The notice for the public hearings on the Xcel application for transmission for the Pine Island Google Echo Zone data center, Phase I, just hit the inbox after Wednesday’s Prehearing Conference:

Here’s where and when:

There’s also an online hearing, and directions on how to join are in the Notice:

Comments are due by Friday, September 25th, and comments on Findings of Fact are due Friday, October 9::

During the PHC, I’d proposed the option of submitting Findings of Fact, editing or deleting what was proposed, or adding new ones, something normal in the usual process, but in this new ram-it-through process is absent, I wanted to get that option in there. Public participation is being left in the dust, and I don’t want that to happen!!

Also, I was VERY concerned about lack of notice of the Prehearing Conference. HOW CAN PEOPLE PARTICIPATE IF THEY DON’T GET NOTICE?!?!?! This is a new process, with a very short timeline, and many people are interested, showing up for meetings, and commenting in scoping and in the docket generally, but very few were on the notice list for the PHC. WHAT?!?! I requested that those commenting be added to the service list, and many, I hope ALL, were added, and that is MUCH appreciated. People can’t participate if they don’t have notice (and often I think that’s the point of limited service lists — color me jaundiced after 30+ years). Check out the expanded notice list — if you’re not there and want to be on the list, contact saarah.maxon@state.mn.us

Mark your calendars. September 14 & 15 for hearings, September 25 comments are due, and October 9, Findings of Fact.

Just got Notice of Prehearing Conference, Notice at 3:55 p.m., Order signed today, August 24, 2026. Guess when this Prehearing Conference will happen?

AUGUST 26, 2026 @ 10 a.m.

Microsoft Teams

Meeting  ID: 240 300 318 194 320

Passcode: Mq7ce2Aq

Yeah, really… two days notice.

If you can, join to witness and show that people are concerned, people are watching. What happens at the first Prehearing Conference is that a schedule is determined, procedural issues worked out. It’ll probably be short, and mostly “Greek to me” for those who haven’t done this before, but it’s the only way to learn how this works, and how it doesn’t work.

The PUC’s Order said:

Expeditiously? Here’s what arrived:

So I just filed this missive — the Prehearing Conference needs to be rescheduled:

Here’s what I received in response:

So I fired this off.

Head is exploding. I’m getting aerobic exercise reading these missives, and one good thing is that it may help me endure long enough to do a Meyer Shark!

Yet another issue that I’d spaced out — this one nuclear, the gift that keeps on giving. There’s a “study” managed by Great Plains (how much $$$$ are they getting for this? Thinking of coal gasification and stomach turns.) that’s ongoing.

COMMENTS DUE SEPTEMBER 14, 2026

“Information submitted through the Request for Information will help guide GPI’s research and analysis and may be incorporated into the final study.” (emphasis added)

From Great Plains:

Provide information for Minnesota’s Nuclear Energy Study

Their “Request for Information” link to respond

Just do it!!

COMMENTS DUE SEPTEMBER 14, 2026

Legislators, what were you thinking?

Yes, this is “Public Health Impacts of Wind Turbines,” from way back in 2009, and it also addresses the rules governing compliance with Minnesota’s noise standards, found at Minn. R. 7030.0040.

YEAAA Minnesota Dept. of Public Health, BUT they lost funding for Health Impact Assessments in 2017, so that avenue is closed.

Look what the PowerOn Midwest application says on page 190 in the about potential noise from the 765 kV transmission line:

Here’s how the noise rule, Minn. R. 7030.0050, categorizes RESIDENTIAL farm and rural “land use activities,” which INCLUDES FARM HOUSES:

They claim the PowerOn Midwest project is “Classification 3?” Do they really think we’ll buy that?

The application also states, on page 189, “A noise level change of 3 dB is barely perceptible to a person with healthy
hearing organs in an ideal listening environment…” Earth to Mars, 3dB is a doubling of sound pressure level (SPL).

I’m not seeing any noise modeling. ??? And FYI, when you do noise modeling, don’t you dare use a ground/attenuation factor of other than ZERO! A transmission line is an elevated noise source.

When testifying about the Badger Hollow solar project (Wisconsin PSC Docket 9697-CE-100) and the noise modeling (the solar project motors DO make noise, that was news to me then!), he explained appropriate ground factor for modeling noise from

:

Here’s how I categorize their statements about noise:

Time for a rewrite.

Note that in the Gopher to Badger application they’re not quite so “bold” in their categorization of project noise:

Noise is noise — is the state sufficiently digging into the noise, and noise impacts, of 765 kV transmission lines?

For your reading enjoyment, the CN-25-117 Application, there are also appendices, you can find them at the PUC’s eDocket:

CN-25-117 -Application_20262-227787-02