The 2000 session of the Minnesota Legislature begins next Tuesday and Great River Energy is in a hurry.

Wednesday, January 26, 2000

The 2000 session of the Minnesota Legislature begins next Tuesday and Great River Energy is in a hurry.

GRE wants the Mower County Board of Commissioners to approve a resolution recommending the Legislature grant an exemption to GRE’s personal property tax on equipment in a new plant it hopes to construct in Pleasant Valley Township.

The 2000 legislative session will be only six weeks long and dominated by the state bonding bill and requests for state funding assistance on myriad projects.

Thus, the window of opportunity for GRE to get legislators’ attention is narrow.

While maintaining its interest, the county board members said Tuesday they could not consider GRE’s request for a resolution endorsing the personal property tax exemption until it had more information.

Richard R. Lancaster, GRE’s vice president for public affairs, sought the exemption Tuesday when the county commissioners met.

Lancaster told how GRE of Elk River wants to construct a 445-megawatt natural gas-fired power generation facility in Pleasant Valley Township near Sargeant.

The facility would provide peaking power to GRE’s 29-member distribution cooperatives beginning next spring.

The facility would consist of three, simple cycle combustion turbines.

Because the proposed site is close to a fuel supply, natural gas lines run across northern Mower County and a major transmission line, the Pleasant Valley site is deemed ideal, according to Lancaster.

Lancaster brought with him handouts containing "Background and Tax Facts," as their titles indicated. The handouts indicated both Wisconsin and Iowa have more "tax-friendly" environments for GRE’s proposed plant.

However, they didn’t back up those statements with figures.

Also, GRE has balked at agreeing to Mower County’s terms for locating the facility in the county. Specifically, the county wants GRE to make a payment in lieu of taxes which the energy supplier hopes will be exempted by legislative action.

According to Dave Hillier, Third District commissioner, host communities typically seek residual payments from energy suppliers.

The disagreement is amicable, judging by the commissioners’ and Lancaster’s comments Tuesday.

Lancaster said the agreement does not have to be in place before GRE takes its request for the personal property tax exemption to the Legislature next week. He said Martin County did not have an agreement in place before it approved a similar resolution, calling for the personal property tax exemption.

Lancaster characterized the county and GRE as"still far apart."

Lancaster also told the commissioners of the permits being sought by GRE. The firm goes before the Public Utilities Commission this week to seek a certificate of need. It received the Environmental Quality Board’s approval for the "scope of its environmental review" last week, according to Lancaster and its environmental impact statement will come later at a contested case hearing. Other permitting is in process.

Sometime next month or early March, it will go to the Mower County Planning Commission to seek a conditional use permit for the generating facility in northeast Mower County.