KELO Still Flogging Big Stone II; Power Industry Not Buying

Quack quack quack... KELO continues to bark the party line on Big Stone II. To bring balance to Cherlene Richards's one-sided Sunday coverage on the failing project, Erich Schaffhauser turns to Dan Sharp... the communications manager for Big Stone II.

Communications manager... type that into Google Translate, and you might get B.S. artist.

Sharp tries out some sales lines:

"...with the economic downturn we've had in the country, there are some commodity prices for things we would need to construct a power plant that are, that are relatively reasonable now," Sharp said.

"This is a fully permitted project; we have all of the permits we need," Sharp said. "We think that would be attractive to a utility." [quoted in Erich Schaffhauser, "Big Stone II in Limbo," KELOLand.com, 2009.09.14]

Funny: as Schaffhauser reminds us, three of the original seven utility partners have found Big Stone II sufficiently unattractive to justify bailing out even after investing money and PR in the project. Plans for 100 coal plants have been nixed this decade. Whatever Dan Sharp is selling, the industry isn't buying.

I'm still waiting for KELO's interview with the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, or anyone else who might have the temerity to suggest canceling Big Stone II might not be all bad.

Until then, I guess if we want liberal media in South Dakota, we have to do it ourselves....