Wind energy is not an alternative for baseload generation, and the Big Stone II plant will meet Minnesota's increasing demand for baseload electricity.

There still is a place for wind energy. The co-owners plan to purchase or install 850 megawatts of wind energy by 2015 in addition to constructing Big Stone II. But Minnesota will need baseload power - power that is available 24 hours a day/seven days a week - and wind energy cannot meet that reliability standard.

The state of Minnesota has mandated that 25 percent of all Minnesota utilities' generation portfolios come from renewable resources. Without the necessary additions to the existing transmission grid, including the Big Stone transmission, that mandate cannot be achieved.

The Big Stone II plant will be a coal-based generating plant capable of producing approximately 500 megawatts of electricity. It has been designed to use supercritical, pulverized coal technology. It's a commercially proven technology that is 20 percent more efficient per unit of electric output than the existing fleet of coal-fired plants.

Both the existing plant and Big Stone II will be equipped with technology most likely to remove about 90 percent of its mercury emissions. Big Stone II will more than double the site's generation capacity while emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury from the two plants will be less than or equal to historical emissions from the existing Big Stone Plant.

If Big Stone II is not built, the companies will have no choice but to build natural gas generation facilities. Major increases in natural gas use for electric generation will compete directly for natural gas supplies used by residential heating customers and businesses. Not only will utility consumers suffer increased costs of electricity, but they also will face increased costs of heating as well.

Natural gas prices have more than doubled in the past three years and have put record numbers of households in arrears with their natural gas suppliers. Generating baseload power with natural gas will inject the same volatility into monthly electric bills as is commonplace with natural gas bills. All indicators predict higher natural gas prices.

Big Stone II transmission lines will benefit Minnesota and South Dakota wind development. Area wind developers and the regional transmission operator have testified before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that both Big Stone II generation and transmission are needed to develop the region's wind resource.

Baseload generation is needed to help justify the million-dollars-a-mile that it costs to construct these transmission lines.