All posts by dflecorg

DFLEC Chair Megan Bond’s Remarks at the PIF Rally, 14 October, 2024

Environmental Issues, Sulfide Mining

I’m Megan Bond, and I’m chair of the DFL Environmental Caucus.

I also happen to live in a small town that is a gateway community to Voyageurs National Park, which borders the Boundary Waters to the west. Right on Rainy Lake, in the middle of the Rainy River Watershed. One of many small towns in the Arrowhead Region that serve as gateway communities to some of our greatest and wildest places, with thousands of lakes — big and small — and state and national forests and state and national parks — big and small.

The people of these small towns — with our teachers and construction workers and grocers and lawyers and Forest Rangers and biologists — are what keep the area functional so everyone can enjoy one of the most amazing places in America. Summer after summer. Even winter after winter.

I’m a newcomer to the north woods. The first time I went up there was in 2013. When I got home back here in the cities, I was sad. I’d fallen in love at first sight. Then a year later I found love that allowed me to make this magical place my home.

We need to protect these wild, precious places from the threat of irreversible devastating pollution. And we need to protect the people in the small towns that support these amazing wild places by electing clean water candidates! Like our environmental champions we heard from earlier this morning, who are among our strongest DFL leaders in the legislature.

And while she had to go her meeting with her Senator — and he’s one that really needs our lobbying — I also want to thank our Caucus’s Chair Emeritus, Veda Kanitz, who is here today with 10 of her science students who are here to exercise their voices at one of the other most important places in our state, as they get ready to vote for their first time in the coming years.

If you’re not already, Register to vote. And on February 27, attend your precinct caucuses. Introduce the Prove It First resolution. Run for delegate to your Senate District or Organizing Unit convention. Endorse clean water candidates! Then Run for delegate to your Congressional District and the State convention. Endorse clean water candidates. Get to Come to Duluth May 31-June 2 to pass the Prove It First Resolution into the DFL Action Agenda. Then Door knock and phone call and donate and fundraise for the Environmental Caucus and Friends of the Boundary Waters-endorsed candidates. Our environmental champions.

Help and vote to make sure we keep these wild places wild. To make sure our small towns and rural communities in the Northwoods are vibrant and protected.

To learn more about the Prove It First Resolution you can introduce at your precinct caucuses on February 27, go to the Environmental Caucus website at dflenvironment.org

Photo: Megan Bond (right) and Libby Bent at the Prove It First Rally. Photo by Veda Kanitz.

Is My Well Water Safe?

Environmental Issues, Environmental Poisons, Forums and Events

On October 29th, we held a forum on well water quality, pursuant to developing resolutions for the upcoming caucus-convention cycle.

We were joined by Rochester Geologist Jeff Broberg and MCEA’s Carly Griffith to learn about nitrate and arsenic contaminants in Minnesota’s well water. This forum was cohosted by the DFL Environmental Caucus and the DFL Rural Caucus.

See also: Southeast Minnesota struggles for common ground on nitrate pollution as health worries rise

For the latest on Nitrates in Minnesota’s drinking water, see this: EPA says Minnesota needs to take more action on nitrates in drinking water

Salaam Witherspoon for Duluth City Council

Uncategorized

The DFL Environmental Caucuis Endorsement Committee unanimously recommends Salaam Witherspoon for Duluth’s Fourth District City Council seat.

Salaam was born and raised in Duluth as the youngest of eleven children, and is now a mother herself. She believes that too often people who are impacted by a decision are not at the table when the decision is being made. For example, housing projects are created before asking what the people who need housing want. Public health is a big concern of hers, and she has been a community organizer for CHUM. She is willing to listen to the views of constituents on all sides of issues but in the end, will do what she believes is best. She stated that sulfide mining is not safe, not matter how it’s proposed, and she plans to listen to volunteer voices as she crafts legislation.

Visit Salaam’s site here, and please lend her a hand!

Jenna Yeakle for Duluth City Council

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The DFL Environmental Caucus Endorsement Committee unanimously recommended, and the Board of Directors unanimously supports, Jenna Yeakle for Duluth City Council.

Jenna grew up in Duluth and is a graduate of Duluth East High School. Jenna is an environmental champion for Northeast Minnesota and will be a leader on the Duluth City Council on environmental issues. She believes that government at its best is taking care of each other, and through her non-profit work and as the Duluth organizer for the Sierra Club, Jenna has demonstrated that she knows how to bring people together to organize for change. Jenna has a master’s in public health and understands how to use that knowledge to apply it to her work in the community. She believes that government needs to work through a transparent process that is driven by community. She said, “As counselors, we should be aware of the power we have. When cities move, governors move, when governors move, congress moves.”

Jenna is motivated to allocate the Covid-19 recovery monies and other local governments resources to support thriving neighborhoods, transportation that prioritizes people, and bold climate action. Jenna believes that it is the responsibility of the Mayor and City Council of Duluth to take a position against upstream sulfide mining proposals that would include requesting the DNR expand the scope of a contested case hearing to include the design of the dam and financial assurance, and communicating with the Walz administration about the need to safeguard fresh water while investing in projects that put people first. providing quality union jobs for Duluthians and Northeastern Minnesotans is not a separate issue from environmental protections.

Visit Jenna’s site here, and please lend her a hand!

Wendy Durrwachter for Duluth’s First District

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The DFL Environmental Caucus Endorsement committee unanimously recommended, and the board unanimously supports, Wendy Durrwachter for the
Duluth First District City Council seat.

Wendy’s passion is music, and she was able to pursue her passion while a single mother of two, working two to three jobs to afford rent. She came to Duluth for the outdoors, but fell in love with the community, and she is running to ensure the next generation will have opportunities to thrive in Duluth. One of her main reasons for running for office is that she sees the biggest threat facing a healthy future is upstream copper-sulfide mining projects, and she believes “it is 100% the responsibility of the Mayor and City Council to take a strong stance against these upstream projects.”

Wendy believes that every city project is an opportunity to increase canopy with biodiverse trees and plants, expand transportation options, reduce carbon emissions, use recycled materials, a strong focus on sewage and storm water infrastructure. She has volunteered for Duluth for Clean Water, attended the PolyMet shareholders meeting in Toronto, Take Action MN to improve conditions for working families, and has served on the Arrowhead Arts Council
Grants Panel, which fosters our community of artists. Her strong support for Duluth’s environmental resources and work through a number of organizations shows Wendy to be a leader for the community.

Visit Wendy’s site here, and please lend her a hand!

Should we be hunting wolves?

Environmental Issues

Science tells us that domestic dogs are a subspecies (or a bunch of subspecies) of the wolf.  So, maybe we should be asking, “should we be hunting and trapping (some) dogs?”

Most environmentalists are not happy about the wolf hunt, even if some might argue that like any wild population, there may be certain draconian management practices under extremes conditions.  Howling For Wolves, a wolf-friendly non profit, has information about legislation in the pipeline pertaining to this issue:

Hello Wolf Advocates,

Bills to remove wolf hunting and trapping from state law were officially introduced in both the Minnesota State Senate and House! Senate File 2062 is chief authored by Senator Mary Kunesh and co-authored by Senators Hawj, Abeler, Marty, and Dibble. The (identical) House companion bill, House File 2144, is chief authored by Representative Peter Fischer and co-authored by Representatives Becker-Finn, Jordan, and Hornstein. 

Now: “Tag you’re it!” It is your turn (and ours) to push this bill into law! Throughout the legislative session we need a steady drumbeat of communications by constituents to their state lawmakers.

The easiest way to contact legislators is to send an email through our website’s “Take Action.” Wolves need emails sent by constituents to their state representatives and senators along with the Governor asking for their vote on this bill. We have an email already written. It helps to put in a few unique words to let them know you are not a robot. 

Feel free to steal then rephrase further some of these suggestions for opening lines:

  • In the words of Barry Lopez, essayist and nature writer, “The gaze of the wolf reaches into our soul.”
  • The wolf was here first. The native people, arrived next, and they respect the wolf. The typical Minnesota hunter is a latecomer, but seem to feel the need to destroy much of what came before.
  • I’ve lived in Minnesota for years.  A wolf never did me harm.  But when I speak to friends and relatives from the other states, I get to brag that we are the only state of the 48 that still has an original wolf population.  How cool is that?
  • Wolves display remarkable fidelity. They mate for lives, care greatly for their offspring, and have a complex social system that involves long term alliances.
  • A healthy wolf population may be the best defense against deer-born diseases affecting humans.
  • It is hard to believe that one would ever see a wolf in the wild, then want to kill it.  That is like visiting the Grand Canyon and having as a first thought, “wouldn’t it be nice to fill in this big pothole.”

 

 

 

Help advance bills on clean water, fighting petroleum pollution, and fixing up feedlots

Uncategorized

Please contact your state Representative and Senator to encourage them to support these three bills now working their way past the committee process:

  • HF4377 invests 47 million dollars in clean water projects to help protect Minnesota’s lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater. This bill will address lead in water service lines, and other contaminants. More information on this initiatives here.
  • HF4190 will improve the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Petroleum Remediation Program, which oversees the cleanup of leaks and spills from petroleum tanks.
  • HF3947 ensures that feedlots are cleaned up after they are closed. People who apply for a feedlot permit would need to demonstrate that they have the resources to remove all manure and manure-contaminated soil from the feedlot and to plant crops that will help the land recover. This will help make sure these sites are cleaned up and taxpayers aren’t stuck paying the bill.

Click here to find out who represents you in the Minnesota Legislature!

Your action needed to help regenerative crops restore Minnesota farmland

Agriculture and Climate Change

Right now, Minnesota has a golden opportunity to lead an agricultural revolution that will serve both people and planet. Just as all our waters flow outward across North America, our adoption of new, environmentally beneficial crops and farming techniques can flow outward into the rest of the world. We can all enjoy the benefits of healthy food, clean water, wildlife habitat, and climate-friendly land use that strengthens our resilience as long as we act now.

At the University of Minnesota, scientists at the Forever Green Initiative are developing a new generation of crops that deliver these environmental benefits and profits for farmers; crops that can be used for food, clean fuel, and sustainable bioplastics. At the same time, farmers, companies, and institutions are working to pave the way for markets and supply chains for these crops. With support from the state at this critical time, they can move forward to bring these crops into the mainstream and turn the tide for Minnesota farmland.

Will you take a moment to ask your Legislators to invest in these efforts?

At a moment when Minnesota’s budget is in great shape, two bipartisan bills at the Legislature would invest in these efforts to support next generation crops:

  • HF 3625/SF 3711 would fully fund the Forever Green Initiative so that scientists can continue working to ensure these beneficial crops can thrive on our farms.
  • HF 2720/SF 3271 would support businesses planning to bring these crops into the market, ensuring that farmers’ livelihoods will benefit as they begin to grow them.

These bills have strong support, but we need to make sure they make it across the finish line and are signed into law. Minnesota Environmental Partnership has developed a handy dandy action system that allows you to ask your Senator and Representative to support these bills as they negotiate the state’s budget. Making these investments now will set our state’s people, environment, and economy up for success for years to come. Itg is a good idea to customize the message in our action system to share your personal story!

Thanks to DFLEC and MAP‘s Matt Doll for putting this together!

Urgent Request for Action: The not so clean fuel standard

Climate Change, Energy

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.

MN350 has put together an on line action tool you can use to help. Click here to send an urgent message to your elected officials and the appropriate committee heads. Please customize the subject line and the message so that they know you understand the issue. The more personal, the better.

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.

Click through to the easy-peasy on-line action tool, customize the subject line and the message, and make a difference!

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!

Click here and do this thing, thanks!.

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