EDITORIAL: Environment Clean energy bill reasonable, necessary
The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
Sun, February 5, 2023
Feb. 5—The clean energy bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature with the support of Gov. Tim Walz has us imagining what a carbon free energy Minnesota will be like in 2040. That's a positive thought that doesn't come easily in today's world.
While many of us may not be around to see it, our children and grandchildren will, and finally, we can say we're doing something for their future instead of leaving them a planet on fire.
The legislation, whose chief Senate author was Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, stands as one of the most consequential efforts ever to preserve and protect Minnesota's pristine air, lakes and woods.
But equally important, it has widespread support among those most responsible for bringing carbon free energy about — consumers, businesses and utilities. It's also reasonable for those businesses who will bear the burden of meeting the standards, investing in infrastructure and taking risks with new technology.
They're an important player in this necessary and noble effort and deserve credit. The legislation doesn't mandate how utility companies get to their goals, and, as Frentz said, those decisions are best left to the boardrooms.
The legislation calls for energy to be carbon-free a decade earlier than the biggest utilities in Minnesota had planned. Utilities would have to be 80% carbon free by 2030, 90% carbon free and 55% renewable by 2035 and 100% carbon free by 2040.
There are exceptions. Utilities can petition the Public Utilities Commission to get a waiver for meeting their goals if costs are unreasonably high to ratepayers or the energy is not reliable. And because rural cooperatives have a starting point behind bigger utilities, they only have to reach 60% carbon free by 2030. They still have to meet the 2040 carbon free deadline.
The legislation also offers options for utilities that can't meet the standards. They can buy carbon credits from others that reduce carbon beyond their standards so in the end overall carbon is reduced. It's a market-driven system in that sense.
And there's good evidence the goals can be achieved. Minnesota's greenhouse gases declined 23% from 2005 to 2020, according to a recent report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. That's on pace to reduce greenhouse gases by 30% by 2025, the goal the Legislature set in 2007.
Climate change is evident in Minnesota. Lakes have lost two weeks of ice cover in the last 50 years, while extreme weather has become more frequent, alternating between floods and drought.
The new green energy industries will bring hundreds of jobs to Minnesota and lower energy costs that utilities say have come down about $1 billion from 2017 to 2021 from wind energy alone.
While Republicans opposed the plan that passed by a party-line one vote in the Senate, we should remember the first clean energy and air legislation was passed on a bipartisan vote in 2007 when GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty was in office.
Reducing greenhouse gases and other significant costs of climate change will serve every Minnesotan and make sure we leave this beautiful state for our children to enjoy as much as we did.
Minnesota Democrats’ trifecta moving quickly to advance agenda
Sun, February 5, 2023 at 4:13 AM MST·6 min read
Now in full control of state government, Minnesota Democrats are moving quickly to enact a sometimes controversial agenda long stymied by Republicans under divided government.
“The time for gridlock is over. The time to respond to Minnesotans is real,” Gov. Tim Walz said Jan. 31 after signing a bill guaranteeing the right to an abortion and other reproductive care.
There’s a list of other bills Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members also hope to act quickly on, including cannabis legalization, licenses for undocumented immigrants, voting rights for felons, gun laws and paid leave.
“Minnesotans wanted us to act,” said Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, after the abortion bill became law. “They voted us into the Senate majority, in part, because we told them we would preserve rights and freedoms, not take them away.”
GOP lawmakers have bemoaned their Democratic colleagues expediency, saying important bills with broad impacts are being rushed through, often to quash opposition.
“We are a deliberative body, and the majority should welcome discussion and debate on bills,” Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, said following a recent hearing about cannabis legalization when several of his proposed amendments were voted down without much consideration.
“Instead, they have stifled discussion to move as fast as they can,” Koznick said. “Many of these bills are extremely consequential to the future of Minnesota and they deserve our full attention.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman rejected the idea that legislation was moving too quickly. She noted that constituents often complain that the Legislature waits until the last minute to finish its work.
So far, the Legislature has only sent a handful of bills to Walz and several of them passed with bipartisan backing. Many other DFL priorities are moving through committees and are expected to come before the full House and Senate in the coming weeks.
“That’s such a low bar that we have for the Minnesota Legislature that four bills in January is way too fast,” Hortman said. “I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. People should be pleased the Legislature is productive and sprinkling the work throughout the entire session, not just saving it up until the end.”
The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
Sun, February 5, 2023
Feb. 5—The clean energy bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature with the support of Gov. Tim Walz has us imagining what a carbon free energy Minnesota will be like in 2040. That's a positive thought that doesn't come easily in today's world.
While many of us may not be around to see it, our children and grandchildren will, and finally, we can say we're doing something for their future instead of leaving them a planet on fire.
The legislation, whose chief Senate author was Sen. Nick Frentz, DFL-North Mankato, stands as one of the most consequential efforts ever to preserve and protect Minnesota's pristine air, lakes and woods.
But equally important, it has widespread support among those most responsible for bringing carbon free energy about — consumers, businesses and utilities. It's also reasonable for those businesses who will bear the burden of meeting the standards, investing in infrastructure and taking risks with new technology.
They're an important player in this necessary and noble effort and deserve credit. The legislation doesn't mandate how utility companies get to their goals, and, as Frentz said, those decisions are best left to the boardrooms.
The legislation calls for energy to be carbon-free a decade earlier than the biggest utilities in Minnesota had planned. Utilities would have to be 80% carbon free by 2030, 90% carbon free and 55% renewable by 2035 and 100% carbon free by 2040.
There are exceptions. Utilities can petition the Public Utilities Commission to get a waiver for meeting their goals if costs are unreasonably high to ratepayers or the energy is not reliable. And because rural cooperatives have a starting point behind bigger utilities, they only have to reach 60% carbon free by 2030. They still have to meet the 2040 carbon free deadline.
The legislation also offers options for utilities that can't meet the standards. They can buy carbon credits from others that reduce carbon beyond their standards so in the end overall carbon is reduced. It's a market-driven system in that sense.
And there's good evidence the goals can be achieved. Minnesota's greenhouse gases declined 23% from 2005 to 2020, according to a recent report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. That's on pace to reduce greenhouse gases by 30% by 2025, the goal the Legislature set in 2007.
Climate change is evident in Minnesota. Lakes have lost two weeks of ice cover in the last 50 years, while extreme weather has become more frequent, alternating between floods and drought.
The new green energy industries will bring hundreds of jobs to Minnesota and lower energy costs that utilities say have come down about $1 billion from 2017 to 2021 from wind energy alone.
While Republicans opposed the plan that passed by a party-line one vote in the Senate, we should remember the first clean energy and air legislation was passed on a bipartisan vote in 2007 when GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty was in office.
Reducing greenhouse gases and other significant costs of climate change will serve every Minnesotan and make sure we leave this beautiful state for our children to enjoy as much as we did.
Minnesota Democrats’ trifecta moving quickly to advance agenda
Sun, February 5, 2023 at 4:13 AM MST·6 min read
Now in full control of state government, Minnesota Democrats are moving quickly to enact a sometimes controversial agenda long stymied by Republicans under divided government.
“The time for gridlock is over. The time to respond to Minnesotans is real,” Gov. Tim Walz said Jan. 31 after signing a bill guaranteeing the right to an abortion and other reproductive care.
There’s a list of other bills Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members also hope to act quickly on, including cannabis legalization, licenses for undocumented immigrants, voting rights for felons, gun laws and paid leave.
“Minnesotans wanted us to act,” said Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, after the abortion bill became law. “They voted us into the Senate majority, in part, because we told them we would preserve rights and freedoms, not take them away.”
GOP lawmakers have bemoaned their Democratic colleagues expediency, saying important bills with broad impacts are being rushed through, often to quash opposition.
“We are a deliberative body, and the majority should welcome discussion and debate on bills,” Rep. Jon Koznick, R-Lakeville, said following a recent hearing about cannabis legalization when several of his proposed amendments were voted down without much consideration.
“Instead, they have stifled discussion to move as fast as they can,” Koznick said. “Many of these bills are extremely consequential to the future of Minnesota and they deserve our full attention.”
House Speaker Melissa Hortman rejected the idea that legislation was moving too quickly. She noted that constituents often complain that the Legislature waits until the last minute to finish its work.
So far, the Legislature has only sent a handful of bills to Walz and several of them passed with bipartisan backing. Many other DFL priorities are moving through committees and are expected to come before the full House and Senate in the coming weeks.
“That’s such a low bar that we have for the Minnesota Legislature that four bills in January is way too fast,” Hortman said. “I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. People should be pleased the Legislature is productive and sprinkling the work throughout the entire session, not just saving it up until the end.”
Eyes on both sides
Political observers agree the new DFL trifecta of both legislative chambers and the governor’s office are moving more quickly than usual.
“They’re moving at an extraordinary pace,” said David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, who noted that Democrats haven’t had total control of state government in a decade. “There’s an incredible amount of pent up demand from several wings of the party.”
Political strategist Amy Koch agrees. The former GOP Senate leader also sees positives and negatives in the pace.
“I think it is smart strategically. They’re fulfilling promises they made on the campaign trail,” Koch said. “But how can the public weigh in on these bills? The committee process isn’t supposed to just be a box you check. There’s no legislator out there drafting a bill that’s perfect right out of the gate.”
Koch and Schultz say they also worry the state’s politics has become so divided that newer lawmakers may see it as a new normal. Rather than collaboration, amendments often have become a tool, either to slow things down or just blow them up.
“We have basically turned politics into a winner-take-all system,” Schultz said. That leads to a decline in cooperation with both parties working together to solve tough problems.
“People are beholden to their base on both sides,” Koch said. “There’s extremes on both sides.”
Essentially, don’t be fooled; if Republicans were in this position, they’d likely act the same way.
“They were salivating at the prospect of a red wave,” Schultz said. “A little of this is sour grapes. It’s legitimate, but also sour grapes.”
Here’s a roundup of some of the more controversial changes that appear to be on the fast track in the House or Senate:
Abortion
Enshrining the right to an abortion and other reproductive care was one of the first priorities DFLers tackled. There are at least three other abortion-related bills working their way through both chambers with votes planned in the coming weeks.
They include measures to eliminate some abortion restrictions already on the books and protections for people who travel to Minnesota from other states to have the procedure.
Democrats say abortion rights drove voters to the polls in November and helped them win majorities in both legislative chambers and re-elect the governor.
Felon voting
A bill to restore voting rights to felons who are no longer incarcerated, but are still on probation or parole, passed the House on Thursday. It is expected to be debated in the Senate in the coming weeks and has the support of Walz and Secretary of State Steve Simon.
If it becomes law, about 55,000 felons would have their right to vote restored. Republicans criticized the proposal and noted it was the first public-safety-oriented bill to be approved by the House.
Immigrant driver’s licenses
The House has already approved legislation to allow residents to obtain driver’s licenses regardless of their immigration status. The Senate is expected to debate the bill in the coming weeks.
Walz has been a supporter of the change since early in his political career, calling it a matter of dignity. Supporters also say it will improve traffic safety.
Opponents are worried that giving driver’s licenses to noncitizens will encourage voter fraud.
Carbon-free electricity
Walz is expected to sign legislation that will require the state’s electricity utilities to derive their energy from carbon-free sources by 2040. The measure has cleared both chambers of the Legislature with Democrats calling it essential to decreasing Minnesota’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Republicans were unsuccessful in their attempts to modify the bill. They say current technology doesn’t support the goal, which will drive up prices and lead to shortages.
Cannabis
Legislation legalizing adult-use cannabis has cleared several committees in the House and Senate. DFLers have said this is the year to legalize the drug after years of working on it.
Opponents worry the bill does not have enough safeguards to protect residents and won’t allow local leaders to dictate how and where it is sold.
Guns
Democrats have vowed to tighten Minnesota’s gun laws with eyes on stronger background checks, age limits and making it easier to take weapons from people deemed unsafe. Proponents say those are common-sense changes while opponents argue toughening those rules won’t make people safer and will punish lawful gun owners.
Paid leave
Two proposals to provide time off to workers are also moving quickly.
One would create a new system for paid leave for illness or to care for a loved one, funded by a 0.7 percent payroll tax. Employers and workers could split the cost of funding up to 12 weeks of paid time off.
The second measure would mandate workers could earn up to 48 hours in paid sick time annually.
Backers of the bills say workers shouldn’t have to chose between staying home when they’re sick and paying for essentials like food and rent. Opponents say the cost of the state-required benefits is too high.
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