Hogwash

Our attorneys had warned me that there might be some level of interrogation by the opposition, and that thought sort of lingered in the back of my noggin for a couple of days prior to the proceedings. My role would be as expert witness of sorts, defending the County staff in their decision to issue my client a permit to build their 250 megawatt power plant.

I didn’t know what exactly to expect. Would the opposition be bringing traffic and transportation experts of their own? Perhaps they were already so knowledgeable, or perhaps my previous work so full of gaping holes that they could drive right through any argument I may have presented.

I was almost expecting the high drama and theatrics of the multitude of crime procedurals on the idiot box. I didn’t know what to expect, but took comfort in the fact that I can fake it pretty well, and that I had some minor confidence in my work going in to it.


Funny thing, this thing. There were plenty of lawyers in the room, and they arguments were made to a panel of public officials, but the room was no courthouse or government office complex. Due to the projected crowds that would want to speak, we were scheduled at the Paddock Club in Great Falls, a low ceilinged, concrete floored room that serves as the beer hall adjacent to the grandstands at the Cascade County Fairgrounds. It smelled a little like a college bar on a Sunday morning. Sadly, the big coolers were devoid of libations, and there was no rodeo or monster truck contests to fill the time between when I got there and when I addressed the Board, and between the time that I spoke and the time we left the building.

Truly sad, because this particular hearing went on and on and on for nearly eight hours by the time the Board was finished with us, then they got to the discussion of agenda item number 2. Ouch.

Eight hours of cheap resin chairs, broken only by a couple of too brief breaks and a rather bland sandwich about two thirds of the way in.

The action in question was an appeal by the well organized treehugging factions to the issuance of our Location Conformance Permit at the power plant site. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve hugged my share of trees, but I also burn them for heat and sometimes just for the sake of burning them. Really, though, there are no trees at all at our site east of Great Falls. It’s miles and miles of dang flat wheat fields, interspersed on occasion by some ancient grassy coulees.

From the site, you can see the Highwood Mountains to the east, and the taller features of Great Falls to the west – the oil refinery, the malting plant, the power plant at the Malstrom Air Force base. A little closer are the local electrical distribution lines and the ground level support structures for the huge pipeline that runs through a portion of the site. Then there’re the grain bins and barns and houses and acres of rusted equipment that you’d find in much of rural America.

It looks like a lot of agricultural Montana, yet somehow, some of the local farmers and ranchers believe that the development and operation of an $859 Million industrial site will somehow adversely affect their lives and livelihoods. As if. The stack is only 400 feet tall and can be seen from rarely more than ten miles away.

Maybe that’s beside the point. The people of Montana need cheap electrical power and, right now, this is the best source of it that anyone’s offered to build. Of course, the opposition may not give a rats ass about that. We joke that they won’t be satisfied until we’re all living in caves and drinking out of puddles. Maybe it’s no joke. Since there’s no energy technology you can build that can’t be seen by neighbours somewhere, they are likely anti-energy. We know they don’t like coal technologies, and we’re pretty sure they don’t like wind, because they bitch about the four turbines we’re proposing here.

Maybe their real concern is that they will be able to see the plant, and it’s not the image of rural Montana that they grew to love. Bottom line is that they’re nimby’s.

I just wish they’d give us an option besides “no build”.

Regardless of their motivations, due process allows them this challenge, and allows us to respond. The issue I was assigned to address was our plans for mitigating potential adverse traffic effects caused by the construction and operation of the facility on local and state highway systems. A half hour later, having beat the crap out of the topic, I somewhat nervously anticipated the overly dramatic cross examination, which didn’t come. Marty said that the lead attorney for the opposition was scribbling furiously during my presentation but, specifically upon my use of the term “platoon”, he started crossing things off and then quit taking notes altogether.

What really surprised me was that the nimby’s never brought forth expert witnesses of their own to challenge our findings and reports. Instead, they strew tin after tin of Red Herring about the space, coating the walls to see what might stick. [Sure, I may have mixed this metaphor, but the room was awfully bland, and I was tired of the stale beer smell.]

Their lead attorney struck me as a self important showman. Wearing a poorly fitted and frumpy three button suit (buttoned at the center only!), and having a tangled and unkempt mop of mostly gray hair, he looked like the classic professorial country lawyer. Hemming and hawing at the appropriate times. Getting really breathy during his summation as he slowly outline the potential large scale damages to the most precious … and endangered … Lewis and Clark … Great Falls Portage … National … Historic … Landmark (or something like that – it’s not a very good acronym regardless and really, nobody knows where Lewis and Clark actually bypassed the falls, and it’s not like they would have left any artifacts, and seriously, most of the route lies under Greats Falls now anyway).

And he never said portage, like you’d say portage in Montana or Wisconsin. It was always portage, like the French would say it, as in “… the enormous historic importance of the portage”. Self important. Frumpy. Breathy.

He accused us of bringing in a “legion” of engineers. I guess we may have had the effect of thousands, but I could have sworn we were only three (although we did kick some major ass, engineering testimonywise).

And another thing, “summarize in a nutshell”. Cool trick, I’m sure, but his summary took forty minutes.

“Hogwash,” was the response to many of his allegations by our lead attorney.

Ultimately, the Board agreed, and we can continue advancement of the project, just as soon as I can get out of this airport and home.

Yesterday, a sportcoat was quite comfortable while temperatures were in the mid forties. Last night, though, the snows developed and were up to blizzard by this morning. My plan to fly standby on the first flight out were for naught, as that flight was cancelled. I’m still hoping to leave this afternoon on my original flight, but it’s still quite white through the terminal windows. Tomorrow’s high is forecast to be 15 below zero, and that may make it too cold to fly, so my hopes rest.