Out west of you Parnelli we have a row of coal fired power plants going up in SD, which has extremely relaxed standards compared to MN. Big Stone II is in the EIS stage and my river group organization (curemnriver.org) is working deligently to convince the powers to be to clamp down on both mercury and carbon dioxide emissions. We realize there is little we or most Minnesotans can do, for the EIS is for the power grid distribution and not the power plants themselves. Those EIS's for the power plants are being done in South Dakota and our input has little, if any, bearing. Our hope is to increase access for renewables on the gird at the expense of coal. This is just one of supposedly several coal-powered electrical generation plans planned in the Dakotas, and they're being built there because of the relaxed standards. JGW

[This message has been edited by white43 (edited 06 May 2006).]