This is an urgent request for action that requires your immediate attention, before Tuesday March 29th. See the link below to take action.
Everyone in Minnesota deserves a stable climate, clean air, and safe water. Unfortunately, the misnamed “Clean Fuel Standard” (also called the Low Carbon Fuel Standard) is positioned to jeopardize all of these rights.
The Minnesota Clean Fuels Standard Legislation (HF2083 & SF2027) is framed as a climate solution, but it’s actually a corporate handout. Currently, the MN Clean Fuel Standard Legislation is supported by corporate agricultural and oil interests because it channels money into furthering pipeline infrastructure and unsustainable fuel sources such as ethanol. Clean Fuel Standards work well in other states because they have a goal of 100% carbon intensity reduction by 2050 and the revenue from the standards go towards electrification. Right now, HF2083 will get us to 20% emission reduction by 2035, with no other goals and no promise of where the revenue will go. Because of this, the standard will subsidize ethanol without getting us to electrification. This is worse than an ineffective policy – it’s a damaging policy. A bill that doesn’t get us to 100% carbon intensity reduction by 2050 will set Minnesota back.
The other important issue around subsidized ethanol is that its production creates CO2, a pipeline fuel not only energy intensive to transport, but also hazardous. Ethanol plant producers plan to distribute liquid CO2 to different states via a government-subsidized, yet privately-owned pipeline. Not only is a pipeline a waste of resources to build while only putting a small drop in the bucket in our emissions reductions – already out-of-state investors are outbidding local farmers in southern Minnesota for agricultural land and destabilizing local economies. In the future, a CO2 pipeline could actually be used for enhanced oil recovery (a process similar to fracking), making yet another negative impact on climate, water, and air.
We need to tell the legislators at the Minnesota House of Representatives on the Climate and Energy Finance and Policy to vote down any bill that doesn’t commit us to 100% carbon neutral fuels by 2050. The legislation on HF2083 will be heard on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, so contact legislators today!
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Our state has made progress in reducing emissions and promoting clean transportation options by adopting Clean Cars Minnesota to provide greater options for consumers to find and purchase low- and zero-emission vehicles. We’ve also invested in mass transit to reduce emissions in the Twin Cities. Passing a Clean Fuels Standard that doesn’t get us to zero emission fuel by 2050 will not benefit Minnesotans – it will only benefit large corporations and out-of-state investors while sending us backwards on our climate goals.
Madi Johnson,
MN350, in cooperation with the DFL Environmental Caucus