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DAM-L PCN Chief in Denver (fwd)



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From: Will Braun <willbrau@mts.net>
To: Will Braun <willbrau@mts.net>
Subject: PCN Chief in Denver
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:20:27 -0500
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Below:

1) Excerpts of Chief Miswagon's speech at Xcel shareholder meeting.

2) Winnipeg Free Press on Xcel Shareholder vote.

3) Canadian Press - Hydro claims "victory."

4) Denver Business Journal - a good day for non-renewable power.

5) Denver Post - mainstream institutional support for PCN.

Attached: Photo from rally outside last year's (2001) Xcel shareholder meeting.

Comment: 8% of Xcel Energy shareholders voted in favour of a resolution that would require Xcel to obtain power in ways that do not cause undue harm to PCN and the environment. Those 8% represent 16 million shares worth over US$400 million. In the world of shareholder resolutions, this means that Xcel cannot ignore the issue. It means that this issue is not going away until Hydro cleans up its mess.

Manitoba Hydro was claiming "victory" after the vote. Given the nature of the resolution, the victory they celebrate is a victory for non-renewable energy; and a victory for the freedom to produce power that may cause "undue harm" to PCN. What are they saying by claiming victory?

PCN is gaining major support--including mainstream institutional support. Americans are realizing that Manitoba Hydro's product is not clean and environmentally friendly, as they are told.

  ____________

Pimicikamak Chief John Miswagon 

Presentation to Xcel Shareholder Meeting

April 18, 2002              

 Denver, Colorado

[check against delivery]]

Our river has been dammed in order to produce electricity.   Four percent of Xcel's supply comes from huge dams that flood forest, cause severe erosion of shorelines, and throw the ecosystem into chaos.   If you visited our homeland today you would see a vast and ugly environmental disaster.   

Because of the dams, our traditional way of life is gone and our human rights are trampled.   

You are told that hydro-electricity is clean.  But for 30 years our people have watched dams kill forest, fish, beavers and people.   The clean and green label is a false one.

Corporations, such as Nike, are realizing that selling products made in sweatshops can be disastrous for business.   Xcel's situation is similar.   Hydro power is cheap only because we pay the social and environmental costs of production.   Our people and land are exploited for the sake of cheap kilowatts.   

Last year, a panel of national church leaders described these dams as (and I quote) "an ongoing ecological, social and moral catastrophe." (end quote)  

The church panel calls on all users of electricity from our homeland to take responsibility for the damage.   As long as Xcel customers are using power from Manitoba, there is no way for Xcel to disassociate itself from the destruction in our homeland.   Transmission lines connect Xcel to the ecological and human rights catastrophe in our homeland.   We must ALL take responsibility.

Some of our Cree neighbours imply that additional hydro-electric dams will not cause further harm to the environment.   If that is the case they should have no trouble supporting this resolution.   The resolution does not oppose dams or development.   It simply says that development should not cause undue harm. 

There ARE better options.   There MUST be better options.   It is entirely possible to have improved environmental health, abundant energy and strong energy companies.

Our people are extremely determined.   We will not stop until Manitoba Hydro cleans up its act.   For us it is a fight for our very survival.

Resolution number two is about getting Manitoba Hydro to clean up their act.   It is about making sure that our suffering is not subsidizing electricity exports.

On behalf of my people and our sacred land, I ask you to support resolution number two.

Thank you!   Ekosani!

_______________

 

Environmentalists fail in bid to block Hydro sales to U.S.

Cross Lake Cree not opposed to exports

Winnipeg Free Press, April 19, 2002

By Helen Fallding

Shareholders of Manitoba Hydro's main export customer have rejected a bid by environmentalists to block future sales of Manitoba power to the U.S. utility because of the effects of flooding on Cross Lake Cree. 

About eight per cent of Xcel Energy shareholders voted for a resolution at the company's annual meeting in Denver yesterday that would have required the company to get supplies from other renewable sources that do not hurt indigenous people. 

The vote could have affected a 10-year contract worth more than $1 billion that Manitoba Hydro is negotiating with Minneapolis-based Xcel. 

Last year the same resolution won nine per cent support. 

Coun. David Muswaggon said Cross Lake's Pimicikamak Cree Nation is not opposed to energy exports. The first nation simply wants Manitoba Hydro to live up to its claim to sell clean power. "Clean up the mess." 

Chief John Miswagon told shareholders in Denver yesterday that Manitoba Hydro dams have been killing fish, forests, beavers and people for 30 years. 

"Corporations such as Nike are realizing that selling products made in sweatshops can be disastrous for business. Xcel's situation is similar." 

Michael Passoff, of the As You Sow corporate responsibility foundation, said the ongoing support of institutional investors who hold about $400 million US worth of shares should persuade Xcel to work with PCN on environmental standards. 

Xcel spokesman Ed Legge said company officials visited northern Manitoba last year and offered to set up a stakeholder group to explore the issues, but the Cross Lake Cree did not agree with the format. 

Manitoba Aboriginal Affairs Minister Eric Robinson, who also spoke at the Xcel meeting, said his government and Manitoba Hydro have the same frustration in trying to work with Cross Lake Cree. 

"I don't fault the leaders so much as the consultants and non-aboriginal lawyers." 

Robinson said it is time for the community to look at future opportunities instead of dwelling on past abuses. 

If shareholders submit the resolution again next year, they will have to win 10 per cent support to get it on the ballot a fourth time. 

Francois Meloche, who works for a Quebec company that gives advice on responsible investing, recommended his clients vote for the resolution. He was persuaded by the argument that Manitoba Hydro's large dams do not qualify under Minnesota law as renewable energy -- an incorrect interpretation, according to a letter from two Minnesota politicians to Premier Gary Doer. 

helen.fallding@freepress.mb.ca

? 2002 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.

________________

Canadian Press
Thursday, April 18, 2002

DENVER -- Manitoba Hydro is claiming victory after
shareholders of an American energy company rejected a motion
that would have jeopardized a contract with the utility.

Shareholders of Xcel Energy voted 92 per cent against the
resolution.

It called on Xcel to get all future supplies from renewable
sources like wind power.

The resolution accused Manitoba Hydro of flooding the
traditional lands of the Cree Nation at Cross Lake in
northern Manitoba.

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Glen Schneider says the
shareholders at Thursday's meeting in Denver accepted the
word of two influential aboriginals who spoke against the
resolution.

They are the chief of the Nelson House First Nation and
Manitoba Northern Affairs Minister Eric Robinson.

Manitoba Hydro is on the verge of signing a renewal
agreement with Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy.

Xcel is the utility's biggest export customer.

At last year's meeting the motion was rejected by a margin
of 91 per cent.

? Copyright 2002 Canadian Press

___________________

Denver Business Journal

16:17 EDT Thursday
Xcel shareholders nix renewable resource proposal
Cathy Proctor

About 220 people attended Xcel Energy Inc.'s annual meeting
in Denver on Thursday at the Denver Center for the
Performing Arts.  There they approved a board of directors
and soundly defeated a resolution calling for Xcel to boost
its use of renewable resources that "do not have undue
adverse environmental, socioeconomic and human rights
impacts upon Pimicikamak Cree Nation and other indigenous
peoples."   The proposal received 7.9 percent of the vote in
an unofficial count, company officials said.   The issue
first arose last year at the annual meeting and Xcel CEO
Wayne Brunetti said he has spent the last year investigating
concerns among tribes in Manitoba, Canada, over
hydro-electric dams and the Manitoba Hydro company.  The
company supplies about 4 percent of Xcel's energy.

Brunetti said all proposals from Xcel to work with all
parties involved, including tribes who support the dams, and
to work with the rules, regulations and contracts in
existence were rejected by representatives and consultants
working for one group in the area.  "We will not agree to
any solution that limits the future development of other
First Nations," Brunetti said during the meeting.

Brunetti also said the company expects to spend the next
year working to integrate NRG Energy Inc., an  independent
power producer 74 percent owned by Xcel, back into the
company. Xcel is trying to buy the outstanding shares of
NRG.  NRG has been a strong contributor to Xcel's earnings,
yet has been hammered by the fallout from Enron as other
energy companies drew withering reviews from Wall Street for
the size of their debt.  Brunetti said he expects NRG to
report a loss of 5 cents to 10 cents in the first quarter
next week, compared with earnings of 8 percent in the first
quarter of 2001.

Xcel has also dropped its 2002 earnings expectation by 10
cents, to between $2.30 and $2.40.
Xcel will continue to focus NRG on the domestic market,
Brunetti said. And Xcel expects to see additional savings
from the 2000 merger of New Century Energies and Northern
States Power.

In 2001 the company achieved $55 million in savings due to
the merger and Brunetti said he expects to get another $65
million in savings this year.  The savings would come from
standardizing information systems across the 12-state
company, buying like materials for the large company and
eliminating redundancies in staff -- although most of the
layoffs have already taken place, he said.  "I think we're
fundamentally done with that going forward," Brunetti said.

Brunetti also criticized Congressional proposals that would
order utilities to get 10 percent of their energy using
renewable resources. The proposal focuses on energy
produced, Brunetti said, not what a company is capable of
producing. Since wind power is reliant on the wind, which
sometimes doesn't blow, the actual capacity to produce wind
power would have to be four or five times higher to produce
the target number, Brunetti said.  "I think it's horrible.
The price tag of it is horrendous," he said.

__________________________

Power buy OK for Xcel Energy
Manitoba Hydro ban is rejected
By Steve Raabe
Denver Post Business Writer

Friday, April 19, 2002 -
Xcel Energy shareholders rejected a proposal Thursday that
sought to stop the utility's power purchases from a
controversial hydroelectric project in Manitoba, Canada.

A preliminary vote count showed the proposal being favored
by owners of 7.9 percent of Xcel's stock. A similar proposal
last year gained 9.4 percent support from shareholders.

The resolution asked Xcel to refrain from any new power
contracts with Manitoba Hydro, a utility company that
critics say has caused economic and social disruption to the
Pimicikamak Cree Nation.

Despite the defeat, supporters of the resolution said it
helped attract attention to the plight of the tribe.

Proponent Michael Passoff of the As You Sow Foundation said
the 16.1 million shares voted in favor of the resolution
represent $419 million in stock value.

"My point is that we're getting mainstream institutional
support," he said. "This is not just a small group of
shareholders."

Representatives of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation spoke in
favor of the resolution, noting that hydroelectric dams in
Manitoba have disturbed traditional hunting, fishing and
burial grounds.

"We know our elders are dying from loneliness for the land
they once knew," said Chief John Miswagon.

However, officials from other Cree tribes in Manitoba said
the hydroelectric projects have brought economic benefits.

Elvis Thomas, a councilor of the Nisichawayasihk Cree, said
that in a recent vote, 66 percent of his tribe supported a
plan to acquire a one-third equity stake in a new
hydroelectric project developed by Manitoba Hydro.

Xcel chief executive officer Wayne Brunetti said he doesn't
understand why controversy has erupted in the past year.

"We've been buying power from Manitoba Hydro for more than
20 years," he said. "Why, suddenly, is it unethical for us
to do so?"

Brunetti said he is frustrated that the issue is deflecting
attention from Xcel's strong financial performance and its
successful ventures in wind power.


This information distributed by:

Will Braun
Canadian Campaign Coordinator
Pimicikamak Cree Nation
Box 10, Cross Lake MB  R0B 0J0
ph (204) 676-2218 ext.224
fx (204) 676-3155
cell (204) 479-2131
willbrau@mts.net

 


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