into dirty coal technology that we can't
20 take care of the global warming pollution from,
21 we're going to pay the cost for that.
22 I would also like to address the biomass
23 proposal from Alliant. We've heard a lot about the
24 biomass tonight; and biomass is indeed a good idea
25 when it is done right. It has all the benefits Page 3043
1 we've heard of, that it can sustain our local
2 economy, protect our wetlands, provide income for
3 farmers and reduce global warming pollution.
4 Unfortunately, this proposal, even with
5 the biomass, cannot. When you look at the numbers,
6 if Alliant even burning 20 percent biomass in the
7 proposed plant, that plant will emit more global
8 warming pollution than plants that burning 100
9 percent coal.
10 We question Alliant's promise to use 20
11 percent biomass we heard about in the media, but
12 it's not in the application. It doesn't seem like
13 there's room to handle that much biomass. They're
14 not working on building infrastructure to handle
15 that biomass. We can see no contracts for the
16 biomass, and we're starting to hear that they're not
17 being able to fulfill the biomass promises they made
18 to folks in Iowa where they're trying to build a new
19 plant.
20 As I said, even if the plant were to burn
21 20 percent biomass, we're not going to see a
22 reduction in global warming pollution, we're going
23 to see it go up. It's very irresponsible use of our
24 resources here in Wisconsin. It will produce lots
25 of toxic ash. Page 3044
1 Biomass done right is 100 percent biomass
2 dedicated boiler. When you mix biomass with coal,
3 you get toxic ash to be disposed of.
4 As I said, this is an irresponsible use of
5 biomass, and Alliant will get credit for renewable
6 energy if they burn 20 percent biomass, even as we
7 see global warming pollution go up. It's the wrong
8 way to go.
9 The bottom line is that there are much
10 cleaner, safer, cheaper ways to get the electricity
11 that we need here in Wisconsin. We've even heard of
12 one option that would involve taking one of
13 Alliant's current natural gas plants and making it
14 more efficient; doing more with less, using natural
15 gas more responsibly; and it would be about half the
16 price of the proposal. So whether it's cheaper,
17 cleaner, natural gas option, a truly sustaining real
18 biomass 100 percent biomass option, or a mix of
19 energy efficiency wind and solar that we know we can
20 rely on that is the promise of the new green energy
21 infrastructure, we have options that will meet our
22 needs without polluting our air, water, and land for
23 generations to come.
24 On behalf of Sierra Club's 15,000 members
25 across Wisconsin and the hundreds of members in Page 3045
1 Grant County, we urge the PSC to deny Alliant's
2 application to build another dirty coal plant in the
3 State of Wisconsin.
4 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. Gordon J.
5 Kramer, please? Is Mr. Kramer in the room?
6 David Branson, please. Is Mr. Branson
7 here?
8 DAVID BRANSON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
10 MR. BRANSON: My name is Dave Branson, and
11 I am here representing the Western Wisconsin
12 Building Trades Council.
13 I want to speak in favor of this project.
14 There is a direct tie between providing affordable
15 and reliable energy and job creation. This facility
16 will serve as a strong economic base for the State
17 of Wisconsin and the Village of Cassville creating
18 hundreds of new family-supporting jobs both during
19 and after construction.
20 The project represents nearly a billion
21 dollars in new economic development, and will be a
22 plant unlike any other with the capability to burn
23 massive amounts of biofuels. The biofuels that this
24 plant will use will help lower our dependancy on
25 coal, while providing reliable, affordable energy. Page 3046
1 Thank you.
2 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
3 Louise or Louis Bergan? Mr. or Ms. Bergan
4 on Nelson Road.
5 Dan Boland, please.
6 Mark Sethey.
7 William Thiboderu.
8 WILLIAM THIBODERU, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
10 MR. THIBODERU: I'm William Thiboderu, and
11 I'm nine years a resident of Cassville, moved here,
12 and I really do like the town; and I hate to come
13 out against the power plant and everyone's hopes and
14 dreams but -- I said I hate to come out against the
15 power plant because I know all the hopes and
16 aspirations that this community has for it.
17 When this was first proposed by Alliant, I
18 was favorable; but I stipulated that I was going to
19 seek outside information on it. And those people, I
20 talked to people with Ph.D.s and such behind their
21 names, came back negative on it; and I have to rely
22 on those people and not on people who have an
23 economic stake in it.
24 The economics of this region is at a very
25 poor section. We talked about Southwestern Grant Page 3047
1 County and, well, we're isolated. We're isolated
2 because there was supposed to be a bridge here and
3 never got here; but people heard me say this, and
4 it's true, we needed the bridge. 60 years of having
5 transportation across the river and this would not
6 be such a poor area. That's what we should be
7 working on, and a good place is down where they want
8 to build a power plant.
9 My mind is racing. I'm not an expert on
10 anything, but what I know from reading is that the
11 tree line on the Appalachians is dying out from the
12 power plants upwind from it. I know that the
13 northern loons are thinning out, and I know that you
14 can't eat the fish out of any of our waters because
15 of mercury pollution. This is all accredited to
16 coal.
17 I hear this plant called green, and I
18 really wish it were green; but it's -- even at this
19 latest figure of 80 percent coal, it's 80 percent
20 coal. At first I heard it was 10 percent biomass
21 and 90 percent coal, but they upped it to 20 percent
22 now I guess. I don't want to question them whether
23 that's true or not, but I cannot support this --
24 this facility as it's seen.
25 I think the other things I haven't heard Page 3048
1 of, and it was not my initial objections to it, but
2 on giving some thought to it is I think this will be
3 the death of the Nelson Dewey State Park, and I
4 think it will be the death of Stonefield; and that
5 beautiful valley up there, to turn that into a coal
6 yard shuffling trains around, is going to be an eye
7 sore. And the critters that live in the park
8 regions and that rely on the river for their water
9 and everything will be cut off from -- from the
10 Mississippi River because it's going to be two great
11 big long trains stretched up and down along that
12 valley right there.
13 I'm sure I forgot a lot. I would like to
14 support this. My brothers are sitting over there.
15 I'm 40 some year member of organized labor, and
16 they're here in support of this plant. It's
17 economics that they're here to support. When the
18 first plant was proposed down here as coal, they
19 were surprised. They had been forward looking
20 enough to create schools to teach their people to
21 build new gas generated plants, but then the prices
22 got goofy and coal is cheap. Now I hear it's coming
23 up and it's still cheap, so that's why they want
24 coal plants.
25 It's all economics. The reason this town Page 3049
1 is willing to accept this coal plant is because of
2 economics. They need jobs, they really do. They
3 need help here, and to say no and not come up with
4 any alternatives is wrong. You should get the
5 senator to be out there to be working on something
6 that will bring jobs into this area other than
7 nasty, dirty coal plant.
8 Now I could go along with maybe more
9 biomass, build biomass part of it, forget the coal;
10 and I'll quit while I'm ahead. Or maybe I'm not
11 ahead.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
13 Alice Richter? Is Alice Richter here?
14 Paul Cutting.
15 PAUL CUTTING, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 MR. CUTTING: First let me begin by
18 thanking the Public Service Commission for, number
19 one, your travels to Southwest Wisconsin and Grant
20 County; number two, for the opportunity to speak
21 with you.
22 My name is Paul Cutting. I am a resident
23 of the City of Fennimore, Wisconsin; and I am an
24 employee of Southwest Wisconsin Technical College
25 where I am the instructor for the agri business and Page 3050
1 science technology program.
2 I moved to Grant County in 1990, and since
3 that time over the past 18 years I've been
4 thoroughly impressed by the communities of Grant
5 County and by the production agriculture that we
6 have here in our district. I tend to be impressed
7 by the simplest things, and the soil here is mighty
8 impressive; and our farms are impressive, and our
9 farms and production agriculture here are just that,
10 very productive.
11 But the one crop that the farms in this
12 area have been consistently phenomenal in producing
13 are the young people that come off of it, and the
14 young people that are raised on farms and are raised
15 in our rural communities truly are one of the most
16 valuable aspects and one of the most valuable
17 productive components that we have. I'm privileged
18 in my career of being a college instructor to help
19 guide those young people as they choose a path in,
20 as I mentioned, in agri business but in production
21 agriculture and the industries that support it.
22 When I learned that Alliant Energy was
23 focussing on a new coal-fired plant in Cassville, I
24 was really enthused. When I learned later that part
25 of that component was also going to be in renewable Page 3051
1 energies, my hopes got a lot higher, hopes got a lot
2 better because, as important as renewable and
3 renewable sources of energy, is that of
4 sustainability and sustainable.
5 Sustainable energy is -- you know, there
6 are fads, there are trends and there are mega
7 trends; and it seems as though our society today is
8 focused in on the mega trend of energy and the issue
9 of energy as we face it in the future.
10 There's a difference between renewable and
11 there's a difference between sustainable, and that
12 difference is fundamental. Renewable that can be
13 replaced with sustainable makes that perpetual. Our
14 rural communities are not automatically renewable
15 unless they're first sustainable.
16 A plant being added in Cassville, the
17 proposed market generation that we have for
18 renewable sources of energy adds to the
19 sustainability of our region, the sustainability of
20 Southwest Wisconsin, whether it be in productive
21 agriculture and elsewhere. I make that loop back to
22 that productive soil. We have some of the most
23 fertile soil, but it happens to be in the topography
24 that doesn't lend itself to the monoculture of corn,
25 soybean production, and continuous row cropping. Page 3052
1 The production of switchgrass, the
2 production of biomass on those acres, is truly,
3 environmental speaking, the best use that land can
4 be put for. What better opportunity for the rural
5 communities and production agriculture and the rural
6 economy that we have in Grant County than to have a
7 marketplace for that production and that productive
8 capacity located here in our district.
9 Transportation costs are high. Everything is more
10 expensive when we look at any source or any form of
11 energy. We have an opportunity today.
12 I couldn't help but notice as I was
13 setting in the bleachers earlier and for the past
14 hour, hour and a half, today on the nightly news --
15 and no matter what publication you look in -- is an
16 attitude of we want, we want and entitlement; but
17 along with that comes the philosophy of not in my
18 backyard.
19 Now I was raised in West Central
20 Wisconsin. I've been a resident of Grant County for
21 the past 18 and a half, 19 years. What I have heard
22 overwhelmingly tonight by a vast majority is that
23 you have a community where the people have it in
24 their backyard and we want another in their
25 backyard; and I would hope that you folks in the PSC Page 3053
1 take that into account.
2 With that, I add my comments and thank you
3 very much.
4 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir. Mike
5 Miles.
6 Again, I am going to ask folks to please
7 hold your applause until the very end.
8 Mr. Miles.
9 I just had someone from Southwest
10 Wisconsin Technical College.
11 How about -- I'm not going to get this
12 name right -- Michael D. Liearance is it.
13 STAN HOLLMANN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
15 MR. HOLLMANN: I realize that Paul Cutting
16 is going to be a tough act to follow, but my name is
17 Stan Hollmann. I'm the Vice President of
18 Administrative Services for our local technical
19 college, Southwest Tech, at Fennimore.
20 On behalf of the college's district board,
21 faculty and staff, I am here to encourage support of
22 the Nelson Dewey 3 project that Alliant Energy is
23 proposing here in Cassville, Wisconsin.
24 To provide some background, Southwest Tech
25 plans to be a good steward of energy conservation Page 3054
1 for its physical plant by incorporating green
2 technologies and lead concepts for all new buildings
3 and remodeling projects.
4 This is a reality coming about as the
5 college is preparing to start construction that
6 addresses facility needs approved by referendum this
7 past April. We also plan to develop new and
8 emerging programs to support the renewable energy
9 industries that will take shape as our region moves
10 forward with sustainable resource fuels.
11 The forefront of new technologies is here
12 now, and Southwest Tech will do its part to deliver
13 the training related to the markets and job creation
14 that will arrive as these new economic markets
15 emerge.
16 As the primary provider of technical
17 education in Southwest Wisconsin, Southwest Tech
18 understands the need to support creation of new
19 economic markets and promote our area as an
20 affordable, reliable, sustainable place to live,
21 work and play. The proposed Nelson Dewey expansion
22 project will take major steps to cut emissions,
23 develop new renewable technologies and markets, and
24 do so at a balanced approach to meet future demand
25 efficiently with improved environmental benefits. Page 3055
1 Southwest Tech fully supports Alliant
2 Energy's proposed Nelson Dewey 3 project.
3 Thank you.
4 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
5 Michael D. Lieurance.
6 MICHAEL D. LIEURANCE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
8 MR. LIEURANCE: My name's Mike Lieurance.
9 I'm from Lancaster, and I support the project.
10 I was a district conservationists for USDA
11 Natural Resources Conservation Service in Grant
12 County for 31 years before retiring in 2007. My job
13 as the district conservationist in Grant County was
14 to assist landowners and operators of planning and
15 installing conservation plans on their land that
16 would meet the needs and capability of the farming
17 operation. In Grant County that included a
18 multitude of erosion control practices.
19 Grant County ranks in the top 100 counties
20 out of 3,000 counties in the United States in terms
21 of dollars of agriculture products marketed. Since
22 the great influx of the Cornish miners from 1830 to
23 1850, the county reverted from pick axes to plows.
24 From 1830 to 1870, wheat production flourished as a
25 bushel of wheat sold for more than an acre of land. Page 3056
1 Continuous wheat farming had caused severe
2 erosion on many of our Grant County farms. Many
3 farmers of the time bragged of the fact of wearing
4 out a farm and moving on to a new one. This
5 gradually led to dairying in the county and
6 Southwest Wisconsin.
7 Grant County has 422,000 acres of highly
8 erodible crop land -- excuse me -- of crop land,
9 which over 373,000 acres are highly erodible.
10 County has 9.7 percent of Wisconsin's highly
11 erodible crop land acres.
12 Agriculture has drastically changed in
13 Grant County and the Upper Mississippi Valley. As
14 we have transitioned from livestock to grain, many
15 of our traditional conservation practices have been
16 abandoned. Since 1985, U.S. farm bills have slanted
17 farm subsidies towards the growing of grain. In a
18 nutshell, if you wanted to stay in business, you got
19 bigger and you farmed the government programs.
20 The county has two major river systems,
21 the Grant and the Platte, which empty into the
22 Mississippi River. These two rivers are two of the
23 three top sediment producing rivers in Wisconsin in
24 terms of the transport load of sediment. The
25 floodplain elevation of the Grant and Platte basins Page 3057
1 have increased by 16 feet since 1850 during the
2 mining era; and that can be attested through the
3 smelting operations, the elevations when they bore
4 down and find the time period of the smelting.
5 U.S. Geological Survey has maintained a
6 monitoring station on the Grant River burden since
7 1934. The station measures sediment transport load
8 in tons. In water year 2004, 186,772 tons of
9 sediment were transported into the Mississippi River
10 from the Grant River. This year's data is not
11 available but undoubtedly it will probably surpass
12 any record so far.
13 Now to help you better understand this, if
14 we took a 50 ton railroad box car 50 feet long, it
15 would take 3,735 box cars to haul this sediment, or
16 a train 35.4 miles long. So if you went downtown
17 here and let a train pass for an hour, that's about
18 what it would take to haul the sediment out that the
19 Grant River is transporting into the Mississippi.
20 The Mississippi is a hard working dynamic
21 river and is the world's third largest drainage
22 basin. To the common person, Mississippi River is
23 viewed as a great recreational resource; however, it
24 is one of the most neglected natural resources in
25 the country. Page 3058
1 So where am I going with all of this?
2 When I worked for NRCS, we were always looking for a
3 third crop that would work in a rotation for grain
4 farmers and would also help protect their highly
5 erodible crop land from erosion. So last fall I
6 started working part-time for the Southwest Badger
7 Resource Conservation and Development Council taking
8 biomass samples of CRP fields that have been planted
9 to farm season grass mixtures. Some of these fields
10 have been in the CRP for as long as 10 years with
11 varying degrees of management. Samples we took
12 varied from 2 to 5 tons of biomass production per
13 acre.
14 This Spring Southwest Badger RC&D Council
15 recently secured $110,000 in grants to fund a
16 biomass project titled switchgrass research to
17 develop best management practices for maximizing
18 yields in Southwest Wisconsin. The project is
19 funded by an $80,000 award from the Driftless Area
20 Initiative through an appropriation sponsored by
21 Congressman Ron Kind and a $30,000 grant from
22 Alliant Energy.
23 Seven producers have been contracted to
24 grow 10 acres each for a total of 70 acres of
25 switchgrass for three years. The plots were planted Page 3059
1 this spring. Although the landowners are being paid
2 a rental rate, it is far less than they are paying
3 for rental rates to rent crop land themselves. It
4 shows their interest and support for the project. A
5 couple of these guys told me it's just the right
6 thing to do, the right thing to do, and I really
7 appreciate and support that.
8 Alliant Energy's proposed new 300 megawatt
9 power plant proposal to burn up to 20 percent
10 biomass in the new generating station would be a
11 win/win situation for everyone. It would give local
12 farmers an economic market for growing switchgrass
13 in their highly erodible fields, and the public
14 would benefit from the cleaner burning fuel. As the
15 switchgrass would be harvested, at least four inches
16 of stubble would be left and would allow -- and
17 would remain on the soil surveys creating a greater
18 infiltration of the water. The stubble in the
19 surface and the deep root mass produced by the plant
20 would provide great erosion protection on highly
21 erodible crop lands in the county.
22 As I said, I think this would be a win/win
23 situation. Thank you.
24 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
25 Tim Baye, please, or Baye. Page 3060
1 TIM BAYE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
2 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
3 MR. BAYE: My name's Tim Baye. I'm from
4 Lancaster, Wisconsin. I'm speaking in support of
5 WPL's application for permit from the Nelson Dewey
6 facility expansion.
7 My position originates primarily from the
8 prospective of the importance of this project to the
9 development and evolution of the biomass fuel
10 industry. Emergence of a sustainable system of
11 supplying biomass for electrical power generation
12 will help an entire energy industry move toward less
13 carbon emissions, improved independence from fossil
14 fuels. This project is a huge step forward in that
15 regard.
16 25 years, 25 years, I've spent in the
17 renewable energy industry in the development side,
18 research and education. I began promoting biomass
19 for electrical generation in the early 1980s, was
20 one of the first researchers in the nation for
21 switchgrass and production of switchgrass. We
22 conducted this research working with farmers right
23 here in Southwest Wisconsin with the support of
24 WP&L, MG&E, state and federal governments; and we
25 felt like loan wolves. Page 3061
1 However, it wasn't until recently that
2 little hope existed for the market for this
3 renewable fuel. Cost competitiveness was the issue.
4 Fossil fuels were too cheap and required no thinking
5 out of the box for the utilities. I thought long
6 and hard about this, and I'd like to characterize it
7 as this: WP&L's and Alliant Energy's commitment to
8 converting biomass power is courageous. Yeah, and I
9 mean that, courageous.
10 The financial and environmental
11 communities were both expected to be skeptics, and I
12 don't view that as a bad thing, skepticism makes
13 management better managers. However, until a large
14 stable and transparent market for biofuels is
15 developed; in spite of all that we hear in the
16 headlines today, the hope for renewable energy
17 sources being developed from our lands remains still
18 a remote possibility. Corn ethanol, use of biofuel,
19 wood pellets, residuals are examples in directions
20 toward a portfolio of renewables; but they're small
21 players in the big picture.
22 Nelson Dewey represents a large, stable
23 and, most importantly, financially sound opportunity
24 for producers of biomass to target, grow and learn;
25 how to do it right. Page 3062
1 Contracting with Nelson Dewey will provide
2 biomass producers contracts that reward good and
3 sound stewardship, including habitat management, and
4 will produce a new sort of metric yet to be
5 developed, that's growing Btus. And we all know our
6 farmers and our foresters, when given a metric and
7 goal, they know how to innovate.
8 Because WP&L's a regulated utility, the
9 transparency in the relationship with the land, its
10 production, and the utilization of biorenewable
11 fuels will far exceed any project yet developed in
12 the United States. I hope that this project and the
13 business model that grows out of it will be
14 replicated in many other areas of Wisconsin, the
15 Midwest, U.S. and hopefully internationally. The
16 electrical industry, the citizens of Wisconsin and
17 agriculture and forestry industry will all benefit
18 by having the opportunity to learn from this
19 project.
20 Moving away from coal requires sacrifices
21 at many levels. Innovations like Nelson Dewey,
22 especially with WP&L's commitment to support the
23 development of biomass supply industry is a critical
24 step forward. Some new investments in partial coal
25 facilities will allow older ones to be retired. Page 3063
1 Integration of true pricing environmental quality,
2 not just regulation, instead of burying the costs
3 and the subsidies wars and environmental degradation
4 can be better avoided.
5 This model will provide an example for
6 many other facilities to move away from their old
7 assets. In addition, other renewable energy sectors
8 are also crying out for solutions on how to
9 economically sustain biomass from the fuel to be
10 converted into hydrocarbons, ethanol, pellets for
11 heating and chemicals.
12 For years before our current time, the
13 classic dilemma existed; chicken or the egg. No
14 landowner was willing to commit the risky venture of
15 producing something that didn't have a market, and
16 no utility was willing to commit the necessary
17 investment to develop a biomass facility without
18 having an assurance to get the fuel. WP&L and
19 Alliant Energy have shown courage to be the first in
20 the state and one of the first in the nation to do
21 so.
22 Please do not view this project in
23 isolation. Recognize, I plead with you, recognize
24 the importance that this project plays in supporting
25 the evolution of the entire renewable energy Page 3064
1 industry, not just here, not just now before our
2 children, our neighbors and for others across the
3 land. We need an established financially secure
4 market to give those of us who care enough to have a
5 chance to make it work the right way.
6 Thank you.
7 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. Shane
8 Larson, please.
9 SHANE LARSON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
11 MR. LARSON: My name is Shane Larson. I'm
12 the Chief Executive Officer for Rock Energy
13 Cooperative. I appreciate the Public Service
14 Commission allowing me the opportunity the voice
15 support for Nelson Dewey 3.
16 Rock Energy is a not for profit
17 cooperative located in Janesville, Wisconsin. We
18 have been serving the energy needs of our members
19 since 1936. For many decades Alliant/Wisconsin
20 Power & Light has been the cooperative wholesale
21 power provider.
22 As an all requirements customer of
23 Alliant, we are obviously very concerned about their
24 cost and their reliability. After much review, we
25 believe Nelson Dewey 3 represents an opportunity to Page 3065
1 help increase the future power costs while
2 addressing current environmental issues as mentioned
3 earlier. In addition, the addition of Nelson Dewey
4 3 will allow improved transmission and transfer
5 capability. This improvement will increase
6 reliability and reduce cost for our members as well
7 as the entire state.
8 Every single day at the co-op we see the
9 impact of rising energy costs to our members. There
10 are no easy quick solutions to make the situation
11 better. In the energy business, big decisions are
12 for the long-term; and we believe Nelson Dewey 3 is
13 part of the long-term solution.
14 Again, thank you for your opportunity to
15 support Nelson Dewey 3.
16 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. Amy Morley,
17 please.
18 AMY MORLEY, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
20 MS. MORLEY: Hi. My name is Amy Morley.
21 I have no statistics or percentages for you, sorry
22 about that. Alls I can do is speak from my heart.
23 I too am a local, I grew up here, my
24 family grew up here. My grandparents grew up here,
25 and we've lived here our whole lives. We've heard Page 3066
1 from people from Green Bay, from Madison; but you
2 don't hear much from the people that actually live
3 here. I'm running a small business, I employ two
4 people, and it's hard. We have nothing. We need
5 jobs, we need this power plant.
6 I had a friend of mine say something to me
7 last night, and at first I didn't quite get it; and
8 he said to me, he said were these people
9 blind-folded when they moved here, and I was like
10 what are you talking about. The small group of
11 people that doesn't want it have lived here two
12 years, nine years; and I said well what do you mean,
13 because when they moved here we had two plants and a
14 track that run through our town. Did they not know
15 this? Why would you buy a house here?
16 As Louie said when he spoke first, we urge
17 and beg you and plead with you. We need this to
18 keep our town going and our schools. I would like
19 my kids to have a chance to raise their kids in this
20 community and so on and so on.
21 Thank you.
22 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Ms. Morley.
23 William P. Jascoe.
24 WILLIAM T. JASCOE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
25 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT Page 3067
1 MR. JASCOE: Good evening and thank you
2 for giving me a chance to speak.
3 I myself is a transplant to Cassville. My
4 fiancee and I retired here in January of last year,
5 of all times, from Honolulu, Hawaii. Between the
6 two of us we have a combined active duty honorable
7 discharge military service of 44 years. This is her
8 home, but it was with the prospect that there would
9 be gainful employment. We are still raising a young
10 family.
11 I am also a proud member of Laborers
12 International Union Local 140 out of La Crosse, and
13 I stand here today in support of the Nelson Dewey
14 power plant; but it's not, just as we've heard
15 stated, for the energy resources; but also for the
16 community resources.
17 Cassville is a great place to live and
18 raise children, you know, and I made this my home;
19 and I do see Alliant Energy as a good partner and a
20 good neighbor. You know, I wasn't blind-folded when
21 I came here, it was 30 below, there was a train
22 track and two power plants, you know; but what I
23 found here is the warmth and the support of the
24 community. And for me, that's invaluable.
25 Everybody said why did you leave paradise. Paradise Page 3068
1 became overcrowded, paradise became overtaxed and
2 overcost.
3 While I was in paradise, I completed a
4 project for Chevron Oil on a co-generation station
5 in 2006 so I'm very familiar with the industry and
6 what they're going to produce here and bring to
7 Cassville; and again, I reiterate Nelson Dewey has
8 been a good neighbor and good partner from all that
9 I could research.
10 And I do hope that the people and the
11 Commission support Cassville as the best place to
12 build number three. Thank you very much.
13 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
14 Bob Seitz, please.
15 BOB SEITZ, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 MR. SEITZ: I'm Bob Seitz. I'm the
18 Executive Director of Wisconsin Utility Investors,
19 Inc. We are a grassroots organization of over
20 16,000 investors and shareholders in Wisconsin's
21 shareholder owned utilities.
22 At our annual meeting last week, we found
23 full support among 150 members for this project.
24 Our membership represents a good
25 cross-section of Wisconsin voters. An August survey Page 3069
1 found that 71 percent of our members are retired or
2 semiretired; most make less than $60,000 a year; and
3 over 96 percent of them vote. I mention these facts
4 because they explain why our members' views line up
5 very closely with the United States population as a
6 whole regarding projects like this. According to a
7 June survey by a polling company, Americans favored
8 increase use of coal by a 64/33 margin. The most
9 local supporters for increasing reliance on coal
10 were senior citizens.
11 Are there a few small, but vocal
12 organizations that oppose this project and every
13 other practical plan to meet Wisconsin Energy's
14 needs, yes. Do these groups have a practical plan
15 of their own to meet Wisconsin baseload energy
16 needs, no. They leave this commission with a
17 serious responsibility to ensure that, when the
18 energy is switched, the light goes on.
19 I might mention, too, that really I'm in
20 agreement with virtually everybody who spoke today
21 in opposition because this plant as proposed, this
22 whole proposal as proposed, would reduce NOx, SOx,
23 mercury and particulates. So everybody who spoke
24 today about the dangers of mercury, everybody who
25 spoke about the dangers of particulate NOx and SOx Page 3070
1 should be registering in favor of this project and
2 not in opposition.
3 Wisconsin Utility Investors and the vast
4 majority of Wisconsin citizens understand the need
5 to improve environmentally while ensuring
6 reliability and affordable cost to our state. In
7 speaking to our WI members last week, it came home
8 to me again these are people with modest means, they
9 rely on their dividend checks to pay the bills; but
10 they're extremely proud of their investments and
11 they're proud of what those investments do for the
12 Wisconsin economy to make Wisconsin a better place
13 to live and work. They've invested their entire
14 lives, and they don't just see this as a way to make
15 money, they see this as a way to build the state
16 that they worked their entire life to build.
17 Increasing the capacity to bring more
18 renewable energy in from the west increases
19 Wisconsin long-term flexibility and also increases
20 the potential for biofuels, creates another market
21 in Wisconsin, and our members are very proud of
22 being a part of bringing new industry to this state
23 also.
24 So on behalf of the Wisconsin consumers
25 and investors that make up Wisconsin utility Page 3071
1 investors, I ask the Commission to approve this
2 Cassville plant. Thank you.
3 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
4 Steve Books, please.
5 STEVE BOOKS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
7 MR. BOOKS: Hi, good evening. My name's
8 Steve Books from Mount Horeb, Wisconsin; and I'm a
9 20 year member of Carpenters Local 314 Madison,
10 Wisconsin. I'm also a member of Clean Wisconsin,
11 the Sierra Club; and I'm a lifetime member of the
12 Midwest Renewable Energy Association.
13 I'm in opposition to the proposed Alliant
14 Energy and the Wisconsin Power & Light 300 megawatt
15 power plant for economic and environmental reasons.
16 I agree that the greater Cassville/Grant County area
17 is an area of Wisconsin that's economically
18 challenging, but as a Wisconsinite; and believe me,
19 I consider myself a Wisconsinite -- and I hope the
20 comments make it to the Kohl Center in March -- I
21 have some realistic concerns regarding the
22 environment and the economy.
23 We are all Wisconsin Badgers. As union
24 carpenters, we take great pride in digging into any
25 job we can get our hands on, that's our nature; Page 3072
1 however, sometimes we need to take a look at what
2 we're building and take a look at it and see if it's
3 for the greater good. In this case with this
4 coal-fired power plant, it's not for the greater
5 good for long-term sustainability. It's awful.
6 I was glad that Senator Dale Schultz was
7 here, and I would have a couple questions for him if
8 he was still here. I don't know if he's still here
9 yet. One is that if he plans to take a look at the
10 learning curve of the 100 percent biomass plant that
11 these power lines across this gym here go down to.
12 If he's taking a look at that power plant's 100
13 percent learning curve for that power plant, and I
14 think I said that about four times.
15 The other question is decoupling. Is
16 Senator Schultz looking into decoupling issues
17 regarding Wisconsin utilities in that decoupling, it
18 sounds like a railroad term, but it's allowing
19 utilities to make a profit on energy efficiency
20 measures. This is the type of thing we need to look
21 at legislatively. Is Wisconsin doing this? I don't
22 think it is, and why not. We're in 2008, and you're
23 telling me a power company would rather build a
24 power plant than work on energy efficiency measures.
25 It's ludicrous. Page 3073
1 Now I tell you what, I'm on Time of Day
2 rates. It's a meter where I go on off-peak and
3 on-peak electricity. I pay three cents for total
4 hour on off-peak, I pay 11 cents per kilowatt hour
5 on on-peak; and I was able to put 75 percent of my
6 total electrical usage on off-peak, and it wasn't
7 that hard and it's at no extra cost. I'd like to
8 ask Alliant Energy personnel how many people in
9 Wisconsin are on this Time of Day rate plan,
10 business-wise and residential-wise, and I think the
11 PSC needs to take a look at this seriously and have
12 Alliant Energy disclose this information. I don't
13 think it's too many; and you know why, they don't
14 want you to know to go on that program. And why,
15 they won't earn a profit.
16 So as far as the waiting for Mazomeen
17 (phonetic) and worrying about electricity in
18 Mazomeen, I would think that a company in Mazomeen
19 making solar panels would put some of their solar
20 panels on the roof as an example and maybe make
21 their own energy, probably go off grid.
22 Now there 's some examples in the final
23 EIS that I won't go into, but one of them I should
24 is that I hope everybody realizes that your rates
25 are going to go up. Page 3074
1 And in closing, I would like to say that
2 the cheapest power around is the power that you
3 would save with energy efficiency measures, and my
4 last statement is that Alliant Energy is not being
5 responsible for future generations regarding
6 environmental, economic and healthcare concerns and
7 that I think they're courageously irresponsible.
8 Thank you.
9 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Books.
10 David Besner, please? I don't know if I
11 got that right, Mr. Besner from City of Platteville.
12 DAVID BERNER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
13 EXAMINER MARION: Please spell your last
14 name.
15 MR. BERNER: B E R N E R.
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 MR. BERNER: Good evening. My name is
18 Dave Berner. I'm the City Manager for the City of
19 Platteville. I'm here representing the city
20 council, City of Platteville.
21 At their regular meeting of August 12th
22 after hearing presentations by Alliant Energy
23 officials and Clean Wisconsin, they voted in support
24 of the Alliant Energy/Wisconsin Power & Light
25 company's proposed Nelson Dewey 3 project in Page 3075
1 Cassville, Wisconsin. The city supports the
2 proposed 300 megawatt expansion because it will
3 provide new generating capacity that is needed to
4 provide reliable, affordable and environmentally
5 responsible energy to Wisconsin, our region and the
6 City of Platteville.
7 In addition, the council recognized that
8 this project will significantly contribute to the
9 economic growth of this region. The proposed plant
10 expansion is unique in its design in that it will
11 allow the flexibility to burn both coal and 20
12 percent biomass renewable fuels. Coal is the most
13 affordable fuel at this point in time. Renewable
14 biomass clearly represents a great opportunity for
15 Southwest Wisconsin.
16 The establishment of a sustainable
17 renewable biomass market in Wisconsin will mean
18 additional sources of revenue to area farmers,
19 foresters and agricultural operations. This biomass
20 market also has the potential to encourage the
21 growth of native grasses in Southwest Wisconsin and
22 better management of forest lands.
23 In addition, Alliant Energy has pledged to
24 continue its aggressive energy efficiency programs,
25 increase its use of renewable energy; and if this Page 3076
1 proposal is approved, shut down its oldest coal
2 plant that will offset the carbon emissions from the
3 new plant. The proposed power plant expansion will
4 provide needed energy to the state, economic
5 benefits to Southwest Wisconsin, and potentially
6 provide hundreds of new jobs that will be created
7 during the construction of the plant and after
8 construction.
9 Affordable and reliable energy is directly
10 related to job creation, and the proposed expansion
11 will contribute to a strong economic base for the
12 state. The proposal balances need costs and
13 environmental responsibility. It is a positive step
14 toward reducing our reliance on fossil fuels while
15 ensuring that businesses and families in Wisconsin
16 and our region will continue to have access to
17 affordable energy.
18 After hearing the testimony this evening,
19 I have some concluding remarks that I would like to
20 add here. As I said in my introduction, I am
21 currently the City Manager for the City of
22 Platteville. I've been involved professionally in
23 local government management for 30 years, 29 of
24 those years in the State of Wisconsin in virtually
25 every region of the state, other than the Milwaukee Page 3077
1 area. We're in the midst of a financial crisis, and
2 this state and people all over this country are
3 experiencing layoffs, higher unemployment, and I
4 think that we know out here in the Midwest that the
5 beginning and the end of what happens to this
6 country doesn't start and end in Washington, D.C.,
7 it's the hard-working people of this country and the
8 communities that they're involved in that will
9 provide the economic growth that will get us out of
10 this crisis.
11 And I would submit to the Commission that
12 this plant expansion should be approved, and we
13 should start this economic recovery that is surely
14 to come right here in Cassville, Wisconsin. Thank
15 you.
16 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
17 David Wilson, please.
18 DAVID WILSON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
20 MR. WILSON: My name is David Wilson, and
21 I'm here to speak in support of the proposed
22 expansion of Alliant Energy Nelson Dewey Generating
23 Station.
24 I work out of Lancaster as a coordinator
25 for the Driftless Area Initiative, and I better Page 3078
1 explain what that is first. The driftless area is
2 the portion of Wisconsin, Southwest Wisconsin,
3 Northeast Iowa, Southeast Minnesota and northwest
4 corner of Illinois basically that the glaciers went
5 around. That's why we have the steep terrain, we
6 have the fragile soils.
7 The Driftless Area Initiative is a
8 strategic four state partnership among Southwest
9 Badger, Limestone Bluffs, Northeast Siawa
10 (phonetic), Blackhawk Hills, Hiawatha Valley, and
11 River Country Resource Conservation Development
12 Councils.
13 The DIA mission is to unite organizations
14 and individuals in the driftless area of the Upper
15 Mississippi Basin for collaborative action to
16 enhance and restore this region's ecology, economy
17 and cultural resources in a balanced, integrated
18 fashion. And we strongly believe that this proposed
19 expansion of the generating station will help to
20 achieve this mission.
21 Water quality and the role of sustainable
22 agricultural systems can play and obtain high
23 quality natural environment and quality of life in
24 the glacier parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and
25 Illinois are a central focus to the programs and Page 3079
1 projects.
2 Alliant Energy's made a commitment to work
3 with us in planting test crops with various mixes of
4 switchgrass alternating prairie grasses and native
5 flowering plants. This project provides the
6 opportunity to study best management practices and
7 the potential for establishing the production and
8 harvesting and use of these materials as biomass
9 feedstocks in Southwest Wisconsin. Production
10 systems based on the hope of education hold great
11 potential to meet the energy, economic and
12 environmental management needs in the driftless
13 area, the Upper Mississippi Basin, and the nation.
14 Increased biomass production will greatly
15 enhance the natural environment and the economy of
16 Southwest Wisconsin. The increased demand for
17 biomass production will also provide some additional
18 benefits.
19 I mentioned the economy and the
20 development of a long-term market. Perennial
21 biomass crops that currently have real economic
22 value will be a great benefit, but also the
23 increased availability of funds for needed forest
24 management to supervise will really help the
25 environment. Improved wildlife habitat resulting in Page 3080
1 establishment management of grassland and woodland
2 to rotational biomass production will provide
3 additional benefits. Improved soil fertility and
4 carbon sequestration on highly erodible lands will
5 also offset a lot of carbon dioxide many of the
6 proponents have mentioned. Reduced runoff and
7 biomass producing acres will also lead to improved
8 water quality. And expanded rural economic
9 opportunities through sustainable production of
10 biomass crops and marginal agricultural acres will
11 really be an important part, an important benefit,
12 this plant will provide.
13 I believe that these are all important
14 aspects of the proposed Nelson Dewey Generating
15 Station expansion, and they should be considered in
16 the decision to approve this expansion proposal.
17 Thank you.
18 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
19 Andrew Verger, please.
20 ANDREW VERGER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
21 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
22 MR. VERGER: I oppose the new add-on to
23 the already polluting coal plant in Cassville.
24 Proposal coal will make up at least 60 to 100
25 percent of the plant's coal energy. Do you want to Page 3081
1 know why I only put 60 percent? Not because of
2 biomass but because of petroleum coke. This
3 produces even more CO2 than coal.
4 The main reason that we oppose this is not
5 because of carbon dioxide but the fact that we live
6 near this coal plant so logically our health will be
7 affected by it. Why build this when you can build a
8 40 year old coal plant that is more efficient? The
9 reason, the proposed coal plant will have lower
10 temperature fires producing more carbon dioxide and
11 particulates that are very hazardous to your health.
12 One more thing, the cost is way over the
13 top. You see the coal market has doubled its price,
14 and since there are no coal reserves in Wisconsin,
15 you have to pay shipping; let alone the price to
16 build it, over a billion dollars. This will wreak
17 financial havoc on people that use Alliant Energy.
18 Plus, more energy efficient resources cost
19 less than coal. Natural gas is at the lowest that
20 has been in years and wind is almost fee.
21 Just more one point. Alliant proposes
22 that it might possibly some day in the future be
23 able to use 10 percent biomass. Right now the
24 proposed building can only at best actually use 5 to
25 6 percent biomass. Even if they do, they will not Page 3082
1 be able to install a biomass burner. Without it,
2 biomass will produce more carbon dioxide and toxic
3 ash.
4 By Andrew Verger from Platteville, age 10.
5 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
6 MR. VERGER: I have a petition that some
7 people, kids, that care about the coal plant on this
8 paper.
9 EXAMINER MARION: Do you want to leave
10 that with me, Andrew, that petition?
11 MR. VERGER: Yeah, probably.
12 EXAMINER MARION: Thanks a lot. Good
13 work.
14 Lynn Verger.
15 LYNN VERGER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
17 MS. VERGER: My name is Lynn Verger. I'm
18 a part-time physician and a full-time mom from
19 Platteville. I grew up in Platteville, and I
20 returned to living in Platteville about seven years
21 ago to raise my family.
22 I oppose the proposed addition to the
23 Cassville coal power plant for many reasons.
24 Although I'm very concerned about the environment,
25 global warming, and my pocketbook, I am most Page 3083
1 concerned about the immediate effect this plant
2 would have on my family's and my neighbor's health
3 because I live in Platteville in Grant County down
4 the road from the Cassville coal plant.
5 Fine particulate matter released into the
6 air by coal plants gets trapped in the lungs and can
7 get into the blood stream leading to increased
8 asthma attacks, respiratory illnesses, strokes,
9 heart attacks and even increased deaths. People
10 living near coal plants are more effected. People
11 who have lung problems, heart problems and diabetes
12 are more at risk. Children and the elderly are also
13 more vulnerable to the effects of particulate matter
14 pollution.
15 The proposed coal plant emissions in
16 Cassville will directly affect my family who live in
17 Platteville. My 82 year old mother has lung cancer
18 due to sarcoidosis; and despite being a nonsmoker
19 has recovered from lung cancer after surgery to
20 remove a lobe of her lung. My 81 year old father
21 has diabetes and heart disease. I have asthma. My
22 husband had lung surgery for a spontaneous
23 pneumothorax. I'm also concerned for my 10 year old
24 son and my future grandchildren that I may have as
25 the proposed coal plant edition will likely be Page 3084
1 around for 50 years. I feel I have a typical
2 family, and all the members of my family will be
3 affected by this plant.
4 I am aware that there's some counties in
5 Wisconsin that do not meet the EPA standards for air
6 quality. Grant County is on the edge of not meeting
7 these standards. The American Lung Association
8 gives Grant County a grade D for particulate matter
9 pollution. Coal power plants are significant
10 sources of particulate matter. I want cleaner air
11 in my county, not dirty.
12 Grant County is a beautiful place with
13 many outdoor attractions and activities. We have
14 two great state parks, Nelson Dewey and Wild Lucy.
15 We have rivers for boating and fishing, county roads
16 for biking, winter skiing and sledding, and many
17 outdoor sports like soccer, baseball and football
18 that our children enjoy. I personally love the
19 outdoors and enjoy walking my son to school, biking,
20 hiking and camping. I do not want my environment of
21 these activities to be impaired by increased
22 particulate matter pollution that, due to my asthma,
23 may force me to stay inside.
24 The proposed addition to the coal plant
25 will affect the quality of my life in Grant County. Page 3085
1 As you consider this application for an edition to
2 the coal plant in Cassville, please factor in the
3 health costs associated with this proposal. Please
4 do not sacrifice my health, the health of my family,
5 and the health of the citizens of Grant County for a
6 coal power plant when healthy and more
7 environmentally friendly options are available.
8 Thank you.
9 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. David
10 Wiederholt. Mr. Wiederholt here?
11 (No response.)
12 EXAMINER MARION: Is Leonard Pluemer here?
13 Mr. Pluemer.
14 LEONARD PLUEMER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
15 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
16 MR. PLUEMER: Good evening. My name is
17 Leonard Pluemer. I'm an entrepreneur in the area
18 who owns several businesses. One of the main
19 points -- most of the points were already made by
20 other people that I was going to talk about.
21 There's been a few new ones brought up.
22 The baseload off-peak sales that the one
23 gentleman from Platteville brought up, this is a
24 baseload plant, not a peak plant. This is the type
25 of plant that will provide that 3 cent off-peak Page 3086
1 electricity. You have good potential for population
2 increases in this area due to -- due to, first of
3 all, this natural population increases, migration
4 from crime, natural disasters such as hurricanes and
5 such; and of course our main resource that we're
6 going to have here in the future is going to be the
7 fact that we have water, okay. So your demand, your
8 base demand, is going to get -- be increased
9 significantly.
10 The other thing is that as an engineering
11 technology major in Platteville in the early '80s, I
12 was always impressed with the fact that Alliant was
13 such a responsible neighbor in the community. Early
14 in the '80s they started scrubbing out the fly ash
15 from the smoke stacks. They did regular
16 improvements to take other things out of their --
17 out of their emissions. At one point they started
18 burning discarded rubber. You know, these things
19 aren't the answer to everything, but they were --
20 Alliant has not always been progressive, but
21 regularly breaks new ground.
22 Here we're sitting here discussing
23 biomass. The state has asked for 10 percent
24 renewable energy. I don't recall the exact date
25 they'd like to see that; but, you know, this is Page 3087
1 above and beyond at 20 percent.
2 The economic impact of a job this size as
3 I recall from my college level economics is that
4 money spent in the community circulates four times.
5 Money then circulates throughout the area 10 times.
6 So the construction, the power, the jobs, will have
7 tremendous impact here that; instead of my kids
8 going to Madison to get a job when they're 21 or 24,
9 or whenever they get out of college or high school,
10 maybe there will be some jobs and some money here
11 that they can stay in this area.
12 We see -- we've heard a lot of talk
13 tonight about rivers. Well, there's four rivers
14 that flow from Grant County and most other counties
15 in the state to Madison; they're called government,
16 insurance, medical and education. As far as things
17 come, they would be rivers of money. As far as
18 things coming this direction, we're usually pretty
19 grateful for a sprinkle.
20 Wind farms, I know some of the people are
21 saying that there's other options available.
22 Nuclear has traditionally been by far the most
23 expensive with the longest term negative effects.
24 Some of the things such as wind farms, some of them
25 options were available even in the late '70s, early Page 3088
1 '80s but not economically feasible. They're now
2 gaining momentum, but there is not even
3 manufacturing capacity to provide the equipment to
4 create enough power that's going to be demanded in
5 the future without probably a 10 to 15 year lead
6 time to increase the capacity to even produce that
7 type of equipment.
8 I was at a nephew's wedding in Martha's
9 Vineyard about three years ago. The objection there
10 was to wind farms. Environmentalists at that point
11 apparently felt that they objected to wind farms in
12 the ocean, which could have provided this particular
13 island's complete power needs; because of possible
14 impact on migratory birds, that compared to other
15 things. I mean I guess my point there is that no
16 matter what you do, there will be objections.
17 I am just going to ask that the -- that we
18 make a responsible decision and not a political
19 decision because, as one gentleman said earlier,
20 when I turn the light switch on, I would like the
21 lights to come on.
22 EXAMINER MARION: Lauren Junk, please.
23 Eloise Kirschbaum.
24 This is Jim McCarthy perhaps, or
25 McCaulley. Page 3089
1 MR. McCAULLEY: You got it the second
2 time.
3 JIM McCAULLEY, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
4 EXAMINER MARION: Please spell your last
5 name, sir.
6 MR. McCAULLEY: My last name is McCaulley,
7 M C C A U L L E Y.
8 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
10 MR. McCAULLEY: Thank you for coming out
11 and listening to the testimony for the Commission.
12 I wear three hats: I'm a farmer, I'm the
13 Mayor of Dodgeville, and the county conservationist.
14 So I'm going to be speaking representing myself, my
15 community and my county.
16 Rather than depend solely on traditional
17 fuels like coal, Alliant Energy's flexible fuel
18 plant will have the ability to also burn grasses
19 like switchgrass, left-over corn stalks and waste
20 wood all harvested locally in Southwestern
21 Wisconsin.
22 The establishment of sustainable renewable
23 biomass market means additional sources of revenue
24 to area farmers, agricultural operations, foresters,
25 and landowners that currently aren't there. This Page 3090
1 plant will create a new economic market for
2 Wisconsin, and Alliant Energy continues to work with
3 farmers and loggers and foresters to supply the
4 biomass to develop this new economic market.
5 We've learned this evening that our soils
6 historically are capable and suited for the
7 production of prairie grasses. Our community here
8 in Cassville is ready to accept the plant. Alliant
9 Energy is willing to take the risk to build the
10 plant. Our society has spoken quite loudly in
11 support of renewable energy and accepting that
12 challenge.
13 If anybody heard about the stock market
14 today, we know that we have to take economic
15 development into our own hands. I encourage the
16 consideration and the approval of the Nelson Dewey
17 No. 3 plant here at Cassville; it's the right thing
18 and it's the right time. Thank you.
19 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
20 Gordon J. Kramer.
21 Don Ferber.
22 SPEAKER: I think he left at break.
23 EXAMINER MARION: Mark Kresowik.
24 MARK KRESOWIK, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
25 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT Page 3091
1 MR. KRESOWIK: Thank you. My name is Mark
2 Kresowik. I'm the corporate accountability
3 representative for the Sierra Club National Coal
4 Campaign, which means I look at how companies make
5 the decisions they make in financing of new coal
6 plants, mountaintop roofer mining, and stuff like
7 that, which hopefully is why I won't say the word
8 environment once or twice during the next couple
9 minutes as a Sierra Club employee.
10 I want to start by echoing the words of
11 the city manager of Platteville and many other
12 people in the room when he started talking about the
13 need -- well, first, that the country is in a
14 financial crisis. There's no doubt about it, credit
15 markets are completely frozen in many cases for
16 anybody below an A rating until at least certainly
17 for the next few days; and we're facing some of the
18 lowest unemployment -- sorry -- some of the highest
19 unemployment, some of the highest unemployment this
20 country's ever seen.
21 Certainly the area of Southwestern
22 Wisconsin desperately needs jobs to start that
23 economic vitality and that economic comeback right
24 here is incredibly admirable, and I think absolutely
25 appropriate; and the need for Cassville and other Page 3092
1 places for jobs and economic development is
2 apparent. And I hope that all the people in this
3 room who have come together on this project continue
4 to do so on other projects that may bring economic
5 vitality to the region.
6 I also heard a lot about balance, about
7 balance of the economy and the environment, and I
8 think that too is completely appropriate. I think
9 if we took a quick survey and asked everybody to
10 raise their hand, those that are willing to pay just
11 a little bit more for clean power, clean energy and
12 less pollution, a lot of people in this room would
13 raise their hand. I think a lot more of you would
14 raise your hand if I said how about lowering your
15 energy costs and less pollution; and so in fact
16 paying less for lower pollution.
17 My guess is given the strain that is
18 currently being placed on everybody's budgets,
19 healthcare, taxes, or the energy costs, whether
20 you're struggling to put gas in your car or whether
21 you are a city manager going down to four days a
22 week employment for a lot of your staff members to
23 save money, to save energy costs. So if I was to
24 ask you would you want to lower your energy costs,
25 would you want to lower the amount of money you're Page 3093
1 paying for energy and lower pollution, my guess is
2 every single person in this room would raise their
3 hands; and ultimately that's what the commissioners
4 here are being asked.
5 Anybody who read the testimony before the
6 Public Service Commission knows that this plant is
7 the farthest thing from affordable or reliable
8 energy. As others have testified, the cost of
9 building new coal plants have doubled in the past
10 few years. Coal prices on the Eastern and Illinois
11 markets have doubled. Costs of power's gone up 60
12 percent, and that's before any carbon costs, any
13 cost of dealing with the pollution that these plants
14 put out.
15 We're facing, according to one expert
16 witness before this commission, 18 cents per
17 kilowatt hour as the ultimate cost of this project.
18 $80 per megawatt hour on fixed costs, $100 per
19 megawatt hour on variable costs, 18 cents per
20 kilowatt hour from this plant.
21 Any of you know what you're paying right
22 now? The average Wisconsin family is around 11
23 cents per kilowatt hour. The ultimate cost of power
24 from this plant would drive your energy bills up.
25 All those who are struggling for economic dove, for Page 3094
1 businesses, for Wisconsin families, need their
2 energy cost stable and lower. That's what economic
3 development needs; not higher energy costs from this
4 plant, but the lower cost of alternatives such as
5 energy efficiency, wind power; which, yes, it's
6 cheaper than any coal plants, and ultimately
7 possibilities like natural gas that are cleaner
8 burning. And as the PSC staff testified to for this
9 project, for the coal plant project, it's just not
10 the optimal choice for Wisconsin.
11 Before I came to Wisconsin and to the
12 national coal campaign's corporate accountability
13 position, I spent a year and a half organizing in
14 Iowa working on the Alliant proposal in
15 Marshalltown, and I see many of the same mistakes
16 here being replicated that they made in Iowa with
17 the Marshalltown proposal.
18 When they heard the Commission equivalent
19 before in Iowa, you know, heard about the cost of
20 the plant and the eventual carbon dioxide emission,
21 they wanted to do something about it so they added a
22 few requirements; but all that did was take an
23 expensive, risky proposition and add a whole bunch
24 of expensive and risky propositions on top of it,
25 essentially taking an open wound that they just Page 3095
1 opened in ratepayers across the state, pouring salt
2 on it and then telling us that the salt was a
3 solution to the problem.
4 Dare I use the phrase putting lipstick on
5 a pig in the current environment.
6 Ultimately if we want economic
7 development, if we want the lowest cost energy
8 possible, we want what's in the public interest of
9 progress for the State of Wisconsin, of progress on
10 the environment, the key is to take both the lowest
11 costs and the lowest pollution; and that the
12 Commission has an opportunity by rejecting Alliant's
13 application for a new coat plant to help the
14 economy, to help lower energy costs, to help the
15 environment by rejecting this plant is clearly in
16 the public interest of the people of the State of
17 Wisconsin, of this region, and the entire country;
18 and the Commission has that opportunity to serve its
19 public interest, and I urge them to do so.
20 Thank you very much for your time. Thank
21 you for coming to Cassville and this hearing. To
22 everybody, I hope you do continue to come together
23 on projects to make this town better, to make the
24 region better, and to make the state and country of
25 the United States a better place to live and work Page 3096
1 and enjoy what we have.
2 EXAMINER MARION: Lois Bergan, please.
3 Is Dan Boland here?
4 Mark Sethney.
5 Alice Richter.
6 Travis Tranel.
7 TRAVIS TRANEL, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
8 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
9 MR. TRANEL: Thank you for the opportunity
10 to speak tonight. I appreciate the Commission
11 coming to Cassville. I won't be lengthy by any
12 stretch of the imagination.
13 My name is Travis Tranel, dairy farmer
14 from Cuba City, an organic dairy farmer at that, so
15 somebody who definitely understands and appreciates
16 the commitment that people have to the environment.
17 And I share those concerns and do everything I can
18 within my business to be a good steward of the
19 earth.
20 I think it's great to see that we have
21 this opportunity in Cassville; to see so many people
22 come together, not only from Cassville, but all over
23 Southwest Wisconsin. The fact of the matter is we
24 need power, not only in Cassville and Southwest
25 Wisconsin, but in the state. And if we don't build Page 3097
1 this power plant, our only other alternative is to
2 continue to import energy from other sources,
3 whether that be from other states or from other
4 nations.
5 I've heard a lot of compelling arguments
6 in the short time that I've been here tonight saying
7 that this plant is going to do too much to continue
8 to create pollution, but I haven't heard any
9 alternatives to the energy problem. There's been no
10 solutions. It's all not Cassville, not Alliant; but
11 there's nothing else being offered. And I think if
12 you look around at what Alliant's done, especially
13 with their opinions and with their willingness to
14 make the capital investment to not only burn clean
15 coal but also to invest in bioenergy and
16 switchgrass, I think that's commendable; and we
17 should be a proud of the relationship that Alliant
18 is trying to form with Cassville.
19 Alliant has been a great partner with
20 Cassville, and Cassville has been a great partner
21 with Alliant. So I asked you, the Commission, to
22 allow them to build this power plant. It's obvious
23 that they want it, the region wants it. Not only is
24 it going to create jobs and economic development in
25 Southwest Wisconsin, but the reason to build the Page 3098
1 power plant is for the power itself; and energy is
2 something that we need, it's something that we're
3 all focused on.
4 We have a vulnerable economy right now.
5 If you're not aware, the Dow went down 778 points
6 today. There's no better way to sustain our
7 persistence and our success as a nation, as a
8 district, and as a region then to create our own
9 power and reduce our vulnerability and dependence on
10 others.
11 So thank you for being here, and I will
12 urge you to support the building of the Cassville
13 Alliant Power Plant.
14 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
15 Tim Donovan.
16 TIM DONOVAN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
17 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
18 MR. DONOVAN: Good evening. Thanks for
19 coming. My name is Tim Donovan from Platteville,
20 and I'm against the coal burning plant. If you want
21 to build a switchgrass plant, I'm all for that.
22 Recently our city council voted four to
23 three in Platteville in favor of this proposal. I'd
24 like to point out the four to three is not a
25 landslide and basically means that 43 percent of the Page 3099
1 council voted against it. This is by no means a
2 clear mandate, and I think that Alliant, who serves
3 many customers and yet did not seek its customers
4 endorsements on this proposal, should develop a plan
5 that has a much broader support of the public.
6 In designing this plant to be all things
7 to burn several fuels, it will not burn any one fuel
8 very well. This inefficiency will be very expensive
9 in the long-run, and the plant will burn one fuel
10 very efficiently. Customers will bear these
11 expensive costs, and all of us will have to live
12 with the pollution for a long time in the future.
13 More pollution in general will make it
14 hard to attract companies to our area. Particularly
15 mercury will be a huge problem. Mercury pollutes
16 our waters. All of Wisconsin waterways are under
17 DNA advisory for mercury.
18 I am a teacher, and I take my students out
19 to several local streams to monitor them for water
20 quality. One of the things we monitor is a variety
21 of aquatic insects, and we don't often find any of
22 the critters that indicate a high quality stream.
23 The kids ask why. I can't say that it's mercury;
24 but if this plant is built as proposed, the stream
25 quality will suffer even further due to mercury. Page 3100
1 This plant will put out more mercury that will end
2 up in our streams and rivers, it will end up in our
3 fish. I don't know why we don't find high quality
4 critters in the streams, but it will be harder still
5 to explain to children why our streams are polluted
6 with mercury and that we let it get that way.
7 Further, residents of Southwest Wisconsin
8 will suffer if we build the plant as a coal plant.
9 The pollutants from the plant will be right into us,
10 and my family's health will be threatened;
11 especially my son who has asthma.
12 Alliant needs to have approval from the
13 public. Again, a 4-3 vote is a slim margin, hardly
14 overwhelming approval. The PSC is the one Alliant
15 needs approval from. You've listened to the
16 experts, you need to make them come up with a better
17 plan. I'm proud to live in Wisconsin but
18 embarrassed to think that we are the only state
19 constructing three coal plants. We need to be more
20 forward thinking with our energy priorities as
21 Wisconsin state law suggests. Thank you.
22 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
23 David Kuhle.
24 DAVID KUHLE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
25 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT Page 3101
1 MR. KUHLE: My name is David Kuhle, that
2 is K U H L E. I'm from Hazel Green, and I came to
3 speak on behalf of the support for the expansion of
4 the power plant.
5 When I was a kid, like many of you that
6 are my age or older, we burned both wood and coal in
7 the furnace in our house; and before I went to
8 school every morning I either had to fill the
9 furnace with wood or I had to fill the stoker with
10 coal. And when I got home from school at night, I
11 could always tell which one that I had put in the
12 furnace that morning because if I had -- if we were
13 burning wood that day, the inside of the house would
14 smell like a campfire. If we were burning coal, it
15 smelled really clean. And even after we went to an
16 oil burning furnace in the late 1960s, the smoke --
17 the smell of the oil-burning furnace was always less
18 desirable than the smell of coal.
19 Coal burns really clean. When we consider
20 biomass products to replace coal, they're much more
21 expensive. They cost a lot to produce, and they
22 take a lot of property to produce them; whereas you
23 can get maybe five ton to an acre of switchgrass, an
24 equivalent amount of coal is a block about three
25 foot high three foot square. It's easy to ship, it Page 3102
1 can be stored outside. Biomass has to be kept dry,
2 it has to be stored inside. We're never going to
3 completely replace coal with any other available
4 energy source because coal is by far the cheapest
5 and cleanest burning fuel that we have.
6 When our ancestors came here a couple
7 hundred years ago and they civilized this area and
8 they put in roads and cities and factories and farms
9 and they built the power plant, and it wasn't very
10 clean at that time; and those of my relatives that
11 worked at the power plant at that time knew how much
12 exhaust came from that plant. But today the air
13 that is coming from that power plant's cooling tower
14 is cleaner than a sample of air in this room right
15 here today just from our own exhaust.
16 The idea that coal is not clean is
17 promoted by people who don't like the fact that it
18 is cheap. Coal is by far the cheapest energy source
19 that we have right now, and it's only expensive
20 because all other prices of energy are also
21 expensive, mainly the price of fuel, imported fuel
22 oil, or imported oil.
23 But the fact is that the -- the cheapest
24 form of energy is going to do the most to make life
25 easier for those people who are on fixed incomes, Page 3103
1 those who are just getting started with their
2 families, those people who are unemployed. High
3 energy costs are the biggest problem that we're
4 facing today, and it is the responsibility of the
5 Public Service Commission to provide us with the
6 most available and cheapest form of energy; and we
7 can make that energy clean, and we can do that by
8 burning coal.
9 And even the best case scenario of using
10 switchgrass or corn stover or of using wood pulp,
11 coal is still by far the best buy for the money, and
12 we can make it clean; and I would encourage for all
13 of the people who live in this county with the
14 median average of $24,000 a year, among the lowest
15 in the state, not only for those who are going to be
16 employed there but for also all of those of us who
17 use electricity, the Public Service Commission's
18 first and foremost responsibility is abundant and
19 cheap energy and to make it as clean as possible.
20 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you.
21 Ryan Schryver.
22 RYAN SCHRYVER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
23 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
24 MR. SCHRYVER: Hi. My name is Ryan
25 Schryver, and I'm a grassroots organizer for Clean Page 3104
1 Wisconsin. I'm really, really proud of all of the
2 expert testimony that our staff and our expert
3 witnesses have brought before the Commission in the
4 last couple of months, but I haven't really had a
5 chance to talk yet; and as the grassroots organizer,
6 one of my jobs is to go out and talk to people
7 throughout Wisconsin about our campaigns.
8 And so I started doing that, and early on
9 in my campaign somebody once accused me that I was
10 just some young idealist that was opposed to
11 corporations and opposed to utilities; and well, I'm
12 certainly not the oldest person to testify here
13 today, that couldn't be farther from the truth.
14 I grew up in Walworth County, which is
15 served by Alliant Energy, and my grandfather spent
16 the vast majority of his life working for Wisconsin
17 Power & Light, and we grew up thinking that
18 Wisconsin Power & Light was a great company; and we
19 were proud to be associated with it. And so it was
20 with some hesitation that, when this campaign came
21 up and we started looking at the facts -- and it
22 became apparent that this was not going to be a wise
23 investment for Wisconsin -- that I went and talked
24 to my grandfather first. And, you know, my family
25 still owns a lot of shares of Alliant Energy, and in Page 3105
1 many ways my grandmother is now dependant on those
2 shares.
3 And so I talked to my grandparents, and I
4 kind of explained the situation; and I said, you
5 know Grandpa, I'm not really sure what to do, and my
6 grandfather looked and me and he said good companies
7 can make bad decisions.
8 And I've really started thinking about
9 that a lot lately. And, you know, we're not out
10 here to vilify Alliant. In fact, we'd be happy to
11 stand up in support of many of the good projects
12 that Alliant Energy is doing, and I would love to
13 see 100 percent biofuels proposal in Cassville that
14 we could get behind and help bring some benefits to
15 the area that people have talked about. What I'm
16 concerned about is this is a bad decision for
17 Wisconsin's environment and me.
18 So I have been traveling the state, and I
19 have been talking to a lot of people, people who are
20 extremely concerned about global warming. A lot of
21 people who are really excited to see the Governor's
22 goals on global warming laid out very recently, and
23 a lot of people who think this coal plant will be
24 taking us in the wrong direction.
25 And a lot of people will not be able to be Page 3106
1 here, so I had some statements they asked me to make
2 for them. And so this right here is over 1,200
3 petitions by people who are opposed to this coal
4 plant on the grounds that it's not the cheapest
5 option, it's not the cleanest option, and that we
6 have other options available to us. So I'd like to
7 submit these.
8 And then some other people wanted to take
9 it a little bit farther, and a lot of other people
10 said, you know, very similar things that they were
11 concerned about global warming, they're also
12 concerned about mercury and their counties are not
13 meeting federal air quality standards; and they
14 signed to support statements supporting Clean
15 Wisconsin's efforts to promote clean, safe and
16 affordable renewable energy alternatives. So I've
17 got about 614 statements here, and I want to add
18 those to the record.
19 And then a lot of people wanted to go one
20 step farther. I have been speaking to a lot of
21 Rotary Clubs and Kiwanis Clubs and churches, and
22 everybody else throughout the state; and not all of
23 them have Internet access, and a lot of them had
24 difficulty getting on the PSC website and putting
25 their comments up there. So they asked me to help Page 3107
1 deliver some of those written comments for them, and
2 I've talked to some of those folks at the PSC about
3 getting them up on the electronic system -- and I
4 hope we can find a way to do that -- but in the
5 meantime, I would like to submit these 500 written
6 comments from people who weren't able to do so. So
7 I'd also like to make these 500 written comments
8 opposing the construction of the plant part of the
9 record.
10 So in addition to all of those comments
11 and those statements that we just now registered
12 onto the record, I have been talking to a lot of
13 people who are really, really concerned about global
14 warming as I said; and they're concerned about what
15 coal will do to global warming, and they were really
16 concerned when they heard that at one point there
17 were 150 proposed coal plants across this country.
18 Now those people get really excited and
19 have more optimism about our chances to address
20 global warming when they hear that over 70 proposed
21 coal plants around the country have been canceled
22 because coal is not the cheapest alternative and
23 because people everywhere are concerned about global
24 warming. And so those people get excited and hope
25 that the Public Service Commission will join states Page 3108
1 like Kansas and Florida and Minnesota and Texas and
2 reject this coal plant because we know we have
3 cleaner and keeper alternatives.
4 Now I wanted to talk just one quick second
5 about biomass, and Clean Wisconsin absolutely
6 supports the use of biomass; but we have to support
7 the biomass that reduces our dependence on coal and
8 helps us address global warming. Without doing
9 those two things, it simply is a waste of biomass;
10 and this use of biomass and Alliant Energy's
11 proposed coal plant would go so far as to increase
12 the amount of coal being burned in Wisconsin and
13 increase the amount of global warming emissions.
14 And that simply isn't going to cut the mustard for
15 the majority of the people that I'm talking to
16 across the state.
17 So we have been happy to stand up and help
18 out what we hope is a great thing for the Town of
19 Cassville.
20 When the Stoneman Coal Plant announced
21 that they would stop burning coal there and begin
22 using 100 percent biomass, that's something that
23 Clean Wisconsin whole-heartedly endorsed because
24 it's helping us break our addiction to coal and
25 begin addressing global warming. Page 3109
1 And so if you'll hang with me for one more
2 second here, I wanted to read two public comments
3 from folks here in this area that I thought were
4 especially pointed and they were not able to be here
5 tonight.
6 So Sara Kaminsky from Sinsinawa, Wisconsin
7 right here in Grant County had this to say: "I've
8 always been proud to live and vote in Wisconsin.
9 Besides the natural beauty of landscape and climate
10 and the availability of natural resources to
11 residents and tourists, there's been a history of
12 Wisconsin people valuing what they have and working
13 through legislation and education to provide for its
14 long-term preservation.
15 The construction of a power plant is a
16 long-range, long-term commitment, and the impact on
17 air quality for several generations and its use and
18 availability of fuel should be long-range, long-term
19 considerations as well.
20 Please let good sense and not a fast buck
21 drive the design and fueling of this plant. I
22 encourage the Public Service Commission to reject
23 Alliant Energy's proposal."
24 And that's a fair reading of what the rest
25 of those 500 written public comments were; and I Page 3110
1 won't belabor the point and read all 500 of them
2 tonight, but I do appreciate the time with the
3 Commission and everybody here in Cassville.
4 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you. I have now
5 called names of everyone who has signed a slip
6 indicating an interest in testifying, and I want to
7 ask just initially by show of hands if there are
8 folks who were undecided when they came in or who
9 changed their mind whether they'd like to testify.
10 Just for my information, if you can raise your right
11 hands please, or your left hands.
12 Okay, there are a few. I think we do need
13 to take a short break however, so we're going to
14 break for 10 minutes and then we'll get the
15 testimony of anyone who wishes to speak.
16 (Recess taken from 8:10 to 8:20 p.m.)
17 EXAMINER MARION: Ladies and gentlemen, if
18 we could please come to order, we are going to
19 resume the hearing at this time.
20 I would like to ask if there is anyone
21 else present who has decided they wish to testify?
22 And if so, kindly come to the witness stand one at a
23 time and we'll hear your remarks. Sir.
24 GENE SAMUELSON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
25 EXAMINER MARION: Please state your name Page 3111
1 and your address, and tell me if you've filled out
2 one of these slips.
3 MR. SAMUELSON: Yes, I have. My name is
4 Gene Samuelson. You said you want my address?
5 EXAMINER MARION: You don't have to if you
6 filled out the slip.
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
8 BY MR. SAMUELSON: Somewhere about four
9 and a half hours ago, I had four pages of notes.
10 I'm down to the back of a business card. Basically
11 everybody covered something I was going to say one
12 way or the other, but I used to work for Wisconsin
13 Power & Light, now Alliant Energy. I was a boiler
14 operator for 27 years. I fired both gas and coal at
15 Blackhawk Generating Station in Beloit, Wisconsin.
16 The way I see it -- I've also been in
17 union in different positions -- is the utilities got
18 a problem that people want power, but they don't
19 necessarily want it in their backyard. They want
20 clean power like wind, but nobody wants windmills.
21 Solar can't make it. Nuclear, the company hasn't --
22 or the country hasn't accepted it yet, or the
23 problems that go with it. So there is gas and coal.
24 In the middle '70s, we ran gas/coal in the plant.
25 They decided to go with gas; and the problem was a Page 3112
1 year or two years later, gas got shored and all of a
2 sudden we had to go back to coal.
3 Now, everybody believes gas is the way to
4 go, but I'm the president of IBEW 965 retiree club.
5 Our club is made up of retirees. My concern was
6 back in the late '80s and early '90s when all the
7 utilities decided that best way to go with the least
8 amount of heat in the environment is gas. The
9 problem is the more utilities went to gas, the gas
10 turbines, the more the prices went up. As a
11 retiree, we can't afford higher utility prices; and
12 I'm telling you if all utilities keep going with
13 gas, that's exactly where we're going.
14 Coal, we have, and I think there is a way
15 that you can go to a coal generating plant and make
16 it acceptable and clean. So I support going with
17 coal and gas -- or the coal plant in Cassville and I
18 hope you'll let them do it. Thank you.
19 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you,
20 Mr. Samuelson.
21 (Witness excused.)
22 EXAMINER MARION: Is there anyone else who
23 wishes to testify? Sir.
24 MIKE MYERS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
25 EXAMINER MARION: Did you fill out a slip, Page 3113
1 an appearance slip?
2 MR. MYERS: Yes, I did. I registered to
3 speak.
4 EXAMINER MARION: Okay. And your name?
5 MR. MYERS: My name is Mike Myers. I'm a
6 president of Platteville, Wisconsin.
7 First I would like to thank the Public
8 Service Commission for taking the time to come to
9 Cassville and listen to this long ordeal of pros and
10 cons. I started out as a young man, young child
11 eight miles up the road, Highway 133. I'm not real
12 proud of this because this dates me, but I remember
13 when there was not a Nelson Dewey plant, period.
14 I saw the first construction, I saw the
15 second construction. I went away to college and I
16 forgot to leave southwest Wisconsin after
17 graduation. I've been in agriculture since 1970.
18 It's been my life. I still own and operate 448 acre
19 crop farm on a home site eight miles north of here.
20 I'm very proud of my background, people
21 that I've helped over the years. I've been through
22 the '70s, I've been through the '80s, the '90s, and
23 now 2000s.
24 I had a prepared speech, and it's been
25 many times repeated and I put it in my briefcase. Page 3114
1 The main thing that I would like to leave with you
2 people is that you are on the brink of something
3 great, not only for Cassville, Wisconsin, not only
4 for Grant County, Wisconsin, but for the State of
5 Wisconsin and the United States. You have an
6 opportunity to improve a biomass project with a
7 coal-fired facility that provides the baseload
8 that's needed in this state.
9 We've talked about economic development,
10 what's needed, how do we get it. But again, you
11 have a golden opportunity to allow the State of
12 Wisconsin to shine by approving the biomass project.
13 I have worked and I know the southwest region has
14 the ability, I've studied the numbers, to produce
15 the biomass that's needed in this facility. There
16 are problems with it, yes, there are problems with
17 everything. But my point being if you want to carry
18 this opportunity for the rest of the century, this
19 is your chance to step up and support this program.
20 Thank you.
21 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
22 (Witness excused.)
23 EXAMINER MARION: Is Marvin Cartwright
24 here, please? Mr. Cartwright.
25 MARVIN CARTWRIGHT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN Page 3115
1 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
2 BY MR. CARTWRIGHT: Good evening. I can't
3 believe out of this stack of papers there wasn't one
4 for the project, but whatever. I'm a business
5 agent, I represent boilermakers throughout the State
6 of Wisconsin. And as a group we certainly have an
7 interest in the outcome of the decision here. But
8 more importantly, we have concern about the baseload
9 future energy in the state.
10 I'm not going to sit here and try to fill
11 you with useful and manipulative statistics or scare
12 tactics. I think that we've heard enough of that
13 today. But I will try to just put a different
14 complexion on it. The recent completion of the
15 Weston 4 project in Wausau and the two units that
16 are being built in Wisconsin are going to be the
17 first coal-fired units in the state since the early
18 1980s. And that shows you how old the baseload
19 energy plants, how old they are in Wisconsin. They
20 have to be renewed.
21 Since the '80s, utilities have shut down
22 ten coal-fired units in the State of Wisconsin that
23 I'm aware of. And there is three more on the verge
24 of being shut down. Also during this time, Alliant
25 Energy and all utilities in the State of Wisconsin Page 3116
1 have made vigorous attempts to reduce emissions.
2 About all the fire -- the coal-fired plants in the
3 state have installed over-fired air, which re-burns
4 the coal which makes it cleaner, and they've done
5 extensive back-end work at all the utilities as far
6 as putting precipitators, bag houses and scrubbers
7 on the back end of the units and obviously this
8 scrubs the air, makes it a lot cleaner. So a lot
9 has been done by the utilities in the last 25 years
10 to clean the air.
11 The answer in the last 25 years, as this
12 gentleman alluded to before, was to go with gas.
13 Well, gas is proved to be nothing more than
14 expensive band-aid. Now you drive around the state,
15 I cover the state so I'm driving around, I see
16 windmill farms all over the place. I'm not opposed
17 to alternative energy. These windmill farms are a
18 pretty ugly site and nobody wants them in their
19 backyard. But wind and solar seem to be the way
20 people want to go. But that's not the answer to
21 baseload energy and that's what we're here to
22 discuss. Not windmills, not solar, not nuclear
23 because, you know, the government is still opposed
24 to nuclear. We are here to discuss baseload energy.
25 I think that Alliant Energy has in my mind Page 3117
1 been the front runner as far as trying to mix and be
2 environmentally friendly. And I stand here on
3 behalf of my members in the southwest of Wisconsin
4 fully in support of the plant project here in
5 Cassville. Thank you.
6 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
7 (Witness excused.)
8 EXAMINER MARION: Is there anyone who
9 wishes to testify? Sir.
10 And I believe you have filled out an
11 appearance slip.
12 MR. BALLWEG: Yes.
13 EXAMINER MARION: What's your name?
14 MR. BALLWEG: Ben Ballweg.
15 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Ballweg.
16 BEN BALLWEG, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
17 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
18 BY MR. BALLWEG: Hello. My name is Ben
19 Ballweg. I welcome all of you to Cassville school.
20 I'm school board president. I also work at the
21 power plant. I brought my family over here 15 years
22 ago. At the time there was -- I had six children
23 and found this to be a wonderful community to raise
24 a family. It's very -- everyone's very welcoming,
25 they have a lot of natural beauty in area and it's Page 3118
1 clean.
2 I came from the Beloit area before that.
3 And it's like coming back -- going back home after
4 coming here. I mean I was coming -- coming back
5 home because of all the natural beauty and everyone
6 wanting more people in town. The only way this town
7 can grow is if there is something to bring them
8 here. Right now there is not any substantial
9 industry. Our main goal -- our main product now is
10 our children that leave and don't come back because
11 there is no jobs.
12 I have two children that graduated from
13 college, they're not in this area. Two in college
14 and two in high school. So it would be a great
15 benefit to this community to have this type of
16 project go forward.
17 We were talking previously here, I was
18 asked a question how many people in Town of
19 Cassville do you think oppose this. And the number
20 that we came up with was somewhere between five and
21 ten. We took a poll of everyone in the whole
22 village and surrounding area.
23 I believe that there is a full support in
24 this whole state that needs this power. As you
25 alluded to before, there is other alternatives; but Page 3119
1 if there is so many other alternatives, why don't
2 they build them, why doesn't the Sierra Club build
3 them, why don't they propose to build a power plant.
4 Alliant proposed to do what they felt is
5 the best plan available for this area and the
6 situation and the location that we have. If they
7 did not want, you know -- they would not have put
8 all the investment in a bad plan or something that
9 was not healthy for everyone. The proposed plant
10 would actually clean the emissions with the added
11 equipment of the existing plant. There would be
12 less mercury, less NOx, and just fewer fine
13 particles of pollution.
14 Therefore, I would hope that everyone has
15 felt welcome here and that you go approve this plan.
16 Thank you.
17 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Ballweg.
18 (Witness excused.)
19 EXAMINER MARION: Is there anyone else who
20 wishes to testify?
21 Have you filled out a slip, sir?
22 MR. McMAHON: Yes.
23 EXAMINER MARION: What's your name?
24 MR. McMAHON: Jim McMahon.
25 JIM McMAHON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN Page 3120
1 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
2 BY MR. McMAHON: My name is Jim McMahon
3 and I'm a native-born Wisconsinite. Grew up at
4 Pardeeville, Wisconsin, next to Portage, east of
5 Columbia 1 and 2. I've lived in southwest Wisconsin
6 for 22 years. And 11 of those years here in
7 Cassville.
8 According to some people here, I probably
9 should be dead because I grew up on a farm where we
10 had a coal stoker, we had coal in the bin in the
11 basement, and I was never afraid of coal. I never
12 realized that coal could be that destructive. I'm
13 actually more scared of being in a room with someone
14 and having secondhand smoke around than I am of
15 coal.
16 And some would seem to suggest that
17 somehow the beauty of this area would be marred by a
18 plant that would emit less emissions and that
19 somehow the scenery, 50-some years the plants have
20 been here in Cassville, and if you look around, I
21 would like you to point out to me where in any way
22 the environment has been all that impacted by the
23 coal plants in this town.
24 The other thing I just want to emphasize
25 tonight is this. 2002, what is the cost of waiting Page 3121
1 on the bringing up the base -- good power in this
2 state. 2002 I made a missions trip to Haiti. Haiti
3 is one of the poorest countries in our western
4 hemisphere. Haiti is also a country I've seen with
5 my own eyes that in Grand Goave one night you may
6 have public power. The next night they give it to
7 the town down the road. They'll keep the power on
8 Port of Prince because it's the capitol city. But
9 the opportunities for jobs, the opportunities for
10 economic development are hampered in Haiti because
11 of lack of power. Power made this country. If you
12 don't believe it, just go to Florida. Henry Ford
13 had his winter home next to Thomas Edison. Why in
14 the world could they work longer hours in Ford's
15 plants after Edison invented the light bulb. There
16 was -- it was all connected to power. And it's been
17 already said here tonight that the farming industry,
18 everything else in this country has generated jobs
19 on the basis of electrical power in large part. And
20 if you go to Haiti, you'll see the lack of
21 electrical power is what hinders that country, keeps
22 it poor and will keep any economic development from
23 coming into it.
24 What's the cost of waiting too long in
25 this state to build another power plant that will Page 3122
1 add to the power base.
2 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, sir.
3 (Witness excused.)
4 EXAMINER MARION: Any other witnesses to
5 wish to testify? Sir.
6 Have you filled out a slip, sir?
7 MR. WAGNER: Yes, sir.
8 EXAMINER MARION: And your name?
9 MR. WAGNER: Craig Wagner.
10 CRAIG WAGNER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
11 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT
12 BY MR. WAGNER: Good evening, everybody.
13 My name is Craig Wagner. I'm a business
14 representative for Local 18 sheet metal workers for
15 68 counties in Wisconsin. There is a direct tie
16 between providing affordable and reliable energy and
17 job creations. This facility will serve a strong
18 economic base for the State of Wisconsin and the
19 Village of Cassville, creating hundreds of new jobs,
20 family supporting jobs during both and after
21 construction. The project represents nearly a
22 billion dollars of new economic development and will
23 be a plant unlike any other. With the capability to
24 burn massive amounts of bio fuels, who else is
25 proposing that kind of responsibility growth. Thank Page 3123
1 you.
2 EXAMINER MARION: Thank you, Mr. Wagner.
3 (Witness excused.)
4 EXAMINER MARION: Is there anyone else who
5 wishes to testify?
6 (No response.)
7 EXAMINER MARION: I see no additional
8 hands. I want to thank everyone very seriously for
9 your participation this afternoon and this evening,
10 and also the attention that you've given to your
11 fellow witnesses and other folks in this community
12 and around this state. I'm very impressed by the
13 level of turnout, the sincerity, and the quality of
14 the testimony this afternoon. And all of the
15 appearance slips that we have with comments on them
16 and anything we receive on the internet of course
17 will be considered by the Commissioners as fully as
18 if offered orally this evening.
19 So thank you very much and good evening to
20 you.
21 I would like to say one thing for the
22 attorneys representing the parties present today,
23 and that is that we're going to have a conference
24 tomorrow morning at 8:30 to discuss how we're going
25 to deal with some of this documentary evidence Page 3124
1 that's been provided.
2 Thank you. We are adjourned. Tomorrow in
3 Portage.
4 (The hearing concluded at 8:45 p.m.)
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1 STATE OF WISCONSIN )
2 MILWAUKEE COUNTY )
3 We, LYNN M. BAYER, RMR, Certificate of Merit
4 Reporter, and JENNIFER STEIDTMANN, RPR, CRR, with the firm
5 of Gramann Reporting Company, 710 North Plankinton, Suite
6 710, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, do hereby certify that I
7 reported the foregoing proceedings, and that the same is
8 true and correct in accordance with my original machine
9 shorthand notes.
10
11 ______
12 Lynn M. Bayer
13 Certificate of Merit Reporter
14
15 ______
16 Jennifer Steidtmann
17 Certified Realtime Reporter
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25 Page 3126
1 I N D E X
2 WITNESS EXAMINATION PAGE
3 FRANK FIORENZA, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
4 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. FIORENZA 2948
5 JERRY WEHRLE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. WEHRLE 2951
7 LOUIS W. OKEY, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
8 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. OKEY 2957
9 SUE DIETZEN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MS. DIETZEN 2961
11 FRED DOMANN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
12 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. DOMANN 2963
13 JIM KOLBE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. KOLBE 2966
15 DAVID WILLIAMS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. WILLIAMS 2969
17 GEORGE KRUEGER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
18 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. KRUEGER 2973
19 RON BRISBOIS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
20 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. BRISBOIS 2976
21 JEFF CHRISTIE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. CHRISTIE 2978
23 CHARLES PUGH, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
24 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. PUGH 2979
25 RICHARD GORDER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN Page 3127
1 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. GORDER 2980
2 LARRY JERRETT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
3 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. JERRETT 2984
4 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. KOLB 2985
5 FERRON HAVENS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. HAVENS 2990
7 WILLIAM H. HOWE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
8 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. HOWE 2994
9 TONY BARTELS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. BARTELS 2996
11 FORREST CEEL, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
12 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. CEEL 3000
13 ROBERT T. BLOCK, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. BLOCK 3002
15 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MS. KLEISS 3004
16 LEEAN WHITE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
17 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MS. WHITE 3008
18 DALE SCHULTZ, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. SCHULTZ 3013
20 RAY SAINT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
21 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. SAINT 3017
22 RICK IRWIN, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
23 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. IRWIN 3019
24 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. PATCLE 3020
25 JERRY LEWIS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN Page 3128
1 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. LEWIS 3021
2 DENNIS RICE, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
3 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. RICE 3021
4 CHARLES WINTERWOOD, PUBLIC WITNESS
5 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. WINTERWOOD 3028
6 LAURA COGLAN, PUBLIC WITNESS
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MS. COGLAN 3030
8 MATTHEW DIGMAN, PUBLIC WITNESS
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. DIGMAN 3032
10 JEFF GLASS, PUBLIC WITNESS
11 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. GLASS 3033
12 REX DAY, PUBLIC WITNESS
13 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. DAY 3034
14 MAUREEN VAN DEN BOSCH, PUBLIC WITNESS
15 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MS. VAN DEN BOSCH 3035
16 JENNIFER FEYERHERM, PUBLIC WITNESS
17 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MS. FEYERHERM 3036
18 DAVID BRANSON, PUBLIC WITNESS
19 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. BRANSON 3045
20 WILLIAM THIBODERU, PUBLIC WITNESS
21 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. THIBODERU 3046
22 PAUL CUTTING, PUBLIC WITNESS
23 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. CUTTING 3049
24 STAN HOLLMANN, PUBLIC WITNESS
25 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. HOLLMANN 3053 Page 3129
1 MICHAEL D. LIEURANCE, PUBLIC WITNESS
2 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. LIEURANCE 3055
3 TIM BAYE, PUBLIC WITNESS
4 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. BAYE 3060
5 SHANE LARSON, PUBLIC WITNESS
6 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. LARSON 3064
7 AMY MORLEY, PUBLIC WITNESS
8 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MS. MORLEY 3065
9 WILLIAM T. JASCOE, PUBLIC WITNESS
10 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. JASCOE 3066
11 BOB SEITZ, PUBLIC WITNESS
12 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. SEITZ 3068
13 STEVE BOOKS, PUBLIC WITNESS
14 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. BOOKS 3071
15 DAVID BERNER, PUBLIC WITNESS
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. BERNER 3074
17 DAVID WILSON, PUBLIC WITNESS
18 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. WILSON 3077
19 ANDREW VERGER, PUBLIC WITNESS
20 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. VERGER 3080
21 LYNN VERGER, PUBLIC WITNESS
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MS. VERGER 3082
23 LEONARD PLUEMER, PUBLIC WITNESS
24 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. PLUEMER 3085
25 JIM MCCAULLEY, PUBLIC WITNESS Page 3130
1 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. MCCAULLEY 3089
2 MARK KRESOWIK, PUBLIC WITNESS
3 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. KRESOWIK 3090
4 TRAVIS TRANEL, PUBLIC WITNESS
5 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. TRANEL 3096
6 TIM DONOVAN, PUBLIC WITNESS
7 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. DONOVAN 3098
8 DAVID KUHLE, PUBLIC WITNESS
9 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. KUHLE 3100
10 RYAN SCHRYVER, PUBLIC WITNESS
11 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT MR. SCHRYVER 3103
12 GENE SAMUELSON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
13 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. SAMUELSON 3111
14 MIKE MYERS, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
15 MARVIN CARTWRIGHT, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
16 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. CARTWRIGHT 3115
17 BEN BALLWEG, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
18 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. BALLWEG 3117
19 JIM MCMAHON, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
20 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. MCMAHON 3120
21 CRAIG WAGNER, PUBLIC WITNESS, DULY SWORN
22 DIRECT TESTIMONIAL STATEMENT BY MR. WAGNER 3122
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