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PUC Hears Keystone XL Arguments Tuesday: Scope of Discovery, Schedule on Tap

This will be an exciting day for the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. (I can picture Commissioner Chris Nelson springing out of bed every morning and saying exactly that.) On Tuesday, December 9, amidst seven major agenda items, the PUC gets to talk Keystone XL. Tuesday's hearing isn't the whole box of Timbits. Far from it: tomorrow, Commissioners Nelson, and Fiegen will only set rules for discovery and maybe time frame for future hearings.

TransCanada, the hopeful builder of the second tar sands pipeline that would cross our fair state, moved on October 30 to severely limit the scope of discovery—i.e., the topics on which opponents of the pipeline could demand information that they could use next year to argue against recertifying TransCanada's permit. For the high school policy debaters in the audience, TransCanada is essentially arguing, "No New in Two!" TransCanada contends that state law forbids today's opponents from bringing up or even demanding documents relating to arguments against the West River pipeline that weren't brought up in the original PUC permit process in 2009 and 2010. TransCanada says intervenors may not raise the following issues:

...the effects of the Project on the soils of the Sandhills; the effects of the Project on the Ogallala Aquifer and other streams, river, and waterbodies; whether the Project is in the national interest; whether the Department of State conducted sufficient consultation with interested Tribes under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act; whether Keystone is entitled to exercise the right of eminent domain; and whether development of the oil sands in Canada harms the environment and contributes to levels of C02 in the atmosphere ["Keystone's Motion to Define the Scope of Discovery under SDCL 49--41B-27," SDPUC Docket, HP14-001, 2014.10.30].

TransCanada is understandably trying to speed the process, take ground from its opponents, and keep documents out of opponents' hands.

Pretty much everyone else at the show says TransCanada is wrong. The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe dismantles TransCanada's motion, saying the Canadians get South Dakota case law wrong, offers no statutory basis for its narrow interpretation of the relevant permitting clause, and improperly reads that key statute in isolation in an attempt to throttle the properly broad authority of the PUC. Dakota Rural Action cites examples from other states that hold that the state confers no property right with a construction permit and the state is has the authority to conduct a broad review of an expired permit. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe argues that TransCanada is seeking a protection order that improperly applies the standards for permissibility at trial to permissibility in discovery: basically, the fact that information may not be allowed in the final hearing does not justify excluding such information from discovery.

Merry Christmas, Keystone XL opponents: the PUC staff seems to agree with you!

...[W]hile SDCL § 49-41B-27 limits the proceedings, it does not limit the scope of discovery. The fact that information is not admissible in the certification proceeding does not mean that it is not discoverable. “The purpose of discovery is to examine information that may lead to admissible evidence at trial [Kristen Edwards, PUC Attorney, response to TransCanada motion on discovery, PUC Docket HP14-001, 2014.12.01].

PUC attorney Edwards is waving the caution flag at Keystone XL opponents. They will still have to make their arguments at the full hearing next year that the PUC should consider risks to the Ogallala aquifer, lack of consultation with tribes, eminent domain, and other objections that were not raised in the first Keystone XL permit hearing. But if the PUC accepts its own attorney's reading of state law, it will tomorrow allow opponents to engage in much broader discovery than TransCanada wants.

Much broader discovery will require a much broader time frame. TransCanada wants a 14-week discovery process before hearings March 24–27, 2015. Dakota Rural Action says proper discovery and response will take 44 weeks, which would put the hearing sometime next October. On this issue, PUC staff is lining up with TransCanada, proposing the same March dates for the evidentiary hearing.

This discussion could all become academic if the Yankton Sioux Tribe prevails in its motion to dismiss. Attorney Thomasina Red Bird says that when TransCanada petitioned for recertification, in included a "Tracking Table of Changes" indicating changes in thirty of the findings of fact from the original permit. Red Bird and her Yankton clients say those changes make the project proposed in the 2014 petition different from the project approved by the PUC in 2010. The PUC, says Red Bird, cannot recertify a new project that has not been certified. Throw it out, start over!

I like that argument. I don't think the PUC will. We can hope for good fortune, but for now, a victory on broad discovery and a schedule long enough to make discovery feasible will be plenty.

The PUC will webcast tomorrow's meeting live, starting at 9:30 a.m. Central. Keystone XL is the last major action item on the agenda, so it's hard to say when that excitement will begin.

P.S.: Blogger Pat Powers ignores the details of tomorrow's hearing and whines the Big Oil party line that South Dakota should change its reasonably limited permits to perpetual licenses. Funny: I don't hear him saying that homeowners should get a permanent building permit, or that I should get a perpetual teaching license, or that Grandma ought to get a perpetual driver's license....

14 Comments

  1. moe 2014.12.08

    WE will see if the Puc will vote to stop it long term but with one prty rule , I wonder if they will be told how to vote.

  2. bret clanton 2014.12.08

    Well they have been given perpetual easements without presidential approval to cross the border so what the hell........ all we need is a dead guy to blame everything on......

  3. Paul Seamans 2014.12.08

    To listen live to Tuesday's hearing go to the PUC homepage at puc.sd.gov and click on the Listen Live link near the top of the page.

  4. Deb Geelsdottir 2014.12.08

    Good comment Bret.

  5. Jana 2014.12.09

    Will someone be there to demand that we renegotiate the sweet heart deal that newly elected senator Mike Rounds gave the in the first go around?

    It did earn him thousands of dollars in campaign donations and a Sarah Palin like talking point of drill baby drill.. (which of course did appeal to the intellects of the GOP.)

    Maybe, just maybe, there is an analyst at the PUC that can give us the truth on what we should be asking for based on what TransCanada is paying other states...

    Wait...What? Is that a Rounds that is feeding the information to the PUC?

    Inbreeding...go figure.

  6. Paul Seamans 2014.12.09

    Speaking of Mike Rounds reminds me; Mike claimed during the campaign that building the KXL would free up four unit trains per day because of the 100,000 barrels per day space that is promised for the Bakken oil on the KXL. Even TransCanada now admits that it would take only one unit train to haul the 100,000 barrels.

  7. Tim 2014.12.09

    Paul, most of the alleged facts will change now that the election is over.

  8. Dan Daily 2014.12.09

    Thanks for this thorough report. Print and broadcast doesn't cover this topic well. My opinion, this project will happen fast with a republican congress and after a republican president is elected.

  9. Paul Seamans 2014.12.09

    Dan Daily, by the time that a Republican president is elected even TransCanada will have realized that the Keystone XL was a bad idea.

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.12.09

    Update: The PUC apparently granted part of TransCanada's request to limit discovery. KSFY has this report, which waits until the very end to give one brief description of the PUC's decision. Attorneys from both sides are spinning the decision as a win. I'll be looking for the official statement from the PUC to analyze. The big hearing is scheduled for the first week of May.

  11. Paul Seamans 2014.12.09

    KSFY TV out of Sioux Falls was doing a lot of interviews outside the PUC meeting room today. Assume it will be on the 10:00 news tonight.

  12. leslie 2014.12.09

    let's see: SD's AG, PUC, GOAC, GOED, DENR, ect. Hmm... wonder how that evidence-based office, board, committee, department ect. might rule??

  13. Jana 2014.12.10

    So where were we on the discussion of most corrupt states? Or was it the GOP putting party line over people? Wait, maybe it was about transparency in government? Or is it just another example of GOP dictatorship?

    Read this headline and story and judge for yourself.

    State puts limits on Keystone XL information

    "South Dakota regulators agreed Tuesday to limit the scope of information opponents could receive in a case about the Keystone XL oil pipeline from the company trying to build it, but not as strictly as TransCanada Corp. requested."

    http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2014/12/09/state-puts-limits-keystone-xl-information/20168167/

    Oh yeah, PUC, thank you for letting us know who you work for...it ain't the people of South Dakota. And just a quick question...does it hurt when they pull your puppet strings?

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