GASP and SLAM worked to stop the 800 kV DC powerline from United Power Association (UPA) and Cooperative Power Association’s (CPA) Coal Creek Station in Underwood, North Dakota to the Delano Substation just west of the Twin Cities, and the 345 kV Wilmarth Line from Delano to Mankato. (UPA and CPA are now Great River Energy, and learned at least part of the lesson as demonstrated by their disavowal of future such adventures, and their voluntary wind energy program.)
SLAM beat the Wilmarth Line, which was never built. But at a critical time in the struggle, all the large national environmental organizations who were involved decided that all available resources would focus on the effort to block the Alaskan Pipeline. Opposition to the coal interests in North Dakota all but collapsed while the struggle continued in Minnesota. In September, 1978, GASP organized a conference in Glenwood, Minnesota for landowners and communities being victimized by powerlines, coal mines, and the development of other energy facilities. People from 32 states and several foreign nations attended. Ms. Foushee met Mr. Crocker, and the powerline struggle continued. As a result, energy management would never be the same again, as documented in Powerline: The First Battle of America’s Energy Wars by Barry M. Casper and Paul David Wellstone.
By 1979 it was clear that 37 multinational corporations were set to carve up the sacred Paha Sapa, the Black Hills of South Dakota for energy and other resources. GASP worked with the Black Hills Alliance, formed at the request of Lakota elders, and Ms. Foushee moved to Minnesota to help organize the Black Hills Survival Gatherings of 1979 and 1980, which kicked the corporate looters out.
When NSP, now Xcel Energy, came forward with an application for a Certificate of Need for an 800 MW coal-fired power plant in 1981, Ms. Foushee and Mr. Crocker incorporated with Dr. Wendell Bradley from St. Peter, Minnesota, and formed “The Kilowatt Organization,” TKO. The TKO slogan was, “You Megawatt, We Kilowatt,” and it did its best to kill the coal-fired power plant Sherco 3. TKO succeeded raising a host of vital issues that, to this day, remain at the center of debate over how best to deliver electric utility services, and drew attention to the fact that mercury from burning coal was contaminating fish and other aquatic life as well as posing a particular threat to Indigenous Peoples. As a result, the Minnesota Health Department began publishing and distributing fish consumption advisories.
TKO was put to rest as we learned discretion in 1982 and formed the North American Water Office. We organized our own organization so that never again, could a far-away organization with a separate agenda dictate what we would do and how we would do it, and what resources we would have at our disposal. Ever since, our work has focused on the relationships connecting, for better and for worse, energy development with economic development, our environment, and social justice, and our Board of Directors has not allowed us to quit. Some highlights are listed below.
1983 – 1986: Acid Rain Educating and Organizing
NAWO convened the Founding Conference of the Acid Rain Network in September, 1983. Conference participants directed us to research and document global acidification developments. As forests died, buildings and bridges dissolved, lakes became sterile, and rates of human respiratory diseases increased, NAWO published this information as the “Acid Rain Intelligence Report” between 1984 and 1987.
NAWO published the SO2 Point Source Directory and map in 1985, which catalogued the 507 U.S. point sources of sulfur dioxide that emitted more than 10,000 tons per year.
In 1986, NAWO introduced “Pollution Indicators” which attempted to show that the cleanest companies were also the most profitable. NAWO introduced the concept that high efficiency light bulbs were also pollution control devices, but at the time, Philips and other lighting manufacturers were not willing to associate their products with pollution.
Our work on acid rain culminated in the 1986 Minnesota Acid Deposition Control Act Proceedings, where NAWO was instrumental in establishing a relatively protective acid deposition standard. Minnesota’s action broke the logjam, so to speak, that had blocked federal action to control precursors of acid deposition, and some protection was afforded.
1984 – 1997: Indigenous Women’s Network (IWN)
Ms. Foushee co-founded IWN, a network of Indigenous women from the Americas and the Pacific Islands, in 1984, and administered IWN until 1997.
In 1985 Ms. Foushee was a recipient of the Ford Foundation Leadership award to attend the United Nations Non-Governmental Organization’s Forum ’85 on the Status of Women in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa.
Ms. Foushee compiled the “Native Survival Resource Guide” in 1987, which was generously printed and distributed by NSP. Between 1991 and 1997, Ms. Foushee published and distributed seven issues of Indigenous Woman, the journal of the Indigenous Women’s Network.
In 1990, Ms. Foushee was an IWN delegate to the Second International Indigenous Women’s Conference in Sapmiland, Karasjok, Norway.
1988: Sherco 3 Rate Case
NAWO intervened in the rate case before the Public Utilities Commission that raised rates to pay for the coal-fired power plant Sherco 3. NAWO pointed out that consumers were being required to purchase energy from a major source of pollution, while conservation options costing about 1/10th as much were being ignored. Shortly after, the industry and its regulators initiated the “Integrated Resource Planning” process.
1989: Demand-Side Incentives for Electric Utilities
The Public Utilities Commission recognized that utility rate structures rewarded the wrong kind of behavior. (Consumers paid less per kWh as they consumed more, and utilities made more money as they emitted more pollution.) NAWO introduced an “Energy Intensity Model” and worked with NSP to actually design a rate structure in which utility profits rose as utility investments into conservation caused electric consumption to drop. We were full of hope, with a collaborative spirit.
1989 – 1991: White Earth Land Recovery Project
NAWO helped create the White Earth Land Recovery Project, and provided administration services until it could incorporate and acquire federal tax exempt status.
1990: NSP Rate Case
NAWO presented the Public Utilities Commission with reasons electric utility financial incentives needed to be restructured, and attempted to get the Public Utilities Commission to implement incentives that rewarded efficiency rather than wasteful consumption. Unfortunately, before this could reach fruition, Captains of Industry succeeded in injecting “competition” into electric markets, and so instead of incentives consistent with public interests, there was a mad, frenzied rush to the bottom.
1991: NSP Goes For Dry Cask Storage Of High-Level Nuclear Waste On Prairie Island
NSP applied to the Public Utilities Commission for 48 high-level nuclear waste dry storage casks on Prairie Island. With direction from the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Tribal Council, NAWO helped create and provided leadership for the Prairie Island Coalition to oppose dry cask storage in favor of more responsible options for providing electric utility services. The Prairie Island Coalition ultimately consisted of over 30 safe-energy, student, environmental, tribal, labor, legal, business, religious, social justice, and community-based organizations.
We did a good enough job of making the case against dry cask storage that the Administrative Law Judge, Allen Klein, found in his report that no casks were acceptable. The risks and uncertainties outweighed the potential benefits, he found. The Public Utilities Commission couldn't accept that, and authorized 17 casks, instead of the 48 that NSP wanted, in June, 1992.
1992 – 1993: NAWO Administers $100,000 Phase I Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) Grant From The Federal Department of Energy to the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Tribal Council
In an effort to find a willing interim host for the nation’s growing volume of high-level nuclear waste, DOE sent a letter to every one of the thousands of local units of government and Indian tribes in the country. The letter offered them $100,000 to educate their communities about the benefits of hosting a nuclear waste dump. There were 20 responders, and 17 of them were Tribal communities.
The Prairie Island Tribal Council recognized that their community would be hosting a nuclear waste dump anyway, thanks to NSP’s dry cask storage facility, and applied for the grant. The Tribal Council then contracted with NAWO to administer it, and educate the Prairie Island community, and much of Minnesota as well, about what it would mean to host such a facility. Shortly after, DOE cancelled the Monitored Retrievable Storage program.
DOE’s cancellation also had to do with the heroic work of Grace Thorpe, President of the National Environmental Coalition of Native Americans (NECONA), who organized against Monitored Retrievable Storage in every Indian Community that responded to DOE’s letter. In 1995, NECONA presented Mr. Crocker with an “Award of Merit” for exceptional efforts in helping Native Americans resist efforts in placing nuclear waste on tribal lands.
1992: Co-founder of Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy (ME3)
With the creation of ME3, NAWO was no longer alone in it’s effort to connect energy development with economic development and the environment. In due course, ME3 also embraced the social justice aspect of energy development. ME3 provides increasing weight and status to the need for accomplishing the energy transition.
1993: Legal Victory Over Prairie Island Nuclear Waste Storage
The Prairie Island Community, Prairie Island Coalition, and MPIRG appealed the Public Utility Commissions Order granting permission for NSP to use up to 17 storage casks, in part, on the grounds that Minnesota law requires the legislature, not bureaucrats, to authorize permanent storage of high-level nuclear waste in Minnesota. As no one could say where the waste would go, or when it would go there, Minnesota Appellate and Supreme Courts found dry cask storage to be permanent, which set the stage for a bitter fight over nuclear waste storage which consumed the 1994 legislative session.
1994: Nuclear Waste Storage Legislative Fight
In coalition with Minnesotans For Nuclear Responsibility, the Prairie Island Coalition, the Prairie Island Tribe, the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action and others, NAWO fought successfully to block the nuclear waste dump on Prairie Island until the very last day of the 1994 legislative session. We kept saying, “No casks!” and politicians kept putting more and more renewable energy provisions into their law authorizing casks, and we kept saying, “No Casks!” In the end, in a bitter defeat that is still painful, Pretend Democracy gave NSP 17 casks, but with enough renewable energy mandates and requirements that NSP still stands accused by its industry colleagues of “Giving away the store.”
The 1994 PI law mandated almost 1,000 MW of renewable energy, and created a publicly accountable Renewable Energy Fund of up to $8.5 million per year, paid for by NSP at a rate of $500,000 per year per cask on Prairie Island.
Participation in Discovery Phase of Nuclear Lawsuit
While Xcel was telling Minnesota decision-makers how good PI was, hence the need for more waste storage capacity, NSP was also suing Westinghouse Electric Corp. in federal court because nuclear steam generators sold to Xcel by Westinghouse were prematurely aging, cracking and leaking. In 12 previous suits, the public was prevented from learning about steam generator problems. The discovery process took place behind protective orders, and then the parties agreed to proprietary settlements on the eve of trial. That changed with Xcel's suit. NAWO (PIC) convinced the judge to let us participate in the discovery process. We reviewed over 1,000,000 pages of internal nuclear industry secrets and secured copies of 60,000 pages. These pages validate our fear, which was independently confirmed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), that steam generator tube degradation creates a mounting potential for catastrophic loss-of-coolant accidents at all pressurized water reactors. This information is now available to the public on a video and CDROM.
1994 – 1997: Defeated Mescalero Apache High-Level Nuclear Waste Dump in New Mexico
One reason the Minnesota Legislature finally authorized 17 casks in 1994, was because NSP assured legislators that the waste would not long remain on Prairie Island. It would soon be sent to the Mescalero Apache in New Mexico, NSP said, because tribal leadership there wants it for economic development purposes. Internal tribal opposition was intense, and NAWO went to the Mescalero Apache Reservation to help people organize. After a bitter and protracted struggle, the People of the Mescalero Apache Nation rejected the dump proposal. NSP went to the next Indian community on its list, the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes, in Utah (the list was developed during DOE’s MRS program).
1995 – 2000: National Nuclear Waste Citizens Coalition
When Minnesota imposed the Prairie Island nuclear waste storage capacity limit, NSP went to Washington to get Congress to ship waste to a parking lot next to Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The proposed legislation was affectionately dubbed “Mobile Chernobyl” by the opposition, and NAWO followed NSP to Washington to oppose it. For six years running and against overwhelming odds, with NAWO on the Steering Committee of the Nuclear Waste Citizens Coalition, Mobile Chernobyl legislation was beaten back every time.
1995 – 2000: Worked With Communities United for Responsible Energy (CURE)
One condition the 1994 Legislature made for authorizing 17 casks on Prairie Island was that NSP had to make a “good faith effort” so find a dump site in Goodhue County, where so many people wanted the dump, but off Prairie Island, because the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Community did not want it. A Southern Goodhue County site was selected, and CURE organized to oppose it. Playing high-level nuclear waste like a political football is not acceptable, and NAWO helped CURE oppose the alternative dump. Curiously enough, the Minnesota Department of Public Service was at the time leading the charge for Mobile Chernobyl, which meant shipping waste for thousands of miles to a parking lot in Nevada. That same Department of Public Service ended up killing the alternative Southern Goodhue County dump because transportation risks of shipping waste 20 miles made the risks of the alternative site “not comparable” to the risks of leaving the waste on Prairie Island.
1995 – 1997: Defeated Louisiana Energy Services Nuclear Fuel Fabrication Plant
Racist practices sited a Louisiana Energy Services (LES) nuclear fuel fabrication plant near Homer, Louisiana, a community that is almost entirely of African-American descent. NSP was a member of the LES consortium. Mounting pressure over three years from a shareholder resolutions sponsored by NSP shareholders in Minnesota that questioned NSP’s corporate image, along with tenacious opposition in Homer and excellent legal work in Washington, D.C. caused NSP to withdraw from the consortium, which killed the proposed facility shortly after. LES is now back with another proposition.
1996: “Confronting Nuclear Racism,” a Prairie Island Coalition Report
This report, covering a conference on nuclear racism organized by the Prairie Island Coalition at Wilder Forest in September, 1995, documents how nuclear racism is a fundamental link in the nuclear chain. About 50 selected organizers from Minnesota attended the conference, with 10 special guests from throughout North America. Without nuclear racism, there is no nuclear industry.
1997 - Present: Working to Prevent a nuclear industry consortium, Private Fuel Storage, led by Xcel Energy, from dumping high-level nuclear waste on the Skull Valley Band of Goshutes in Utah.
Stay tuned. Very interesting!
1998: Chisago Powerline
NSP and Dairyland Power brought forth a proposal to build a 230 kV powerline from the Chisago Substation into Wisconsin, across the wild and scenic St. Croix River at Taylor’s Falls. During the hearings, the basic question was whether the line is needed to serve local loads, or if instead its primary function is to transmit bulk power from remote generators to distant load centers for economic transfer purposes. NAWO brought forward knowledge gained during the GASP/SLAM era, and consulted extensively with Concerned River Valley Citizens, the grassroots organization that opposed being abused. The utilities were not able to support their claim of need to serve local loads.
1998: Manufactured Gas Plant Waste Combustion at the A.S. King Plant in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota
NAWO, working with the Oak Park Heights community, prevented the combustion of manufactured gas plant wastes contaminated with heavy metals at the A.S. King Plant. NAWO has also worked with Oak Park Heights to prevent the spreading of King coal ash as a soil amendment, and to prevent the combustion of contaminated refinery wastes from Koch Refinery at the King Plant.
1999 – Present: Working With Save Our Unique Lands (SOUL) in Minnesota and Wisconsin to Stop the Proposed Arrowhead-Weston 345 kV Powerline
Arrowhead-Weston Powerline proposal is another instance in which power companies claim a need for transmission to serve local loads, while the real reason for the additional transmission capacity is to provide for bulk power economic transfers in less regulated electric markets. People from Duluth, Minnesota to Wausau, Wisconsin, are having none of it. NAWO is again sharing knowledge from the GASP/SLAM era as well as more recent information, formally and informally, with decision-makers, SOUL (Save Our Unique Lands), and with local units of government that have vowed to not let this line through.
2000: Organized a Conference on “Environmental Justice and Energy Policy in the Upper Midwest” with the University of St. Thomas and ME3
This Conference, keynoted by Senator Paul Wellstone, was a landmark event in terms of our collective ability to begin shedding light on the reality of “electric racism.”
2000 – Present: Environmental Justice Networking
Ms. Foushee served on the Board of Directors of Clean Water Action Alliance. She was also an advisory board member of Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy’s JustEnergy Campaign and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Environmental Justice Advisory Task Force.
NAWO's program to address hydropower, the third central-station technology (after coal and nuclear), is focused on large dams and the powerlines that bring this electricity to markets. NAWO has worked toward preventing additional massive hydro development that would cause additional disruption to indigenous populations.
2001 – 2002: Powerlines For Good, Not Evil
More powerlines are needed to transmit wind energy from Minnesota’s richest wind regime on Buffalo Ridge to load centers further east. Proceedings are underway to decide whether and what powerlines to build, and there are two problems. First, if transmission is built, North Dakota coal interests will want to use the capacity to ship more electricity from lignite power plants. Second, virtually all the wind generation on Buffalo Ridge is owned by large outside corporations who take the money and run.
NAWO is involved to ensure that wind is on the wires, and that the people who live in Southwestern Minnesota can also profit from the wind that is blowing across their farms. We were successful in attaching conditions for the certification of a high-voltage powerline that requires the utility to provide transmission access to smaller, locally owned projects. This resulted in transmission outlet capacity of 60 MW dedicated to community-based wind power. There is an additional 600 MW of transmission outlet capacity, if we can organize it, which is ongoing. This activity set the stage for the beginnings of Community-Based Energy Development (C-BED).
2002-2003: Nuclear Responsibility Now!
Leading up to the 2003 Minnesota legislative session, NAWO worked in coalition with Clean Water Action, MPIRG, the Sierra Club, ME3, Women Against Military Madness, Bluff Land Environmental Watch, Communities United for Responsible Energy, and a number of additional organizations and individuals to defend the 17 cask storage capacity limit set in the 1994 legislative session. We organized under the banner of “Nuclear Responsibility Now!” The 17 cask limit was undone during the 2003 session. Now, as many casks as Xcel wants on Prairie Island, Xcel can put on Prairie Island.
Current Programs, Activities and Accomplishments
Two programs are currently at the center of the NAWO agenda. One is to develop local and community-based ownership of wind generation capacity in SW Minnesota. The other is the Indigenous Women’s Mercury Investigation (IWMI).
Our program for community-based ownership of wind generators grows out of the 1994 Prairie Island nuclear waste law. Over 300 megawatts (MW) of wind is now on-line in SW Minnesota, but virtually all of it is owned by large outside corporations, and no more can be developed until new powerlines are built to deliver the energy to cities further east. NAWO is therefore working with Xcel Energy, local units of government and public interest groups to get powerlines built, but with two conditions. One ensures that mostly wind is on the wires, not North Dakota lignite coal. The other enables residents of SW Minnesota to participate directly in the economic development made possible by the additional transmission outlet capacity by owning wind generation capacity. On March 11, 2003, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) ordered Xcel to construct the needed transmission with the two necessary conditions. This is a major victory for NAWO. Our challenge now is to enforce and take advantage of these conditions.
NAWO launched the Indigenous Women’s Mercury Investigation in 2001, which documents the historical role and value of fish for Minnesota’s Indigenous Peoples, both Dakota and Ojibwe. Fish are heavily contaminated with mercury, polychlorinated biphenols and dioxin that come from electric power plants and other industrial sources. Rules are set to limit pollution, but the rules still allow contamination so severe that pregnant women cannot safely eat certain species, such as walleye, more than once a month. For fish-dependent cultures, this amounts to cultural genocide. The documentation this project collects will be used to ensure that decision-makers take account of cultural differences, and set standards that are protective of all people.
Because of historical involvement, NAWO remains committed to several related issues. NAWO provides leadership for the formation of a viable Environmental Justice organization within the broader environmental community. NAWO is working with grassroots organizations, individuals, local units of government, and public interest advocates in Wisconsin to stop the proposed, abusive 345 kV Arrowhead-Weston Powerline from Duluth, Minnesota to Wausau, Wisconsin. NAWO continues working at the state and national levels for responsible nuclear waste management, and to address numerous troubling problems with nuclear power.
Relationship with Other Organizations Working With Similar Missions
NAWO affiliations include board participation with Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy (ME3) and Clean Water Action. NAWO is on the ME3 JustEnergy Advisory Board as well as ME3’s Executive Committee. NAWO is a charter member of ME3, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the Minnesota Environmental Fund, and the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Campaign, which was created to help accomplish the 1994 renewable energy mandates. NAWO was project sponsor and organizational home for the Prairie Island Coalition from 1990 until it was superceded in 2002 by Nuclear Responsibility Now. NAWO collaborated with the Headwaters Fund to organize Minnesota’s first Indigenous and Peoples of Color Earth Summit, and was the 501(c)(3) incubator for the Indigenous Women’s Network and the White Earth Land Recovery Project.
Board and Staff
NAWO has eight board members, one full-time paid staff person, and two part-time paid staff on a project-by-project basis. NAWO has the capacity to mobilize many volunteers, as exemplified by our intervention in the NSP v. Westinghouse lawsuit over prematurely aging and leaking steam generator tubes at the Prairie Island reactors. During that litigation, we organized over 40 volunteers who reviewed over 1,000,000 pages of internal nuclear industry documents. We secured copies of 60,000 of the more incriminating pages, which have been used by groups around the country.