If you haven’t heard yet, staff from the MN Public Utilities Commission and MN Dept. of Commerce will be in Becker on August 31 at 6 p.m. at Becker High School to share information and take public comment on Xcel Energy’s solar farm proposal which would encompass 3,479 acres of land in Sherburne County.  There will be an online option the following night and public comments can also be submitted to the PUC as long as they are in by September 15.

Simply stated, I am imploring local residents to show up and have their voices heard.

First of all, I am neither “pro” nor “anti” solar farms - please remember this as you read further.  Second, I am certainly “pro” landowner rights and believe that farmers, homeowners, etc. should have wide latitude in making decisions about what to do with their land that they pay taxes on, etc.  Please also keep this in mind.

I am trying to sound the alarm for local residents about Xcel’s proposal for one and only one reason - the process that the PUC uses to approve these types of project puts way too much power in the hands of the five unelected commissioners that serve six year appointed terms.

Because these folks don’t have to face voters, I contend there is a complete lack of accountability to the voter and taxpayer in the process.  One would expect that an entity as powerful (I would argue the PUC is the most powerful unelected body in Minnesota) would also be nonpartisan, but nothing could be further from the truth.  Spend five minutes looking over the bios on the PUC website and you will see that it is indeed extremely political in nature.

In order to understand the potential consequences of the PUC’s decision, please consider this: Xcel’s proposal is to replace 460 megawatts of power from the decommissioning of Sherco with this solar farm.  Sherco produces about 2,400 megawatts total so when fully decommissioned, this still leaves a gap of roughly 1,940 megawatts that will need to be replaced.  While they haven’t announced this intention yet, the infrastructure is in place with transmission lines and their local power socket so one could logically expect Xcel to want to replace all those megawatts locally.  If that happens, they will need another approximately 17,000 acres of land to do so (each seven acres of land is worth approximately one megawatt).

For some perspective, Sherburne County has about 289,000 acres of land total.

Now I’m sure some experts will have more exact figures than I just presented, but remember I’m a part-time writer and am not funded by billionaire hedge fund owners as most environmental groups are.  I also don’t employ lobbyists and the last time I checked my income from this article is much less than executive level pay at power companies.  Trust me, when the PUC comes to town, both of the previous examples will make sense when you see the people submitting comment.  However, I do think I am right in the ballpark about the potential land impacts within our county borders.

Again, please refer to my two assertions at the beginning of my column and remember this is not about telling local landowners what to do with their land, but instead the complete lack of a transparent process used by the PUC.  If the process stays intact, it is one they will keep using in the future when they make other decisions that are certainly to follow.

The PUC’s process nearly completely takes local elected officials out of the equation. For example, despite an Xcel spokesperson testifying before the PUC that they have had a great deal of contact with Becker township, just ask one of the supervisors and see if you get the same answer (note that the second of two meetings between the two entities occurred exactly ONE night before public testimony at the PUC- I’m thinking the company did not have enough time to work any local input into their proposal on a 12 hour turnaround).

Think about this - a local landowner hoping to build an accessory structure on his or her property faces more local government scrutiny than will this proposed solar farm!

I have spoken with local government elected officials and many do not feel as though Xcel or the PUC have taken their concerns into account.  These same officials have heard absolutely nothing about environmental impacts that could potentially occur as a result of having millions of solar panels clustered in an area.  (For one perspective on this issue, try Googling Israel and their research into leaky solar panels and their toxicity towards humans).

In the interest of presenting both sides here, I should point out that the Clear Lake Twp. board has been very supportive of the solar proposal and I want to acknowledge their position.

I spoke with county commissioner Tim Dolan - his take on the PUC is that the process is broken and he also used the word archaic.  I thank the commissioner for his candor and the time spent discussing the issue, as I feel too many other regionally elected leaders have been silent on this issue.

Are our local state representatives and senators willing to sponsor reform at the PUC?  Do they have concerns?  Please reach out to them and ask!  I would expect to see some of them at the meeting on August 31 as well.

I want our readers to know that a person can be 100% supportive of solar energy and still be very concerned and appalled at the authoritative process our state uses to review these types of proposals because it usurps local elected government review.  

I’ll end with a simple question and a friendly request.

Who do you trust more - state level unelected bureaucrats or your local elected leaders who face accountability in the form of an election every couple of years?

I hope to see many of you on August 31 at Becker High School asking questions because the PUC will make the biggest land use decision in the history of Sherburne County and it deserves your attention.