2013 DEC I8 P Dear Director Reynolds,

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1 December 12, DEC I8 P Dear Director Reynolds, As strong supporters of the National Park Service and the Pea Ridge National Military Park, we are very happy with your compelling letter objecting to the September 1, 2013 APSC Staff recommendation of the SWEPCO project. Thank you for your vision protecting Pea Ridge and the Trail of Tears, irreplaceable national cultural treasures. We trust the steps in your letter to APSC will be followed, and we respectfully offer to help. 1

2 Here is a brief update for your reference as we learn more about the U P / SWEPCO / SPP / Entergy, Arkansas-Missouri 345 kv loop: 1. The wheels are falling off the ARM0 SWEPCO project 2. We are taking positive actions: 0 Online petition to protect Pea Ridge National Park Working with Governor Mike Beebe 0 Installed a Solar array for our home, dedicated as a community, renewable energy laboratory, and a training center to promote distributed generation Designed and built to share information on local distributed renewable energy solution 3. Economic Opportunities for NWA 4. Lean Power provides 100% security and reliability 5. Bulk generation and transmission are safety risks Arkansas Nuclear One 2013 deadly accident 0 Arkansas Nuclear One 2013 transformer explosion and fire Texas 2011 Bastrop Transmission Line Fire 6. Bulk generation and transmission are high security risks NERC guards the power Grid Vandals attack Arkansas Grid 3,000 homes loose power, SWEPCO Benton County, Nov Frequent brownouts and blackouts due to poor distribution line maintenance. 8. Distributed Generation Paradigm 2

3 1. The wheels are falling off the ARM0 SWEPCO project Entergy Arkansas is leaving SPP to join MISO, and SPP on November 21, 2013 asked expedited approval from APSC for $70,000,000 with no formal hearings and relief by January 24, SPP is a key partner of the Tres Amigas, a $1,600,000,000 New Mexico project to link the three interconnections into one Grid, a high risk sci-fi project with unproven technology, all to sell electrons in the highest priced market. Here is what we knew about ARM0 before Entergy decided to join MISO. AEP decided not to name this project to hide the scope and the purpose of the lines; after PATH and MAPP were withdrawn by AEP in WI, they don't like names for interstate projects. The 345 kv Transmission Line can't traverse the Mark Twain National Forest I SWEPCO needs the Kings River Station and Entergy to sell power In Southeastern, MO -- - w '3

4 2. We have taken positive steps: To get the community involved supporting Pea Ridge National Park and the Trail of Tears, we started an online petition that has over 2,760 signatures and comments, with s sent for each comment to the senior managers of AEP, SWEPCO, APSC, and many public officials. PeWbnfng AE? y APSE Please deny the invalid SWEPCO Appllcatian in full, docket U e Prnmmta n I ~~~~~~.o~~ga~~ttioas/~~~~~-~~~-t~-in~~lid-sur~g~~-~~~i~a~ion-i~-f I To protect our cultural heritage, we ran an open letter on the Eureka Springs Independent newspaper addressed to our Governor, Mike Beebe, asking the community to call his office and tell him our concerns. Governor Beebe was very kind, taking our calls and listening to our fears on the negative impact to our National Parks, Cultural Resources, environment, health, and economy. 4

5 Home Grid-Tie Solar Array: Dream of the Ozarks My wife Crystal and I decided to install a roof mounted solar array to generate 540 kilowatt hours per month, roughly 50% of our demand. We plan to add 16 more panels to generate 100% at a cost comparable to retaining a lawyer to protect our private property rights. The system went up in only eight hours with a crew of four people. We had an open house on August 21 inviting local electricians, builders, carpenters, and plumbers to see the installation process first hand. No Transmission lines needed: all we have is a one inch, 20 foot conduit from the roof of the house, to the DC-AC inverter located in our mechanical room, tied into the Carroll Electric panel. I- 5

6 Cost savings: The digital power meter runs backwards when we generate more power than we use, and we get 16 months credit (like roll-over cellphone minutes). The estimated payoff for our system is 5-7 years. Commercial accounts get cash back each month. Texas also pays residential accounts cash back. Solar grid-tie distributed generation is a Win-Win solution: Electric Co-ops sell extra electrons to my neighbors at a profit, and onsite generation adds capacity to the grid, one panel at a time with % reliability. 3. Economic Opportunities for NWA Coal by wire and bulk generation of any type involves large facilities operated by a small team of people. The capital investment does not provide safe, high paying jobs to our community. The ARM0 project, for example, would employ out-of-state crews; cutting down miles of our forests would not be done by the people of Arkansas (who would refuse to destroy their own environment), as stated in the SWEPCO Application. Working at coal-fired power plants is known to be a high health risk with carbon dioxide, coal dust, asbestos, and other known air pollution hazards. 6

7 Estimated health effects from US. coal-fired power plant emissions r 1 t The....mone.tary c.us.t o.f theyse h.ealth impactq. i.s over:. $100 bi1li.m annually. I 7

8 Training local installers, purchasing panels at a low cost and working with our Electric Cooperatives is not rocket science. We have a proven process with plug-in solar panels and safe electrical installations. Solar modules detect power from the grid and shut-off automatically when the grid is out. Please visitwww.fieanpauer.org for local information on distributed energy renewable solutions. 4. Lean Power provides 100% security and reliability Low cost, low risk, scalable, grid-tie distributed solutions is what Lean Power is a ll about. Renewable, safe, reliable, secure, affordable, and environmentally friendly power for everyone in Arkansas! Lean Power is the opposite of bulk generation, which requires central generation with expensive, dangerous, polluting facilities, transmission and distribution lines, power stations, transformers, and many other unreliable, expensive, fragile components. A great solution with 1800 s Nikola Tesla technology, an obsolete unaffordable solution in Silicon power trumps coal power! The Dream of the Ozarks 3n16 F A 8

9 5. Bulk generation and transmission are safety risks: one equipment failure or error = power blackout and $$$ repairs March 31, 2013: AR One Nuclear Deadly Accident - crane collapse 0 WR71M PM OSHA Cites 1 Companies for Deadly Nuclear One Accident "I, F" t L "This tragedy could have been prevented had the employer ensured vital safeguards to protect workers from potential hazards and proper planning for a project of this magnitude," said Carlos Reynolds, OSHA's area director in Little Rock. "OSHA will hold the employers accountable for not meeting their workplace safety and health responsibilities." Blaming employers does not solve the problem. The real question is why the safeguards were ignored and the planning was not done. 9

10 Dee 9, 2013 Electrical Transformer Explosion, AR Nuclear One 1 '1 p- *I '1.Y '.... c t At this time the cause of the transformer explosion is not clear. The fire is under control. The explosion was away from the reactor. The reactor will remain offline while investigators determine the cause of the fire and review any repairs that need to be made. Fire and nuclear don't mix. Electrical fire hazards are unacceptable in the Ozarks. Arkansas does not have the equipment to contain complex wildfires; in reality no state does. Jim Mautte, an experienced firefighter and fire chief for many years told me "electrical fires are deadly: the black smoke has carbon particles, one of the best conductors, a transmission line with 345,000 volts and smoke are lethal, and no one should get close to the wildfire fire." 10

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13 "A second, smaller blaze that started west of Bastrop on Sept. 5 is still under investigation", Saginor said, But electricity could be the culprit in other fires around Central Texas. The Travis County fire marshal's office reported Tuesday that electricity is being investigated as the possible cause of fires in Steiner Ranch and Spicewoad. Lt. Josh Portie, a brush fire specialist with the Austin Fire Department, said that on windy days, it is "extremely common" for power lines to be a cause of wildfires. Fire Marshal Hershel Lee said the Steiner Ranch fire began in an undeveloped residential lot before spreading to the occupied part of the subdivision. Investigators found damage on the overhead electrical wires directly above the point of origin, Lee said. His office is awaiting lab analysis by electrical engineers and other experts to determine whether the lines ignited the fire. 13

14 6. Bulk generation and transmission are high security risks. Keeping the Electricity Moving: NERC Guards the Bulk Power Grid While many if not most people appreciate the consequences of losing electric power, fewer people appreciate a far more worrisome scenario - how easily terrorists could bring down the power grid. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, described the 2010 U.S. electric power grid as "the security equivalent of a house left with the door unlocked, the windows open, and millions of dollars of jewelry and home entertainment equipnent strewn about for the taking." 14

15 Vandals Attack Electric Grid In Arkansas In the early morniiig hours of August z~st, the electric power giid was targeted in what appeals to have been a deliberate, decidedly low-tech act of vandalism-with mwre dan, -emus implications for grid safety. The iurident was iiiitially described in ','..,..,. media repa as something akin to thoughtless vaudalism involving w sevei*ed transmission line. There was nothing randoin about it. On August 23,2013, the FederalBuresla ofin vestkatian (FBI) offered a $W,OOO reward for information leading to the aim2-t of the person responsible for a downed high-tension power transmission line in central Arkansas mar the city of Cabot. It happened before... what will stop it from happening again? Why put all our eggs in one grid? At a time when Homeland Security is spending billions of dollars to keep us safe, transmission lines over large distances present an unnecessary risk. There is no w3y to guard hundreds of miles exposed to extr- weather and trrrerist attacks. Grids are inherently fragile, unreliable, caqlex, danyerous and unaffordablo. 15

16 7. Frequent brownouts and blackouts due to poor distribution line maintenance. Last month, one lonely squirrel took out SWEPCO power for over 3,000 households in the Benton County, AR. This is a well known and not unexpected problem causing 7% of power failures nation wide as squirrels look for shelter in the winter months. *- SWEPCO doesn't how what caused power outage -4 - mm '10:37 PM C5T Nov 07,2013 BENTON CUUNW - A pmr outage Thursday evening left some people without e~ectric~ for nearly three hours. About 3,100 customers in Benton and Washington counties lost pmr at 5: 20 Thursday evening, according to Peter Main, WEPCO spokesman. SWEPCO cms discovered the problem was on a line that sewes 1,400 customers, sald Main. crews looked at the line, but coutd not Ilnd mat caused the outage. Main says an anlmal or tree limb could have corne in contact with pmr lines and caused the outage. Tha

17 c Low tech problems have low cost solutions; that is the Lean approach. Adding transmission lines does not improve service reliability; it only adds cost and complexity.. I -- Total maintenance of distribution lines would solve 99% blackouts, brownouts, and cascading power failures. Ask a ~ utility y lineman, twf 17

18 8. Distributed Generation Paradigm The new paradigm is distributed generation where people have the option to generate and sell power to the grid. Coal ele identical to photon electrons from sunlight. w%,l!d3w -!.t W W W -.- no losses wzh -Wt distributed m dm I.de&t?am!u si# *md se d kbxm --- i *- '%a With bulk generation a large percent of energy is lost along the way. You can hear line noise, feel the vibration of the transmission towers, feel the EMF/ELF magnetic fields, and there are higher risks of serious health problems. AEP claims there is no statistical evidence of people dying from living near high voltage lines; they make no distinction between 69 kv and 345 kv lines. Given the overwhelming evidence af poor health, the public perception is real, and the Precautionary Principle of The Science and Environmental Health Network applies. AEP has the legal burden of proof and they are liable for health claims.

19 You can see magnetic and electric fields simply holding a fluorescent light tube near a high voltage transmission line, created by high current traveling on the conductors. This video shows a large number of fluorescent light tubes near a 345 kv transmission line. Not something you want to do as there are known health risks to people, pets and wildlife. As someone said at Eureka Springs Auditorium, this is scary stuff! 19

20 y I, k I!I Solar and Wind Distributed Renewable Energy Infomtion.,,<U *.,.!, L " I... >..",C.;.I." - ;,I ----.,...%.,.. 9.,:-.....,I,,! I.,., I. Please visit our website, The Dream of the Ozarks, for information on energy efficiency and distributed grid-tie renewable energy solutions, a Win-Win solution for Arkansas and SWEPCO. 20

21 Solar panels have dropped in price in the last seven years with higher performance. The cost of coal power and solar power are now very similar. With a change to the Arkansas net-metering legislation to pay residential accounts for extra power generated, distributed solar power is the clear winner. E w tm I h 1.t.i? I 21

22 The performance of solar panels and inverters has also improved in the last seven years, with hundreds of millions of dollars granted to research centers. $500,000 was awarded recently to Fayetteville-based Silicon Solar Solutions. Solar startup in state awarded $500,000 :solar c;el.ls..more. :e.ffic.iedt,,as..part.of a..$6u million. sal.,ar-ene.rgy 22

23 Fayetteville-based Silicun Solar Solutions will use the money to develop its technology and move it into the production phase. The company has developed a hydrogen selective emitter that improves the top layer of a solar cell, making it up to 15 percent more efficient as well as more affordable, lowering manufacturing costs by reducing the need for silver. Arkansas has the resources to compete with Germany and Japan in the Solar Industry market, creating many local high paying jobs. Department of Energy and other federal grants are available. Respectfully, Dr. Luis Contreras 281 County Road 1091, Eureka Springs, Arkansas cc : Governor Mike Beebe John Scott, Pea Ridge National Park Superintendent 23

24 References 1. APSC Pea Ridge National Military Park Objection 9/16/13 Dr. Luis Contreras 2. An Arkansas technology startup has been awarded a $500,000 grant to further develop a process that makes solar cells more efficient. 10/23/13 httf://~.arka~a~nlin~.o~pn9pps/2-o~~/~:t/z3~~~lgr-~tar~~-s~a~e-a~~~~-5;09a0(1-201~1 4. The Precautionary Principle applies to the ARM0 AeP/SWEPCO project http;//~.s~~n.org/precaut~~~.~~l The Science and Environmental Health Network is implementing the precautionary principle as a basis for environmental and public health policy. The principle as stated in the 1998 Wingspread statement says: "If an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an action." AEP has the burden of proof tu demonstrate the 345 kv transmission lines, planned for the 50 mile line to Kings River, axe safe for people, wildlife and pets. 24

25 AEP needs to accept full responsibility for any fires, health claims, water Contamination or anything else caused by their line, as the line is riot needed in Arkansas; it is only to profit AEP wheeling electrons to Missouri! To demonstrate the SWEPCO 345 kv lines are safe, AEP needs to disclose to the APSC and the people of Arkansas: 1. Full engineering specifications of the towers 2. The maximum amount of current on the line, as tha magnetic fields are proportional to tho current flow of electrons on the transmission line. 3.The number of circuits: Bryan Johnson said two circuits are planned under oath and then he denied it under oath. This is critical as the magnitude of the magnetic fields and the cost and frequency of maintenance would double with two circuits, 345 kv on each side of the lines Since the line is not needed, if SPP insists in building it, the life cycle cost of the 36 years of the line must be accounted and paid for AEP. The cost of construction, maintenance and operation of the 50 mile line is 10 to 20 times the $120,000,000 shown in the SWEPCO application. The total cost is around $1.8 Billion dollars. 25