outdoors

'...Tim Dabney, acting supervisor of the Superior National Forest...' Maybe we need a Director, not someone that is an acting director. What about if Gov?

Tough call! "The haze, formed partly by nitrogen oxides, can be hard to spot except at sunset or by comparing high-haze and low-haze photos." Let's shut down the mining and power plants and move everyone out of northern Minnesota. We can leave that area to the bears, raccoons and woodticks. Leave no one there to enjoy the sunsets or measure the haze.

Well maybe we could build a dome over it all. Problem solved...

Another tap on the shoulder to MN state politicians, do with it what you will but remember that you can't say you weren't warned.

Power plants should use the best pollution control equipment available. It may increase electricity costs, but it will lower health care costs.

These companies can afford this equipment. If they can't there should be some assistance for them to do so to prevent a shutdown and loss of jobs. BUt the bottom line is the best equipment available should be installed to reudce emissions, cut haze and especially lower the hazzard to human health. In reality, it actually saves money through reduced health care costs. It's not a choice between industry and a clean environment. It is a partnership of the public interest and resopnsible corporations making their operations environmentally friendly and productive. Mining companies and Power Plants cannot continue to write the air standards and dictate their ability to conform to them. Just like the incresed fuel standards that have caused the consumption of fuel in the US to flatline, coal burning efficiencies can cap coal emissions right now.

Hmmm...Do you think all the millions of dollars that Xcel Energy spends on lobbying could have anything to do with it???? Wake up!!

Get ready for your gas and electric bills to go up again. But at least we'll be safe. Safely out of the middle class. And while we're at it lets mandate all cars get 67 mpg.

The haze seen up north will not be affected by Sherco's plant emissions one iota. The prevailing west/ northwest winds in North America send those emissions in the opposite direction. I think the Forest Service would be better off going after Canada, Russia or China to solve the problem.

"Pristine conditions?" Yeah, right. Whoever made that law was unrealistic. The last time the air was "pristine" was a few thousand years ago.