Dear Neighbors,
Last month, students around the world kicked off climate week with the Youth Climate Strike, demanding action on climate change. Leaders from all over the world gathered at the UN in New York to discuss countries’ climate action plans. Climate change is one of the most significant threats to Minnesota’s crops, wildlife, and lakes.
As the leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives, I hear and agree with those calling for action. Minnesota is a national leader on clean energy, but we can and should do more. For that reason, I asked Rep. Patty Acomb to lead a Climate Action Caucus in the Minnesota House. Over the next several weeks, we will work with youth and other Minnesotans to develop our Climate Action Plan for Minnesota. Then we will work to pass that plan during the 2020 Session. Stay tuned for the launch of our Climate Action website and the opportunity for Minnesotans to sign-on as citizen co-authors on our climate action bills.
We don’t need any more studies or task forces before we get going. The time to act is now.
This week’s update continues our series of taking a deeper dive into the budget bills passed during the 2019 Session.
Energy
Minnesota is a national leader in taking action on climate. We’ve set ambitious goals, and we’ve achieved some of them. We need to accelerate our efforts to reach the goals we have to reduce carbon pollution. Now is the time to build on that success and continue growing our clean energy economy.
Minnesotans stand to benefit from taking action on climate change. One example is by getting clean, low-cost electricity from renewable resources like wind and solar.
We continued our work on clean energy this session. House DFLers passed bills to move Minnesota to 100% Clean Energy by 2050 and a bill called Clean Energy First, which requires utilities to prefer clean energy over polluting energy when possible. We also worked on bills expanding Minnesota’s solar energy capacity; providing rebates for electric vehicles and charging stations to increase the number of electric vehicles on our roads and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels for transportation; transitioning towards electric energy that can be generated with fewer greenhouse gases than other forms of energy; and updating Minnesota’s energy policy to address the current threat of climate change.
These bills did not become law because Senate and House Republicans opposed further advancing Minnesota as a leader in clean renewable energy.
If you’re interested, here’s some details from the Energy bill that was signed into law:
Agency Appropriations
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) received its funding request at $15.5 million for FY20-21, and the Petrofund (Petroleum Tank Release Cleanup Fund) received Governor Walz’s full request at $2.1 million in FY20-21. The Department of Commerce’s Energy Resources division received $9.1 million over the biennium.
Energy Storage Policy and Study
We established the foundation for energy storage policy in Minnesota — before the 2019 legislative session there was almost no policy on energy storage. They include: allowing utilities to recover costs from ratepayers for energy storage pilot projects, requiring energy storage systems be considered in independent resource plans, and an appropriation of $150,000 in FY20 to the Department of Commerce to contract for a cost-benefit analysis report on energy storage systems by the end of the year.
Energy Utility Diversity Report
The Public Utilities Commission will convene a stakeholder group to examine what challenges and opportunities exist in the energy sector to attract a diverse workforce and report back to the Legislature.
Expanding Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Loans
PACE allows residential homes and businesses to use financing to pay for energy improvements to help defray upfront costs. This legislation expands PACE to new commercial construction and updates some of the financing terms.
Here’s the details of provisions the Minnesota House, led by DFLers, fought for but were blocked by Senate Republicans:
100% Clean Energy
Senate Republicans refused to consider Governor and House DFL proposal to set a clean energy standard of 100% by 2050.
Clean Energy First
House DFLers and Governor Walz also proposed a measure called “Clean Energy First,” which would require utilities to give preference to clean energy power generation before adding more polluting fossil fuel power generation.
Community Solar Updates
Since Minnesota authorized community solar in 2013, our state has added hundreds of megawatts of solar capacity in Minnesota — creating hundreds of good-paying jobs and affordable electricity that helps us especially with summer peak demand.
House DFLers proposed modifying the program to allow larger community solar installations — which would allow more significant economies of scale. We also proposed a low-income grant program to increase access to community solar for residents receiving low-income home energy assistance funds.
Renewable Development Account funds
The Renewable Development Account (RDA) was created when the Legislature allowed Xcel Energy to store nuclear waste along the Mississippi River in 1994. The fund is intended to support projects that increase renewable energy development, so that over the long-term there would be less need for polluting fossil fuels and nuclear energy, which has the added complication of generating nuclear waste.
Below are some of the proposals that could have been funded with the RDA but did not become law:
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- Solar for Schools – This proposal would have provided funding for schools to install solar systems to reduce their energy costs.
- Minnesota State and U of M Renewable Energy Transitions – These two proposals would have provided additional funding to help install more renewable technology on campuses.
- Prairie Island Net Zero Emission Project – This funding would have helped convert the Prairie Island Indian Community — which is the community in Minnesota that is most impacted by the storage of nuclear waste — to cleaner energy resources and improve building energy efficiency.
- Demonstration Grant Program for Electric Buses – Grants to the Department of Education would have supported transitioning from diesel to electric school buses.
- Rebates for Electric Vehicles and Grants for Public Charging Stations – Expanding access to charging stations is a big hurdle to increasing the number of electric vehicles. Both of these proposals would have lowered the cost to install an EV charging station in public places like businesses, park and rides, and parks.
- Electric Buses for the Metropolitan Council – To help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Metro Transit, House DFLers tried to provide additional funding for the Metropolitan Council to purchase electric buses instead of diesel buses.
As always, please contact me anytime with your input. I appreciate hearing from you! You can reach me at 651-296-4280 or rep.melissa.hortman@house.mn. You can also keep up with what’s happening at the Capitol by liking my legislative Facebook page. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Melissa Hortman
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