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Columbia Missouri Should be Renamed NIMBY City

6/13/2017

3 Comments

 
When the irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife...

The City of Columbia, Missouri, made a big announcement earlier this month that it has reached an agreement to purchase wind energy from Kansas, but that the agreement was contingent upon the Missouri Public Service Commission approving a new transmission line cutting clear across the state.
The Columbia City Council approved an agreement with Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission to purchase wind energy from Kansas-based Iron Star Wind, LLC during its Monday meeting, but the means of receiving the energy — a transmission line that still needs to be constructed — needs the OK from the Public Service Commission.

The Grain Belt Express project is a 780-mile transmission line that will start in southwestern Kansas and cut through Missouri and Illinois, providing energy to those states and Indiana. The direct-current line will go to Hannibal, where a substation will convert the direct current to alternating current, the type of current used by Columbia’s electric system, said John Conway, chairman of the Water and Light board.

The Grain Belt Express is asking the PSC for eminent domain authority to condemn and take land from resistant landowners in order to build its project.  The proposed route of the project travels through private property, and affected landowners say the lines run too close to homes and schools, and many fear adverse health effects from the electric lines overhead.

The City of Columbia supports the building of Grain Belt Express on rural properties outside of its own borders.

However, the City of Columbia has spent years opposing a new transmission line in its own city because, "the lines ran too close to homes and schools, and many feared adverse health effects from the electric lines overhead."

So, when a transmission project Columbia thinks it needs to fulfill its environmental goals is in someone else's backyard, it's okay to run it close to homes and schools, but don't try that in Columbia's own backyard.  In Columbia, a transmission line is unacceptable.  NIMBY = Not in my backyard.  Don't build a transmission line in Columbia's backyard, build it in someone else's backyard.

Hypocrites.

If Columbians don't want a new transmission line in their backyard, neither does any other Missourian.  You're really not that special, Columbia.  I think I shall rename you NIMBY City.

3 Comments

Trump's Infrastructure Plan:  Maybe Not What Clean Line Bargained For

5/24/2017

3 Comments

 
Who hasn't laughed over Michael Skelly's recent news show commentator appearances where he's tried to spin his projects as part of Trump's great (really great, believe me, the greatest of all time, it will be great) infrastructure plan?

Well, laugh some more, little Schadenfreuders,* because not only does Trump's plan not include a project list, it actively neuters Section 1222 of the Energy Policy Act.  For years, Clean Line has used Section 1222 as its trump card (heh, the jokes just won't stop here) to threaten states with losing jurisdiction over its projects if they fail to approve them.  Clean Line even went to far as to go all the way with the DOE on its Plains & Eastern project, spending millions of dollars to secure the "participation" of one of DOE's federal power marketers in that project, with the idea that would allow federal eminent domain authority where Arkansas failed to grant it.

Whoops.  Whoops.  Whoopsie!

Trump's budget includes a plan to sell the transmission assets of three of DOE's federal power marketers, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Western Area Power Administration, and, yes, the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA). 
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SWPA is the federal power marketer that is supposed to "participate" in the Plains & Eastern project, and use its federal eminent domain authority to condemn and take property in Arkansas for transmission right of way.  In order to do that, SWPA must "own" the right of way and the project assets in Arkansas.

Except Trump wants to sell off all SWPA's transmission assets to private industry.  Setting aside the fact that Clean Line doesn't have the assets to buy its own project back from the government, once they are no longer owned by SWPA, there is no federal condemnation authority!

Section 1222 authorizes:
The Secretary, acting through WAPA or SWPA, or both, may design, develop, construct, operate, maintain, or own, or participate with other entities in designing, developing, constructing, operating, maintaining, or owning, a new electric power transmission facility and related facilities (“Project”) located within any State in which WAPA or SWPA operates...
Without WAPA and SWPA owning transmission facilities, any eminent domain authority the DOE currently thinks Section 1222 authorizes collapses.  Once PMA transmission assets are no longer held by the federal government, federal eminent domain authority ceases.

Is that what you thought being on some fake infrastructure list was going to buy you, Michael Skelly?  Seems to me that Trump's infrastructure plan only further complicates  Plains & Eastern.  Who would want to sign a contract to purchase capacity on a non-existent transmission project that is in danger of being sold to the highest bidder?  Trump's plan to sell PMA transmission assets makes Plains & Eastern more risky and uncertain than ever!

But, the idea to sell PMA transmission is unlikely to happen.  However, it could, hypothetically speaking.  The uncertainty is likely to stall PMA transmission plans for the foreseeable future.  It's not like the idea to divest PMA assets is new.  It's been floated several times in the past and been defeated.  Already, legislators and users of PMA transmission are up in arms about the proposal, and for good reason.  It's a really stupid idea.

But it's Trump's really great idea.  And it's going to cripple any PMA transmission projects for now.

I hope Clean Line didn't actually think getting on a list was going to solve its problems, or else someone is going to be crying himself to sleep tonight.  Boo.  Flipping.  Hoo.

Ding-Dong!  Karma calling!
*Making up new words is really great, believe me!
3 Comments

Iowa Law Prohibits Eminent Domain for Overhead Merchant Transmission Lines

5/19/2017

8 Comments

 
Third time's the charm for Iowans battling the Rock Island Clean Line merchant transmission project.  The Preservation of Rural Iowa Alliance has been working with legislators for the past three years to put meaningful legislation in place that would release them from the threat of eminent domain taking of their property by an overhead merchant transmission project.

PRIA recently announced:
Today is a day to celebrate!! It is a historic day for property rights!

Governor Branstad signed a bill into law forbidding merchant high voltage transmission lines such as RICL from having condemnation power to take private property by eminent domain.  Click here to read Senate File 516:  an Act relating to state and local finances by making appropriations providing for legal and regulatory responsibilities, concerning taxation, and providing for other properly related matters, and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions.  This bill passed the Iowa House on April 21, 55-39 and the Iowa Senate on April 21, 27-13.  Read the lanquage related to merchant transmission lines beginning on page 18 of the bill.
​
This means that even if RICL decides to try and come back into Iowa they CANNOT take your property by use of eminent domain.  This is a huge win.

A very dedicated and amazing board of directors donated their time, energy and talents to continue this mission for nearly 4 years.
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Many people across Iowa and outside the state spent endless volunteer hours and contributed money to assist PRIA legislators in making this possible.
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We need to also remember the leaders in private property rights in other states who provided leadership and guidance as they continue their fight!
The legislation prevents the use of eminent domain for overhead merchant transmission lines in the state of Iowa.  If Clean Line wants to construct its private purpose transmission line across the state, it's going to have to purchase easements in a free market, where the true cost of hosting a ginormous transmission line for the use of other states will be realized.

Third time was not the charm for RICL though.  The company has tried multiple times to get the Iowa Utilities Board to grant it public utility status and eminent domain authority ahead of any actual application for the project.  The IUB stood firm, however, and refused to allow a birfucation of its transmission application process that would coerce landowners to grant easements before the project application was even filed.  RICL tried to do this because filing requirements in Iowa require the company to produce a packet of information at the time of filing for each property it may take via eminent domain.  RICL complained that was too expensive, and too difficult, and wanted eminent domain authority to wield against landowners so that they would grant easements before application, saving RICL the trouble of creating the information packet for the majority of the properties.

Iowans refused to make it that easy for RICL.  They did something amazing instead... they stood together and refused to negotiate easements with RICL.  To stand together against a company waving their checkbook around is something that doesn't happen every time.  Iowans demonstrated the power of community by sticking together.  And they demonstrated backbone by continuing their fight, both at the IUB and in the legislature.  RICL was never about providing electricity to Iowa.  It was a one-way highway to ship electricity out of state for private profit.  That's not something that should be granted eminent domain authority.

And this is precisely the argument heard by the Illinois Supreme Court this week.  Why RICL continued trying to reverse the appeals court's decision to vacate their permit granted by the Illinois Commerce Commission, even after they were shut out of Iowa where their project was planned to begin, is anyone's guess.  Pretty pointless, but so is everything Clean Line does anymore.

A while ago, I compared Clean Line's permitting debacle to a game of whack-a-mole.  Every time the company wacked a mole and received a permit, more moles popped up as impediments to its projects.  And everyone knows how a game of whack-a-mole speeds up at the end, where it's impossible to whack all the moles that pop up, and then you lose.  Clean Line's whack-a-mole game is running double time.  Clean Line was shut out of Iowa before Illinois even heard its appeal.  What now, Clean Line?  What now?  RICL needs to be re-routed to another state, or abandoned altogether.  The project is dead.  Please just admit that.

Congratulations to PRIA and the Iowans who came together and fought so hard to protect their communities from out-of-state profiteers!  They are an example to emulate in other transmission battles.
8 Comments

A Good Day at the Illinois Supreme Court

5/18/2017

5 Comments

 
Landowner opponents of the Rock Island Clean Line transmission project hoped that the Supreme Court oral argument yesterday would be the last they will see of Clean Line Energy Partners.  They could be right.

Clean Line arrived overly confident, conflating the Court's desire to hear the case with a desire to reverse the decision of the Third District Appellate Court.
Hans Detweiler, vice president of Clean Line Energy Partners, Rock Island's Houston-based owner, said he's "encouraged" that Illinois' high court will review the case and hopes it "will recognize that privately funded infrastructure projects" like Rock Island "serve a public purpose."
But softball questions and encouraging smiles were not to be had from the Supreme Court Justices yesterday.  The Justices asked a plethora of questions regarding how RICL could legally be for "public use."

In response they got a whole bunch of complicated explanations on physics, Open Access Transmission Tariffs, and the idea that FERC's rules on a non-discriminatory auction process satisfied Illinois law regarding a utility's non-discriminatory service to the public.  It's quite unfortunate for RICL that they decided the ICC's attorney should go first with his argument that the ICC is entitled to deference in how it interpreted Illinois law.  The Justices didn't seem too interested in that, instead asking Matthew Harvey questions about how RICL could legally be a public utility.  Poor Mr. Harvey... his answers did not satisfy RICL's bevy of attorneys in the first few rows and drew skeptical faces and negative headshakes from them.  I was afraid that if Owen McBride's eyebrows knitted themselves any closer together whether he'd go cross-eyed.  Despite this superior attitude from RICL, I can't say RICL's attorney fared any better before the judges than Mr. Harvey.  RICL's attorney met the justices' questions with complicated circular answers and lots of smoke and mirrors that failed to shed any light on the issue.

When asked by a Justice if RICL's desire to be a public utility was for the sole purpose of acquiring eminent domain authority, RICL's counsel chose to deny it and blame the ICC for telling them they had to be a public utility.  Really, now?  I'm thinking that a straight up admission of how hard it is to build transmission without eminent domain authority would have served them much better than a ridiculous story nobody believed.

The appellees lead off with a strong argument defining "public use" that managed to answer all the Justices' questions that had remained basically unanswered after the appellants had their say.  Matthew Price, representing Com Ed, was positively brilliant compared to the bombastic, uninspired arguments of the ICC and RICL.  He explained public use so simply that it could be understood by anyone.  Public use is a utility's obligation to serve all who want service.  A public utility doesn't get to choose which customers it will serve in order to maximize its profit.  RICL will pick and choose its customers in a way that maximizes its profits.  A public utility must serve everyone, not just allow them to bid for service, or use service available when no one else is using it.

Mr. Price made it clear as a bell.  And the Justices pretty much stopped asking the questions about public use, so I guess their questions were answered by Mr. Price.  It's pretty clear to me that the merchant transmission business model doesn't comport with Illinois law.  Price said something about a FERC-land determination of non-discrimination does not satisfy a determination in the Land of Lincoln.  Right... because FERC is only looking at whether the auction process is fair.  It does not concern itself with whether the merchant transmission company is discriminating against members of the public by only providing service to select customers.  Just because FERC approves it does not mean it comports with Illinois law.

Mr. Price brought up the issue of RICL's refusal to expand capacity on its line if it gets more requests for service than it can provide.  RICL claims it has to stick with the original plan because that's the project in its application.  Maybe it could build another line if it had multiple requests, but why bother with that if it can increase its profits by limiting available capacity? 

Price brought up the idea that RICL could pro-rate its available capacity at the auction, with each bidder receiving a share, instead of trying to maximize its profits by selling only to the highest bidders.  And then the most humorous thing happened... in rebuttal, RICL's counsel decided it could pro-rate its capacity to auction bidders.  I've never heard anything about this from RICL before, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't in their FERC application for negotiated rate authority.  Nor was it in the Order of the ICC granting the CPCN.  So now the Court is supposed to believe RICL has fundamentally altered its auction process on a whim?  Way to admit you're wrong, RICL!

The ILA presented a short, cogent argument about how eminent domain is basically procedural once a CPCN is issued.  And got snotty looks and smirks from the RICL attorneys for their trouble, along with an arrogant rebuttal that attempted to minimize and disparage landowner concerns.  RICL showed the Court that it doesn't give any consideration whatsoever to the landowners it wants to get into perpetual easement partnerships with.

So, now we wait for the Court to issue its opinion.  Some people say that you can tell which way a court is leaning by the questions its judges ask during oral arguments.  Hans Detweiler better not count his chickens before they hatch.  He's no constitutional scholar.  Commerce Clause.  Heh.
5 Comments

Bending Physics to Make Money

5/14/2017

1 Comment

 
Is there no limit to the propaganda businessmen will spew in order to profit?

Now we've got Anbaric's Ed Krapels bending physics in order to pimp merchant transmission to... who exactly?  Who is supposed to read this krap and give Ed a bunch of money?

I recently stumbled across this:

Make America (Electrically) Great Again: An Electric Infrastructure Plan For The Trump Team

Because Trump is so inclined to take his "plans" from The Huffington Post.  Right.

This krappy opinion piece is so full of rhetorical buzzwords that a friend suggested we make a drinking game out of it, and other media in the same vein.  Balkanized?  Take a shot!  Green?  Take a shot!  Resilient?  Take a shot!  Modernize?  Take a shot!  Infrastructure?  Take a shot!

Drunk on the floor.  All.The.Time.

As if glittering generalities are the basis for planning and building the greatest machine of modern times -- the electric transmission grid. 

First of all, we need to recognize where krap like this comes from... it comes from the corporations and people who stand to make a profit from grid construction.  It comes from environmental group lawyers who have no electrical engineering experience.  And the worst part?  These people know better!  They know that the grid is planned and operated by federally monitored regional transmission and reliability organizations.  Our grid is constantly expanded and modernized by experienced engineers with an eye toward reliability and price.  It's not about favoring one resource over the other, or putting money in investor pockets.  So when you read krappy articles claiming our grid is costly, rickety, and unreliable, they're just not true.  We don't look to profit-seeking, or politically-motivated entities to plan a grid that puts the most money in someone's pockets, and we shouldn't start now.  Creating a grid based on the need to meet political goals, or put money in corporate pockets, is creating a grid that's not efficient, affordable, or reliable.

Another krappy opinion piece claims that big companies are simply greenwashing when they purchase renewable energy credits and then claim to be environmentally responsible.  I agree.  But I do not agree with the suggested krappy solution of building new transmission lines so that the company can actually use the electricity associated with the RECs it purchases, as if electricity is nothing more than water in a pipe that can be directed to flow to a certain customer.  The problem is the idea of RECs in the first place, not a lack of transmission.  A REC represents the social and environmental attributes of electricity generated.  A company can buy a REC, but that REC can be physically separated from the actual electricity produced.  A generator may sell the actual electricity to another user, and then market the REC to someone else.  That creates two revenue streams for the same electron.   Essentially, it is selling something twice to two different buyers.  It's a swindle of the highest order.

Options to solve that?
1.  Stop unbundling RECs from energy.
2.  Require companies to purchase transmission on the existing system to use the actual energy they purchase.  There ain't no such thing as "cheap" environmental footprint, unless the public believes the greenwashing.

And then there's the unnecessary -- building new private transmission lines just for companies who want to purchase unbundled RECs from far away places.  If we start down that path, with each company supporting its own private transmission line, we're soon going to find wires everywhere.  The more wires and connections added, the more complicated and unreliable the grid becomes.  There's also the problem of clearing a path for private transmission lines on private property owned by others.  That's not a public use.  That's not a public utility.  Eminent domain cannot be used for such an endeavor.

No matter how many buzzwords these grid profiteers use, their ultimate goal is clear:  to enable private companies to take from the public in order to increase their profits.
Congress should create legislative authority for siting major electricity transmission lines that follows the authority it has already granted to siting major gas lines.
In other words, let's let the federal government site and permit electric transmission to create a politically favored electric grid that everyone pays for.  Fly over states and politically disconnected areas will be forced to sacrifice for the needs of the economically advantaged and politically connected.  It's just not true that everyone benefits from every transmission line dreamed up to line corporate profits.  New transmission levelizes prices between generation regions and consumption regions.  While it may lower prices in consumption regions, it raises prices in formerly constrained generation regions, and the folks in the middle get nothing.  Zilch.  Zero.  That problem cannot be solved by federal authority, the only thing federal authority may do is exacerbate it.  Our current system that leaves siting and permitting authority to states is not broken. States do a much better job recognizing local priorities and concerns, and determining benefit to the state.  Any delays come from badly conceived transmission ideas that do not provide benefits to localities, or seek to use the eminent domain power of the state for private transmission projects that do not provide public benefit. 

Here's how to fix a long state permitting process:  Stop trying to use eminent domain to force private infrastructure!  I'm pretty sure Mr. Krapels is well aware that transmission that's sited underwater and underground on land of willing hosts can sail through the transmission permitting process in record time.  Mr. Krapels also probably has customers lined up for the projects he undertakes, and doesn't rely on "build it and they will come" as a business plan.

Stop trying to "fix" what's not broken just to make private utility projects cheaper or faster.  Instead, design better transmission projects with an eye toward making them acceptable to the communities they propose to impact.  The grid operators and regulators we already have do a fine job of vetting transmission proposals and only ordering the building of what's actually needed.  We don't need a bunch of profiteers creating their own private grid through our backyards.

The problem isn't us, it's you.  All the glittering generalities in the world just can't fix that.
1 Comment

Clean Line Energy Partners is not a Public Utility

4/15/2017

0 Comments

 
The best part about traveling is coming home and catching up on your reading.  Especially when it's a lot of reading of legal briefs on transmission line cases.  Reading a whole bunch of briefs on different Clean Line projects in different states, and in different stages of the legal process, made one thing abundantly clear.  Clean Line Energy Partners is not a public utility.  None of its projects are public utilities.  Nor can they ever be public utilities.

How else to explain finding the exact same arguments before both the Illinois Supreme Court, and the Missouri Public Service Commission?  Two different projects, two very different processes.

The Illinois Farm Bureau's brief at the Illinois Supreme Court cuts right to the chase:
"What Rock Island is asking the Commission to do is grant it a CPCN so it looks like a 'public utility' for purposes of condemning private property to build its line, while at the same time it plans to offer only a token percentage of that line's capacity for 'public use'. The transmission service that Rock Island plans to provide on its transmission line does not meet the public use standard under Section 3-105 of the PUA." (R.V27, C6629).
These are the words of the ICC Staff at the close of a five day evidentiary hearing at the
Commission on Rock Island's Verified Petition. Rock Island is not a public utility, and it does not commit to serve the public. Despite the express language of the PUA, Rock Island, as a non-utility startup company, sought a CPCN from the Commission for which it is not statutorily eligible. Rock Island's public policy arguments regarding an apparent desire for an expansion to the statutory definition of''public utility" should have been, and still can be, made to the legislature.
Clean Line is trying to shoehorn a square peg into a round hole.  It only wants to be a "public utility" so that it may be granted eminent domain authority.

The same basic argument shows up in the Initial Brief of Show Me Concerned Landowners before the Missouri Public Service Commission:

Grain Belt Express is a merchant transmission company. It is proposing to build a participant funded transmission line. As such, neither the applicant nor the proposed project embody the business characteristics the Legislature authorized this Commission to regulate.

The Court recognized that when a private business enters into special contracts upon its own terms and not at a regular rate, there is not only no need for the Commission to regulate, to do so would be a violation of the constitution. The purpose of regulation is to bring the power of government to bear on a common carrier service. Private initiatives not devoted to the public use of all do not justify the comprehensive regulations dictated by the Public Service Commission Law. Stated another way, when facilities are not devoted to a public use, there is no need for the Commission. That is the situation before the Commission in this Grain Belt Express case.

Two different cases.  Two different states.  Same basic precedent.

But wait... let's add a third state!  Because that's basically what Arkansas said when presented with Clean Line's Plains & Eastern project back in 2011.
The issues presented by this case are twofold: (1) whether Clean Line fits the statutory definition of an Arkansas “public utility” and is entitled to a CCN to provide public utility service in the state; and (2) if so, whether Clean Line is entitled to exemption from certain public utility statutes. For the reasons stated more fully below, the Commission finds that Clean Line does not meet the statutory definition of a public utility at this time.  The Commission’s ruling on the first issue moots the necessityof ruling on the second.
The Commission is a creature of the General Assembly, and it performs a legislative function in regulating all public utilities. Bryant u, Arkansas Pub. Sew. Comm‘n, 46 Ark. App. 88,877 S.W.2d 594 (1994); Sw. Bell Tel. Co. v. Ark. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 267 Ark. 550, 593 S.W.2d 434 (1980).  The Commission’s statutory mandate extends to and includes “all matters pertaining to the regulation and operation of all ... electric lighting companies and other companies furnishing gas or electricity for light, heat, or power purposes.” Ark. Code Ann. 23-2-302.

The Commission’s decision in this case turns on the statutory definition of a “public utility” found in Ark. Code Ann,  23-1-101(9)(a) cited above. Although Clean Line’s presentation of its case was strong on policy considerations and certainly Clean Line worked hard to analogize its case to that of the SPP RTO, the Commission’s authority cannot exceed that which is delegated to it by the Arkansas General Assembly. The “public utility” definition requires “owning or operating in this state equipment or facilities for...transmitting...power to or for the public for compensation.” Ark. Code Ann. 23-1-101(9)(A).

The Parties’ legal filings and opening arguments at the December 7 hearing discussed to varying degrees what each of these key phrases means, but the Commission is not convinced the totality of the evidence satisfies this statutory threshold. Recognizing, as Clean Line pointed out, there is some circularity involved in the fact that Clean Line cannot own or operate regulated major utility facilities pursuant to Arkansas law in this state without first being declared a public utiliity, in isolation, this portion of the statute is not determinative of Clean Line’s utility status. However, read in tandem with the facts that the transmission of the power must also be “to or for the public for compensation’’ when Clean Line, to date, has no contracts for public utility service with any utility, including Arkansas utilities, and there also can be no transmission of power at this time, the Commission is not prepared to approve Clean Line’s CCN Application.
So Clean Line doesn't meet the definition of public utility in at least 3 states.  But nevertheless, Clean Line dolled itself up and presented as a public utility to numerous state regulatory agencies.  Even when a state is initially fooled by Clean Line's public utility costume, the courts have not been tricked.

I think we're on to something here...
If Clean Line Energy Partners is not a public utility, then the company can never use eminent domain to condemn land upon which to build its projects.  I think this is the simplicity we've all been searching for over the past five years to explain why CLEP is different from other transmission lines, and why it should never be granted eminent domain authority.

Sure, we've talked about the company being a private, for-profit enterprise, but so are other investor-owned utilities who build transmission.  We've talked about CLEP's failure to vet its plan at regional transmission organizations, but that in and of itself isn't necessary to build transmission.

There's absolutely nothing stopping CLEP from building its projects on voluntarily negotiated rights of way, or having voluntarily negotiated rights of way and committed customers in hand when applying for public utility status from any individual state regulatory authority.  Except CLEP can't do that.  CLEP won't do that.  CLEP has applied in various states to be granted public utility status with nothing but a business plan.  CLEP tells state regulatory commissions about its plans in the future tense.  Someday it will own utility property.  Someday it will have customers.  Someday it will negotiate rates with customers.  Someday it will get financing.  Someday it will hire employees with the expertise to build transmission lines.  Someday.  Someday.  Someday.  CLEP wants to be granted the rights of a public utility now without any of the responsibility that comes with it. 

CLEP needs the state regulatory process to grant it eminent domain authority to assemble rights of way.  But in order to be granted that authority, CLEP must be a public utility.  And it's not.
 CLEP is a merchant transmission company.  Its projects are extraneous transmission lines not needed for reliability, economic or public policy purposes.  The sole purpose of CLEP's projects are profit.  Merchant transmission projects aren't new.  There are several of them in existence.  However, those merchant transmission projects have customers.  They were proposed and built with certain customers in mind.  Clean Line is pure speculation... build it and they will come (well, maybe, but not so far).  Clean Line's business plan is unformed and unripe.  It doesn't work as proof of public utility status.

Clean Line's "merchant" business model does not comport with "public use" definitions under state law.  Negotiating rates for service with private parties does not make the service available to the public.  Neither does auctioning off small bits of service to the highest bidder at auction.  Merchant projects don't offer service to the public -- they offer service to private parties who can pay the most for service.

ComEd's brief before the Illinois Supreme Court describes how merchant projects like Clean Line fail the test of public use.
Rock Island’s plan offers the public the nondiscriminatory right to bid for transmission capacity. But it does not offer the public the nondiscriminatory right to use transmission capacity. Under well-settled authority dating back a century, Rock Island’s plan does not meet the “public use” requirement.

As a threshold matter, it is important to clarify what this means. As Rock Island’s witness makes clear in his testimony, the open season auction will be open to the public on non-discriminatory terms. In other words, any member of the public can bid. But there is a difference between being able to bid for a service through an auction and being able to actually use a service at a tariffed price. When Christie’s auctions a painting, any member of the public can bid on non-discriminatory terms; but only the winner takes the painting home.

The ICC points out that the open season will be “fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.” ICC Br. 25-26. ComEd agrees. But this simply means that the auction process will be fair, and that all bidders would have the same opportunity to bid. It does not mean that all members of the public can use the service on equal terms. Those who cannot pay the auction price are left with only the chance of receiving non-firm service and are expressly subordinated to anchor tenants and auction winners. Non-auction winners who do not, or who cannot use non-firm service, are left completely empty- handed.
A merchant transmission project with no customers does not meet the legal definition of public utility.

Show Me sums it all up in its brief:
Grain Belt Express is proposing a duplicate service to the existing, well-established transmission grid. It is seeking to provide discriminatory service to one particular customer to obtain this Commission’s approval. It is proposing as a merchant a service that is participant-funded. It wants to maintain that merchant status, free from the obligations imposed on an “electrical corporation” by the Missouri Public Service Commission Law. This unregulated utility will create many problems that the Missouri Public Service Commission Law was designed to thwart, such as destructive competition, damage to property from duplicative facilities, and the exercise of market power in a traditional monopoly service. Grain Belt is seeking the power of the state of Missouri granted by this CCN without any of the obligations imposed by the law. Show Me is concerned with one enterprise whose property is not devoted to the public service using the land (I think he meant to say "laws") of the state, particularly the eminent domain power of the state, for their own business interests. It is not just and it is not in the public interest of the state of Missouri.
Go away, Clean Line.  You're not a public utility.
0 Comments

Smells Like Broken Dreams and Bitter Lobbyist Tears

3/30/2017

6 Comments

 
I'm sure you know one... a member of the "Good Old Boys' Club."  I'm talking about a well-fed, middle-aged white guy who may actually use the phrase, "Do you know who I am?" on a regular basis.  He doesn't appear to be particularly bright or industrious, and has absolutely no self-awareness or empathy, but he's managed to claw his way into a position where he makes his living by being connected to other old white men and selling his influence to outsiders who want to make a buck.  What happens when that special, privileged world spits out its own?  Who doesn't love a little schadenfreude?

Remember the "Infrastructure List" that has been gushed over by members of the Good Old Boys' Club and their media lackeys for the past three months?  Turns out it's been kicked to the curb, along with the guys who prepared it, and a new crew of infrastructure critters has been let loose in the Washington Swamp.

No wonder Norman Anderson was having a public meltdown last month.  I think maybe he didn't appreciate being ignored by an administration he thought he had eating out of his hand.  Awww... life isn't fair, is it, Norman?  Let's sing together...
*sniff, sniff*  Could someone hand me a tissue?

The Charlotte Observer published an in-depth report covering the "Infrastructure List" and the shady way it was compiled and pushed by a group of guys who are now out of favor with the Trump administration.
When Donald Trump and Mike Pence met this month to discuss a promised $1 trillion infrastructure plan, the Cabinet Room was filled with half a dozen billionaire executives, from Tesla’s Elon Musk to Steve Roth, a New York developer and longtime friend to the president.

One person who wasn’t there? The man who worked for months to line up priority infrastructure projects for the Trump transition team.

Just a few weeks earlier, Dan Slane had been jetting around the country — on his own dime — to meet with governors, contractors, investors, labor union officials and others eager to influence Trump’s infrastructure plan. He developed a 50-project proposal filled with exactly the kind of “shovel-ready” investments the White House wanted – the kind that needed regulatory relief, not federal dollars.

But as Trump’s attention turns to infrastructure after suffering defeat on his first policy priority, the White House will not even acknowledge Slane, except to say he has “no official or unofficial role” in the administration. He says his infrastructure plan, and indeed his very connection to the president, has become the victim of a power struggle for control of this big-ticket infrastructure agenda between Peter Navarro, a Trump loyalist and economic populist who advised his campaign, and Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president who now runs the National Economic Council.
Who is Dan Slane?  A quick google search shows he's been working with Peter Navarro on a film called "Death by China."  Apparently these guys believe that trade with China is killing our economy.  Slane ought to know... apparently he moved his wood business to China to collect a 17% profit.  I guess that must have scarred his psyche (while fattening his bank account) so now Slane is anti-China.  Apparently the whole infrastructure thing stems from the fact that China has been investing in its infrastructure lately, and we gotta, you know, keep up with China.  But how does Dan Slane connect with Norman Anderson?  The Charlotte Observer reveals:
Anderson’s company had compiled a list of 100 top infrastructure projects with input from senior-level investors, engineers and developers. The list would have been offered to whichever presidential candidate had won in November, Anderson said.

A week after Trump’s unexpected win, Anderson found a white paper online that Navarro and now-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had written for the Trump campaign. It proposed tax credits to fund infrastructure. He emailed Navarro, and offered some suggestions.

“Navarro asked Dan to talk to me the next day,” Anderson said.

Slane, who was working without a staff, asked Anderson to help him screen a list of projects Navarro wanted for the administration. Anderson in turn hired Boston Consulting Group to analyze how many direct and indirect jobs each project would create.
So, how did this list get presented to the media as a Trump administration list, and how did a project get on Slane/Anderson's list in the first place?  The Charlotte Observer explains how the Good Old Boys' Club gladhanding worked...
Playing the liaison

Leaders at the state and local level, and executives at the National Governors Association, thought they had been working with the White House, through Slane.

Paul Aucoin, executive director of the Southern Louisiana Port, said he assumed Slane was a shoo-in for a White House infrastructure job when he met him at Anderson’s offices in Washington in December.

Aucoin made the trip to DC to promote his port and try to secure federal assistance to dredge the mouth of the Mississippi River.

The meeting with Slane had been arranged for Aucoin by the public relations firm of Gary Meltz, a former aide to Democratic Rep. Eliot L. Engel of New York.

Slane introduced himself as a member of the Trump transition, and Aucoin made his pitch.

Slane promised to get the dredging project on the list he and Anderson were compiling for the transition.

“They were very receptive, they got it, they understood what I was saying, they asked all the right questions,” Aucoin said. “It wasn’t like I was talking to a wall. I was finally talking to some one who understood what I was trying to say.”

Later Slane would visit the port and meet with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. He reassured Edwards and Aucoin that congressional Republicans would pledge money to the project from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. That promise that has yet to be fulfilled.

Aucoin said he’s since hired a lobbying firm in Washington that was working on getting him a meeting with Gribbin.

“It was a blow for us to lose Dan,” Aucoin said.
Let me get this straight... a PR firm with connections made introductions between an entity with a need for a project and some guys who presented themselves as part of Trump's team?

So when Clean Line's Mario Hurtado said:
"When the Trump campaign was looking at infrastructure, we thought it was a good thing to mention. We're just happy to be part of the conversation."
What he really meant was that Clean Line paid a PR firm to make the introductions between Clean Line, Slane, and Anderson, in order to "mention" putting the company's Plains & Eastern Clean Line project on the infrastructure list?  Mario actually did not bump into these guys in the grocery store.  :-(  It actually cost Clean Line money to buy their way onto the Slane/Anderson list.  Guess what, Clean Line?  Looks like you've maybe been taken, and you're really not on Trump's favored list after all.  Even the union's infrastructure wish list (where all three of CLEP's eastward bound projects showed up) was a Slane/Anderson product that Trump now seemingly wants nothing to do with.
Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, said his organization consulted with Slane on his plan. His union delivered to the White House its own list of priority infrastructure projects in February, after meeting with Trump.

“The way Dan framed it was really good because Dan took projects that had all funding but lacked permitting or some who had permitting,” McGarvey said.

“He did a lot of thoughtful work on the initial ready-to-go, out-of-the gate stuff,” he said. “The projects that Dan was talking about really don’t require a new infrastructure bill. Those are ones that exist, that are both private and public, and have the three elements you need: the financing, the engineering, and permitting. And some of them will happen this year.”
Hey, Good Old Boys' Club, are you paying attention?  Pull up a desk and put on your listening ears.  You could learn something...

Clean Line projects don't have financing!
What they have is a plan to raise financing.  Clean Line's plan requires them to contract with future customers to create a revenue stream that Clean Line can use as evidence to secure financing.  Clean Line doesn't have customers.  Clean Line doesn't have a revenue stream that can support financing.  There is nothing a Trump administration (or the Good Old Boys' Club) can do to create captive customers for Clean Line's projects.

Clean Line doesn't have complete engineering!  What they have is a plan to complete engineering once permitting is complete.  Clean Line has no revenue.  None.  It's living high on investor development cash right now.  Engineering is a construction cost that happens after a project is fully permitted and financed.  There is nothing a Trump administration (or the Good Old Boys' Club) can do to finance final engineering for the Clean Line projects.  Federal money would invalidate the project's merchant transmission status with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that allows them to negotiate rates with willing customers (see financing, above).

Clean Line doesn't have permitting completed for any of its projects!  The Plains & Eastern project is the subject of a lawsuit in federal court where the U.S. DOE's preemption of state siting authority in Arkansas has been questioned.  The statute DOE used to run over Arkansas  plainly says it does not affect any requirement of state siting laws.  Although this case has yet to be decided by the court, it's not looking good for Clean Line.  Expect that Clean Line shall have to comply with Arkansas state siting laws for its project.  The Rock Island Clean Line project application for a permit has been withdrawn in Iowa.  Its permit in Illinois has been vacated by the Appellate Court.  It has no permits whatsoever right now.  The Grain Belt Express project's permit in Illinois is on appeal, and the project still needs a permit from the Missouri Public Service Commission.  A recent Missouri Court of Appeals decision prohibits the MO PSC from issuing a permit until Clean Line has the assent of each Missouri county it traverses.  GBE does not have all the county assents it needs and is unlikely to obtain them.  All of these permitting issues are STATE permitting issues.  There is nothing a Trump administration (or the Good Old Boys' Club) can do about state laws which govern state permitting, and if the administration tries to preempt state authority to site and permit electric transmission, it's going to have a hell of a fight on its hands, from the states and from the people.

None of the Clean Line projects are getting done this year.  They're not getting done.  Not now, not ever.  Take them off your list, assuming your list is supposed to be a real list, and not just some "pay to play" Good Old Boys' Club list of bridges to nowhere.

Cry me a river of bitter tears, fellas.  Karma's a real bitch.
6 Comments

Neighbors United Celebrates Court Victory

3/30/2017

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Just released by Neighbors United:
We the members of Neighbors United Against Ameren’s Powerline would like to thank everyone who supported us in our effort to prevent ATXI from building a project that had no input from the people it would affect the most – Us the citizens of Adair, Knox, Marion, Shelby and Schuyler counties. We would like to thank the county commissioners who continued to listen to their constituents concerns about the project and decided that what was in the best interest of the citizens was to affirmatively say NO!, to the project. They listened to the citizens and not the pressure from big business or the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC). We would also like to thank our attorneys Jennifer Hernandez, and Arturo “Art” Hernandez for their hard work and dedication in litigating the case through the PSC and the Appellate Court.

Yesterday, March 28, 2017, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District issued its decision in the Mark Twain Transmission Line Project. In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals vacated the Report and Order issued by the PSC. The court ruled that a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN), which grants the utility the authority to build the transmission project, can only be issued after a utility has received permission from a county to build a power line. This decision negates the CCN that was granted by the PSC last year. That CCN had approved the line on the condition that ATXI obtain the permission to hang the lines over county roads from each of the 5 affected counties. The CCN granted overstepped the PSC’s authority, because the hearing should never have been heard unless and until the PSC received the county assents given to the utility.

This is a tremendous victory for our members and our local government. For almost three years local citizens of these 5 counties have struggled to have their voices and concerns heard. Too often big corporations, like ATXI come into our communities and talk about knowing what is in the best interests, and then bring big money to try to drown out the local citizenry. They rely on statements like “in the best interest of the state”, “lower costs”, future opportunities, etc. They forget that people, like those members of Neighbors United, who work the land, live in the community, raise families, pay taxes and vote, need to have a voice in the process as well. When the local citizens try to give their input, companies like ATXI turn around and demonize the hard working people who only want to protect their livelihood and property.

Yesterday every one of the citizens of the 5 counties involved in opposing the Mark Twain Transmission Line Project, were vindicated. Not only were the citizens of the counties directly affected finally justified, but all of the citizens of Missouri were on the right side of the law. Yesterday, the courts guaranteed that the voice of the individual citizens in this great state should be and can be heard. The courts vindicated what we, the members of Neighbors United Against Ameren’s Power Line have been saying since 2014 – big business must cooperate with local government and individuals for the good of everyone. The process of approving CCN’s and utility applications by the PSC must be accompanied by input of local government and citizens.

The input of our elected county officials is just as important as the engineers, the input of state and federal agencies, the big money, the profits, and convenience of conglomerates such as ATXI. For the past 3 years, we have fought to have our voices heard. Yesterday, the court gave a voice to the farmers, ranchers and local citizens of Neighbors United as well to all the citizens of Missouri. They ensured that local governments are not overlooked or ignored. They guaranteed local governments a place in the decision making processes that affect their constituents the most.
0 Comments

The Battle for Property Rights Still Electrifying the Prairie

3/28/2017

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News release from Block GBE-Missouri:
The small savings offered to municipalities cannot overcome the tremendous burden to Missouri landowners that would come with the Grain Belt Express, says Block Grain Belt Express-Missouri, in the wake of last week’s evidentiary hearing before the Missouri Public Service Commission.

“A majority of the Commissioners denied the project in 2015 because the burden on affected agricultural businesses and landowners was so great,” said spokesperson Jennifer Gatrel. “Nothing has changed.”

Claimed savings for municipalities were concocted with irrelevant and speculative studies which supposedly showed the savings from the Grain Belt line. The actual savings were much less than claimed when examined at the hearing.

Missouri Landowners Alliance (MLA) provided unquestioned expert testimony from agricultural experts and business owners demonstrating the huge financial burden GBE would place on citizens across northern Missouri. MLA expert Don Lowenstein testified that local tax benefits claimed by GBE could not be accurately predicted beyond the first year and that actual tax benefits to localities are likely to be much less than promised by GBE and its witness. Expert appraiser Kurt Kielisch provided testimony demonstrating property value decline and other impacts to agricultural and rural residential property that would be caused by GBE. A Ralls County Commissioner also provided testimony refuting GBE’s claims of local benefit, and declaring his staunch opposition to the project.

The Missouri Public Service Commission Staff, who acts as an advisory party in the public interest, continues to maintain their position that GBE must receive approval to cross county roads from the commission of each county where the line is proposed before the PSC can approve GBE’s application. Today, the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals issued a decision on county consent related to the recent Ameren transmission case, finding that that the PSC cannot issue a permit until after all the consents of the county commissions are obtained. The Court vacated the PSC’s decision in the Ameren case, where a conditional permit was issued before county consents were obtained. Grain Belt Express does not have county consent.

“At the hearing, I learned that GBE hugely discounted its service in its offer to Missouri municipalities in order to gain a toehold in the state, and that the normal price of GBE’s transmission service is five times the number offered to the municipalities. There are currently no takers for service to Missouri at the regular price. If GBE cannot find customers willing to absorb the loss created by the offer to the municipalities and make the project profitable, is there any guarantee that GBE will even build the station in Missouri proposed to serve municipalities?” asked group President Russ Piscotta after watching the hearings.

“We are nearly four years into this fight,” stated Jennifer Gatrel. Property rights are the backbone of farming and ranching. We keep on winning because we can't afford to lose. Somehow, someway we will always find a way to protect what we hold dear. It has been the most amazing journey of my life seeing so many diverse people come together from across the country to fight a common wrong."

Background: Grain Belt Express is a $2.7B, 700-mile high-voltage direct current transmission line purposed to move electricity from Western Kansas to Indiana and eastern markets. The speculative venture seeks profit for its investors from electricity market price differentials.
1 Comment

Slick Willie Comes to Mayberry

3/25/2017

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The week-long hearing on Grain Belt Express' third application to the Missouri Public Service Commission has been completed.  It was easy to watch the festivities on the PSC's live video feed.  If you missed it, you can watch archived video here.

Many are wondering what happened when Slick Willie visited Mayberry.

That's right, I said "Slick Willie."  Get your mind out of the gutter!  "Slick Willie" is defined as
Slick Willie is a term that, upon hearing it, is understood to mean something uncomplimentary towards the person to whom it refers.  Those who are called Slick Willies are cunning and deceptive people who are superficially appealing and polished, but who are shallow and glib, and able to deftly execute convincing arguments that favors the con man and defrauds the mark.
And the self-awareness award goes to Clean Line's David Berry, for accurately describing his company as "sounding a little slick willie" when responding to questioning by the PSC Commissioners.

Slick Willie came to Mayberry this week, and the results weren't flattering.  Slick Willie doesn't play well in Mayberry.  Using Mayberrians as puppets to spew Slick Willie talking points was a miserable failure.  Mayberry just doesn't do Slick Willie.  But before we get to that, let's take a look at the Clean Line line up.

Company president Michael Skelly came across as arrogant.  He didn't seem to know much about anything, deferring all the hard questions to underlings testifying in his wake.  It must be really hard to work at a company where your fearless leader is so clueless about your business.  Skelly began every answer with the word "so."  There's been a lot written about this linguistic fad.
To my ear, that backstory "so" is merely a little geeky, but it rouses some critics to keening indignation. A BBC host says speakers use it to sound important and intellectual. A columnist at Fast Company warns that it undermines your credibility. A psychologist writes that it's a weasel word that people use to avoid giving a straight answer.
As used by Skelly at the hearing, it seemed to mean, "your question is unworthy of me, let me explain your question to you."  Or maybe it was more the avoiding a straight answer variety?  At any rate, Skelly needs to remove that word from his vocabulary immediately.  It makes him sound like an arrogant jerk.

When asked, "Did you personally fly in here to meet with utilities?" Skelly chose to argue with the questioner about the structure of the question, instead of answering it.  I didn't think it was a hard or deceptive question.  Skelly tried to pretend "personally" meant flying in on a personal jet (which he claims not to have....yet).  But Skelly couldn't remember how he got to Missouri.  He suggested maybe he took the train.  That was ridiculous.  A simple "yes" would have caused much less attention to the subject.  Trying to be slick willie when asked a direct question by a Mayberrian is a very bad plan.  And we'll get to that later, too.

And finally, on the subject of Skelly... who does your hair, man?  Did you pay a lot of money to a stylist who told you that looks good?  Save it for glitterati gatherings in Houston.  Mayberrians only use styling products to make hair stand up when arranging kewpie doll coifs on their babies prior to a professional photo shoot.  One Mayberrian commented, "His hair is ridiculous.  He's a grown man!"

Mark Lawlor.  Poor Mark, he's just not physically cut out to be a slick willie witness.  Mark has a tendency to grow a giant red dot between his eyes when trying to slick willie his way out of a direct question.  He also develops big red blotches all over his face.  And he scratches himself.  And drinks way too much water.  And sniffles into the microphone incessantly, while playing with a pen prop.  I kept waiting for him to stab himself in the eye with it and end his misery, but Mark persevered.  Although, appearing nearly doubled over on the stand while hugging himself didn't give me much confidence that he was going to make it to the end.

David Berry.  Slick willie.  One Mayberrian wonders if they keep him locked up in the basement of Zilkha Towers, hunched over his abacus, only let out to testify at regulatory hearings.  That's one unique dude!  But somehow he managed to be more personable than all the rest combined.  Too bad no one else in the hearing room was on the same astral plane as David Berry.

And now let's take a look at how Clean Line used Mayberrians to bolster their case at the hearings.

Wayne Wilcox.  Mr. Wilcox wrote all his testimony himself, and he was very generous with his elaboration of his opinions.  He stated that opposition to Grain Belt Express was taking away his rights.  Mr. Wilcox's opinions are factual, while the opposition's opinions are falsehoods.  I'm not going to elaborate anymore.  Mr. Wilcox's brief stint on the witness stand is in the archive.  I urge you to watch it.  Pop some corn to eat while you watch.  I did.  It didn't even look like he was wearing Clean Line's expert twitness shock collar.  What a pity!

Randolph County Assessor Richard Tregnago.  Nice tie!  When presented with a document that responded to one of the data requests addressed to him, Tregnago acted like he'd never seen the document before.  I think maybe he admitted that Clean Line supplied it.  He admitted that it is impossible for anyone to determine the amount of taxes GBE will pay after the first year.

MJMEUC witness John Grotzinger.  Oh, where to begin?  He denied that GBE had inserted a line into his testimony.  When faced with evidence that they did, he had to admit it.  Mr. Grotzinger wrote an email in late 2015 where his opinion of GBE wasn't exactly flattering.  I think maybe he thought that GBE was trying to buy its way into Missouri.  Mr. Grotzinger couldn't define the term "utilization rate."  Mr. Grotzinger admitted that GBE at normal pricing was more expensive than buying wind over the SPP transmission system.  An attempt to rehabilitate him was made on redirect, where he was given a more recent (higher) figure for SPP transmission rates by his attorney, and asked to plug that number into calculation of his exhibit tables.  After many long minutes of Mr. Grotzinger punching numbers into a calculator, and coming up with the number "7", the attorney did the math himself and asked Mr. Grotzinger if the attorney's math was correct.  Pathetic.  Since when do attorneys submit testimony?  It sort of looked to me like Mr. Grotzinger's testimony was done by someone else, maybe slick willie?  I dunno, but you should watch his testimony yourself to see what you think.

And, finally, the superstar award goes to MLA attorney Paul Agathan.  Clearly the best attorney in the room throughout the week.  Mr. Agathan had obviously researched each witness and their testimony.  He asked pertinent questions, and in numerous instances witnesses had to "walk back" or explain prior statements that were not proven factual.  And he did it all in a courteous, methodical fashion.  He never resorted to slick willie tactics or a disrespectful tone.  It takes my breath away to realize how much work Mr. Agathan did to prepare for this hearing, although he was the only attorney in the room not walking out with a fat pay check.  Anyone less than honest should fear Mr. Agathan.  He's a true Mayberry hero and deserves the thanks and gratitude of every Mayberrian!

So (heh), initial briefs are due in a couple weeks.  Reply briefs a couple weeks later.  Then we wait for the decision.  That gives you plenty of time to watch the archived videos for yourself.

Well done, Mayberry, well done!
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    About the Author

    Keryn Newman blogs here at StopPATH WV about energy issues, transmission policy, misguided regulation, our greedy energy companies and their corporate spin.
    In 2008, AEP & Allegheny Energy's PATH joint venture used their transmission line routing etch-a-sketch to draw a 765kV line across the street from her house. Oooops! And the rest is history.

    About
    StopPATH Blog

    StopPATH Blog began as a forum for information and opinion about the PATH transmission project.  The PATH project was abandoned in 2012, however, this blog was not.

    StopPATH Blog continues to bring you energy policy news and opinion from a consumer's point of view.  If it's sometimes snarky and oftentimes irreverent, just remember that the truth isn't pretty.  People come here because they want the truth, instead of the usual dreadful lies this industry continues to tell itself.  If you keep reading, I'll keep writing.


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