All posts in the topic Minnesota Energy Challenge (Short link)
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- There are 9 posts — by 6 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Dan Cooke at Apr 04 21:28 UTC
Looks like Center for Energy and Environment, http://www.mnenergychallenge.org, are offering a Home Energy Makeover. Make sure to sign up for the energy challenge and assign your energy savings to the Standish- Ericsson Neighborhood Association.
That link doesn't work until you take the trailing comma off it: http://www.mnenergychallenge.org
An event for those interested in energy, environment and community. Lisa Metro CERTs Network Kick-Off April 15, 2008 5pm to 8pm Landmark Center, 75 West 5th Street, St. Paul Interested in localizing your energy? Join community, business and non-profit leaders, elected officials, students, state agency staff, and congregations as we kick-off the new Metro CERTs (Clean Energy Resource Team) Network. Come and network, see old friends, meet new ones, enjoy local and organic refreshments and hear about exciting community-based energy projects happening in the Twin Cities. There will be a very short program at 6:30pm. Get your taxes done early, so you can attend! RSVP’s and Questions contact Diana McKeown at the Green Institute 612-278-7125 orDiana McKeown Program Coordinator, Metro CERTs Network Green Institute, Community Energy Program 2801 21st Avenue South, Suite 110 Minneapolis, MN 55407 Phone 612-278-7125 Fax 612-278-7101
Hi folks, If you are concerned about "bad air" days and want to keep pollution from getting any worse in our neighborhood, contact our Mayor () and your City Council representative about the Midtown Eco Energy biomass burner proposed for building at Lake St. and Hiawatha. The "Eco" portion of the name sounds good at first but a number of aspects make it questionable. See this article: http://snipurl.com/23a5j [www_tcdailyplanet_net]
Yeah, that Midtown Eco Energy burner would be awful!!! Ann Novitske and I live in the neighborhood. We started a blog in December when we first heard about the burner proposal. The blog endeavors to to compile information and news about the boondoggle: http://burnerinfo.blogspot.com Links to contact the City Council and the Mayor's office are contained in the blog (just scroll down a bit). - Dan Cooke
Neighbors, There is a sneaky tax break bill for the Midtown Eco incinerator is now before the Minnesota House. The break would allow them to pay property taxes only on the value of the existing land and structures -- they wouldn't have to pay property taxes on the improvements (which is a VERY big tax break because the new structures are a big part of their project proposal). This silly tax break is now contained in the bill HF 3149. It passed through the Senate with no discussion! Jim Davnie (Mpls) is on the House Taxes Committee and covers areas that would be hit hard by the Midtown burner. Call him TODAY at 651-296-0173 and tell him to VOTE NO ON HF 3149 -- or that part of HF 3149 that contains the "biomass incinerator" tax break. Hopefully there won't be an incinerator at all but if there is the polluters don't deserve a special break on their property taxes. Contact info for the rest of the House Tax Committee is available here: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committeemembers.asp?comm=3000 Email them all so they at least know about this sneaky piece of the Midtown boondoggle! It's critical to do this right away because the bill will come up for discussion very soon. - Dan
The version that will come up for a vote as HF 3149 came back to the house from the MN Senate via SF 2869. The tax break extension was tacked into the bill in the Senate (with little or no discussion, as I understand it). So the language is contained here, at line 19.5: https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/bin/bldbill.php?bill=S2869.2.html&session=ls85 If you look closely at the language you'll see that it really only applies to the Midtown Eco Energy incinerator. It's a single-business tax break. A little history: the Midtown folks snuck this one through in an earlier MN tax omnibus bill but it sunsetted on January 1, 2008. Due largely to citizen objections Midtown developers haven't been able to build their plant yet. Which is why they're asking to have the deadline extended to 2010. - Dan http://burnerinfo.blogspot.com
Dan:
Are you sure you got the correct bill number? I sent an email to Jim Davnie
and he said that HF 3149 has no language of the Midtown Eco incinerator in it.
Could you check and get back with us?
Matthea is right. Jim Davnie, who is just great about getting back to me quickly with responses, told me that 3149 is the old tax bill submitted in the House (it's hard to keep track of them). It looks like the bill with the Midtown burner tax break will be HF 4103 but I'm still checking -- the House is still hammering out their tax bills. Whatever the number will be, it's still important to let Jim Davnie know if you oppose a tax break for a Midtown Minneapolis incinerator, one that will substantially add to the toxic pollution in our neighborhoods. Jim will then have that in his mind while the tax committee is considering the various tax issues as it finalizes the House version of this year's tax legislation. - Dan http://burnerinfo.blogspot.com
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