Fuhrländer Feasibility Study: Who Decides What Is Public Information?

94% ($45,150)

6% ($3,000)

A video news report from our friends at KBZK in Bozeman, Montana ...

Who decides?

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Derail?
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Who do these people work for? 94%? 6%?
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Background.
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... and about Foreign Trade Zone 274's recent request to reorganize under ASF, with no public comment period, [snip]

Senator Schumer Moves To Block Federal Stimulus For Chinese-Fuhrländer Turbines

In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Democrat New York Senator Charles Schumer expressed his opposition in using Federal Stimulus Funds for the recently announced $1.5 billion wind turbine joint venture ...

Senator: No fed money for US-China wind project Nov 5, 2009

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'But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the project reportedly may also be seeking 30 percent funding from economic stimulus grants from the Energy Department — funds he said would used to buy turbines and other components made in a Chinese plant.

"The idea that stimulus funds would be used to create jobs overseas is quite troubling," Schumer wrote in a letter to be sent Thursday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The senator urged Chu to reject any request for funds from the Texas project.

"The purpose of the (stimulus program) was to jump start the economy to create and save jobs — American jobs," the senator wrote. "Yet the Texas wind farm project would create an estimated 2,000-3,000 clean energy manufacturing jobs in China. ... American taxpayer dollars should not be used to finance those Chinese jobs."'
...2,000-3,000 jobs? Stimulus job counting techniques, no doubt.

I explained in a recent post how this project "relates" to the proposed $25 million Butte, Montana wind turbine facility, especially the joint Fuhrländer and A-Power (NASDAQ: APWR) wind turbine facility in Shenyang.

Maybe Governor Schweitzer gave Senator Schumer a nudge and a non-redacted copy of the Chafin-Fuhrländer Feasibility Study while he was in New York urging investment rating agencies to upgrade Montana's bond rating. Never mind the non-redacted version of the feasibility study, State officials apparently never received that copy.
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More about Senator Schumer's opposition from the Wall Street Journal blog here, or from the New York Times here (registration required).

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... and about Foreign Trade Zone 274's recent request to reorganize under ASF, [snip]

Montana Governor Talks Clean Coal In West Virginia

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer was in Charleston talking clean coal and voting on Christmas. From Hoppy Kercheval at Metro News ...

Hoppy's Commentary Nov 1, 2009

'West Virginia’s Democratic Party put on a good show Saturday night at their Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner fund raiser in Charleston. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, one of the more entertaining politicians on the speaking circuit today, provided the partisan crowd with some red meat.
“If there was a vote on Christmas, they’d vote ‘no’ on that,” Schweitzer said of the Republicans.

Schweitzer and others who spoke had a like-minded crowd so the one-liners went over well. But the festive atmosphere of the night belies the conundrum facing the Democratic leadership in West Virginia.'
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More here about his trip.
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I didn't happen to see the Governor at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds today, he may have other stops back East. We don't really know. The Tea Party Express made a stop today, here are two pics. I'll link to others in the future if I find some.


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Your Money, Their Study: (Redacted)-Fuhrländer Butte Wind Turbine Feasibility Study

A must read article for those interested in Freedom of Information and public access to material primarily paid for with public funds. Montana Policy Institute reporter Michael Noyes writes about the Chafin-Fuhrländer Butte, Montana Wind Turbine Plant's February 13th, 2009 study ...

Details Cloudy in Wind Project Report Oct 30, 2009

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Total Funds for Study: $48,150
Public Funds: $45,150 (94%)
* State of Montana CDBG-ED (Grant) $30,000
* Butte-Silver Bow TIFID (Grant) $15,150
Private funds: $3000 (6%)
(source PDF page 6)
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According to the article, Mr. Noyes investigation revealed that public officials did not receive a non-redacted report. So the private entity that paid a very small portion of the cost for the long delayed report gets to decide what is "confidential" and what to redact. Sound fair?

At what point would these same public officials stand up for the public, put their foot down, and demand to see the full report? 5%? 3%? 1%? .5%? Ever?

I find the answer supplied by Freedom of Information Hotline Attorney Mike Meloy somewhat dodges the underlying question regarding public officials responsibility to obtain the entire document (THEN decide what should be released to the public). Some may dislike this disclosure, but I think it is important to remember that Mr. Meloy is representing Montana Governor Schweitzer in his case against the Montana Republican Party and the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices.

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I hope to follow up with another post on this proposed plant in the near future. For those interested, here are all my posts regarding this subject. For now, I'll leave you with page 25 (jpg) from the report ...

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One last thing, which relates to information on page 25 of the study above. I posted two days ago on the proposed A-Power(Nasdaq: APWR) deal to supply wind turbines made in Shenyang, China to a Texas wind farm.

$1.5 Billion Texas Wind Farm To Import Chinese Made Fuhrländer Turbines

Top executives gathered today in Washington D.C. at the National Press Club to announce the first and largest China joint venture for wind energy: to build a massive 600MW, 36,000 acre wind farm in West Texas. The U.S. Renewable Energy Group (US-REG), Ceilo Wind Power LP, and China's Shenyang Power Group (SPG) have entered into a joint venture agreement that will have A-Power Energy Generation Systems, Ltd supply 240 units of 2.5MW wind turbines, manufactured at their Shenyang facility, to the Texas wind farm.

If you guessed that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is involved in this deal, you would be right.

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There are several (initial) information sources regarding this announcement, the first from Easy Bourse ...

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'Although much of the funding will come from Chinese financiers, part of the project's capital will also come from the Obama administration's stimulus package in the form of loan guarantees and grants.'
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'The 240 2.5-megawatt wind turbines will be manufactured in China, with shipments starting in March. The farm is expected to be online in 2011.

While financing and major parts will come from China, the technology will come from U.S. and European firms. The venture's main firms include the private equity group U.S. Renewable Energy Group, Texas-based Cielo Wind Power LP, China's Shenyang Power Group and A-Power Energy Generation Systems (APWR). It will use technology from General Electric Co. (GE), FUHRLANDER AG, and Norwin.

The city of Shenyang's vice mayor, Yang Yazhou, said the project "would demonstrate for the first time Chinese capital, manufacturing and engineering expertise exported to the U.S."'
...and from Business Wire ... ...
'According to the JV Agreement, commercial banks in China are expected to finance the $1.5 billion required for the project through SPG. Subject to securing such financing, among other conditions in the JV Agreement, A-Power is expected to start shipping the wind turbines in March 2010.'
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'“It is important to give credit where credit is due,” said Joe Stark, Vice President of Finance and Business Development with Cielo. “Without the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, this joint venture with SPG would not be possible.'There's more at NYT's Green Inc. for those interested.

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A-Power currently conducts certain business through Liaoning GaoKe Energy Group and have certain license agreements with Fuhrlander AG. Some license agreements, for example, might restrict them from exporting outside the origin country. Their agreements, however, don't appear to contain this "example" provision. I pointed out the A-Power, Fuhrlander connection in a January 2009 post and knew that they were working on building a wind turbine facility in the North Eastern Liaoning province. I've also posted about the (not very) announced Vietnam Fuhrlander plant in August and have covered the Butte, Montana 'Chafin-Fuhrlander' wind turbine plant a bit.

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Note that General Electric, who owns NBC, is getting a piece of this stimulus pie as well. (Turbine by Fuhrlander, gearbox by GE)

A Foreign Trade Zone [snip]

Montana IPCC Author - Cap And Trade May Ruin U.S. Economy

University of Montana forestry professor Steve Running was on the statewide 'Voices of Montana' radio show this morning with host Aaron Flint. An article from NortherBroadcasting.com, with a short audio clip at the end ...

Leading Climate Scientist: Cap and Trade Could Ruin US Economy Oct 28, 2009

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The entire audio for the show will remain on their web site for one week. The audio can currently be found here, in two parts (Wednesday show). Mr. Running begins his interview with Aaron at about 26:53 in part 1. I previously posted about the "Climate Change" minor, which is available to everyone in Missoula BTW, that is discussed during the interview.

One of my favorite excerpts: '...time being wasted re-hashing [the] science...', wow.

Also, Lynn from Kalispell at 16:43 in part 2 should have given Anthony Watts a hat tip for his Surface Stations project, but Mr. Running said they fixed identified that 20 years ago.

One last thing, I'm not in Butte, I emailed my question which related to the upside-down Tiljander proxy corrigendum of Kaufman 2009. If Mr. Running doesn't know about Anthony's project, what are the chances he's kept up on Mannomania?

Canadian Tonbridge Closes On U.S. Stimulus For MATL

From Reuters ...

Tonbridge closes Montana-Alberta power line funding Oct 27, 2009

'Tonbridge Power Inc (TBZ.V) said Tuesday it closed on $161 million of financing from the U.S. Department of Energy's Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) to fund the construction of a power line between the U.S. state of Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta.

Tonbridge, of Toronto, said in a release the money, which comes from WAPA via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, should be enough to complete the project.

Tonbridge said it planned to start construction by the end of 2009, noting the project should take about 18 months to build.'
...The article doesn't mention the negotiations yet to be made with some landowners that I recently pointed out. I'm also interested in the status of that Wind Hunter bid mentioned in the same post.

U.K. Officer Cultural Awareness, Page 48: "Can't Use Evenin' Greeting"

As if law enforcement officers don't already have enough to worry about, from Telegraph.co.uk ...

Police told to avoid saying 'evenin' all' Oct 24, 2009

'Police have been urged to avoid using greetings such as "evening" and "afternoon", because the words are "somewhat subjective" and could cause confusion among those from different cultural backgrounds.'
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'A spokesman added: "Terms such as 'afternoon' and 'evening' are somewhat subjective in meaning and can vary according to a person's culture or nationality. In many cultures the term evening is linked to time of day when people have their main meal of the day.

"In some countries including the UK, the evening meal time is traditionally thought of as being around 5-7pm but this might be different say for a family say from America who might have their main meal earlier and thus for them 'evening ' may be an earlier time.

"The point is there is an element of subjectivity leading to a variation between cultures that we need to be aware of – taking steps as far as possible to ensure our communication is effective in serving the public." '
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I'm betting that posing as Kikazaru, Mizaru, and Iwazaru lands on about page 39.

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h/t S&L

BIOFUELS: U.N. Panel Finds Environmental Assessments Lacking

Sustainable Oils, LLC, in Bozeman, and Targeted Growth Inc., of Seattle, should no doubt be congratulated for their recent DESC contract to supply camelina based jet fuel to the Air Force. More importantly, I believe, Montanan's and federal taxpayers should be thanked for their grant and loan money used for the years of camelina research in Montana to make this contract possible. Time will tell if farmers take the bait after the decline in camelina production last year in Montana, subsidies will no doubt play a key role.

The amount of press and internet buzz that this contract has generated is substantial, primarily because of the "84% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to petroleum fuel" claim. ( Here is an article published just today) But what of this claim?

I posted in May of this year about my unsuccessful attempts in obtaining the scientific study used to site the '84% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to petroleum fuel".

Again, pointing to the late April 2009 Green Car Congress article that first highlighted the study ...

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'No effects of land use change on possible GHG emissions were included in this analysis, although the authors noted that the anticipated cultivation as a rotation energy crop with wheat that displaces fallow weeds suggest negligible adverse land use change impacts, since no food production is displaced by camelina seed cultivation.'
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{emphasis added}

Which leads me to the title of this post ...

BIOFUELS: U.N. panel finds environmental assessments lacking Oct 16, 2009 'A U.N. panel said today that biofuels' effects on air and water have not been sufficiently explored despite growing global production.

The U.N. Environment Programme's report concludes that so-called lifecycle assessments must go beyond calculating greenhouse gas emissions and consider how agricultural production of feedstocks affects the acidification and nutrient loading of waterways.'
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I am no fan of the United Nations, full stop. But, at what stage do environmentalists disregard real science and the need for more scientific studies before forging footloose into saving the planet? When will progressives, who appear to support protecting the environment and who also appear to loath gigantic corporations, stand behind real science and not just press releases? I include the drive to plant thousands of wind turbines in Montana in this question(ie).

For the record, I also must remind the anti big-business progressives that Honeywell is a major player in this algae/camelina jet biofuel contract and stand to gain substantially from it. [snip]

MATL A Go-Go?

Karl Puckett, from the Great Falls Tribune, has a good article regarding yesterday's Supreme Court of Canada Ruling for the Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. transmission line. Mr. Puckett reports some statistics for how many landowners are still to negotiate right-of-ways with MATL and mentions the federal stimulus dollar loan given to it's parent Canadian company, Tonbridge Power, Inc. ...

Canadian court green lights MATL green light Oct 23, 2009

{The link above worked Oct 23, 2009}
*** Update *** Oct 24, 09 Another article here, from the Calgary Herald
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For those interested in a closer look at the complex background of the case, a small narrative can be found near the bottom of this Canadian Supreme Court of Canada Judments page under ...

33265 Roy Swanson Farms Ltd., Ken Glover Professional Corporation and Van Giessen Growers Inc. v. Alberta (Energy and Utilities Board), Alberta (Alberta Utilities Commission) and Alberta Utilities Commission, Montana Alberta Tie Ltd. (MATL), Naturener Energy Canada Inc. and Naturener USA LLC-
Coincidentally, the day before the ruling release, Montana Governor Schweitzer was ribbon-cutting at the "official" completion of Naturener's Glacier Wind Projects 1 and 2. Well timed Governor.

As you can see by a table below, from the September 2008 MATL Montana Final Environmental Impact Statement (PDF 224MB), Naturener has a pretty big stake in the project.


Invenergy and Wind Hunter, LLC are listed as having bids accepted by MATL in the 2008 document as well.
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So the clock officially starts ticking on completion of the Great Falls to Lethbridge MATL power line, 'nothing' stands in it's way. You can hear the champagne bottles opening on both sides of the border tonight, hoping the landowner negotiations go well. (If they do have any trouble with landowners, maybe telling them it is part of the Federal Stimulus will help smooth things over.)