Take Action Today To Save Our Planet!
As the legislative session continues to evolve, we have the following action requests that we hope you can do.
First, here’s a link to check on who your House and Senate representatives are.
We would like you to contact your legislators, and ask them to support the three omnibus bills that have been assembled to include multiple provisions in three main areas. They are:
Climate And Energy (HF 2110)
Transportation (HF 1684, Senate version is: SF 1159)
Environment and Natural Resources (HF 1076)
There are links to the bills and supporting information below. Please contact both your House representative and your Senator and ask them to support the House version of each of these bills!
Here are links to information about these bills. Each House Bill is one we support. The Senate versions will not be the version we want at this time. We’ll want the Senate to adopt the House version. The amount and kind of information about each bill varies, as you’ll see if you click on these links. If you call your House Representative or Senator, you may want to ask them what the status of the House omnibus bill is, as a means of starting a conversation with them about it. If you send an email, please just ask both your Representative and Senator to support the House version of the bill.
This is a video of our recent forum “Be it Resolved: We Declare a Climate Emergency”
… hosted by the DFL Platform COmmittee and the DFL Environmental Caucus, March 27th.
Tell your Representative and Senator that climate change is a big concern for you, and that you these bills, which will also serve to enhance Minnesota’s economy, to be the first thing they do to support a transition away from fossil fuels, not the last thing. Remind them that they have a lot of work to do, and remind them that they are already moving too slowly on this important issue.
Write a Letter to the Editor of your local paper. Tell your neighbors how valuable one or more of these bills may be, and why you support them. HERE are some suggestions on writing a letter to the editor, but even before you look at that, we can tell you the number one trick: Just do it!
“Visit” your legislator. Tell your legislator(s) you want a phone call, or even a zoom call. Try a jitsi or google call if you prefer. Maybe get together with a couple of friends in your district. If you do this, start off by telling them you are a constituent. Give them your story, personalizing the reasons you are supportive of this legislation, or concerned about climate change. Ask them point blank if they plan to vote in favor of the bill, and if not, what their alternative plan for addressing climate change is. Write down what they say and let us know!
Join the DFL Environmental Caucus to strengthen your voice by joining with others!
Here is the form to join. We have no membership fee, though donations are accepted.
Watch our Climate Emergency Forum
Why These Bills Are Vitally Important
Below are summaries of some of the key bills that have now been folded into the above mentioned omnibus bills.
HF 164 and SF 227, the Energy Conservation and Optimization Act of 2021
This would change the current energy efficiency laws, recognizing that efficiency is one of the best ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes both conservation measures, and optimizing when energy is used or produced. The bill stipulates a long and complicated set of changes (read the bill here) and is one of the more complicated pieces of legislation we have seen. That is a feature, not a bug, because optimizing energy use involves tweaking many part of the energy system.
The bill is supported by energy producers as well as contractors who install or upgrade energy systems in homes and businesses. The Electrical Association notes: “The bill would immediately open up lines of business and workforce stability for electrical contractors while building a more energy efficient, cleaner, greener Minnesota,” and that this bill “has the potential to retain workforce opportunities all over the state by adding the next generation of technologies to the highly successful energy efficiency programs offered through the Conservation Improvement Program. In addition to providing residents and businesses more opportunities to save money on their energy bills, the ECO Act will send a clear market signal, which will retain or save skilled jobs, create economic opportunities, and allow residents and businesses to save money through these cost-effective programs, when needed most. ”
This set of bills is garnering bipartisan support, but we need to encourage support to get it over the finish line.
HF 278 and SF 643, the 100% Clean Energy Bill
While the previous bill addresses how we use energy, this one addresses how we make energy. This bill commits our state to 100% carbon-free energy by 2040, with meaningful benchmarks along the way. This would apply to all Minnesota utilities. However, note that energy reliability is not sacrificed and this will not be expensive. As the technology is built out, reliability will be built in. There are “off-ramps” that will be used in case a utility can prove they can not reliably, and at reasonable cost, meet a specific goal.
The Sierra Club notes: “The bill also provides the start of a framework for a just transition by directing the Public Utilities Commission to implement the standards in a way that creates family-supporting jobs, protects workers, provides workers with assistance to transition, factors environmental justice considerations in energy decisions, lowers air emissions, and keeps electricity affordable for low-income Minnesotans. It encourages utilities to locate new clean energy facilities in communities where fossil-fuel plants are closing, and requires prevailing wage for a number of projects.”
HF 1428 and SF 1630, the Next Gen Climate Act
This bill also addresses greenhouse gas emissions, but from the broader range of sources, including transportation (which is currently the main course of greenhouse gases in the US). The bill calls for a 45% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and 100% carbon-free by 2050.
We Require A Just and Equitable Transition
All Minnesotans deserve to live in an environment that won’t hurt them or their families.
But, pollution harms different people, living in different areas, to different degrees. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has identified a number of ways in which pollution in our state, including energy production, has harmed poorer communities, or communities of color or indigenous people. Many other organizations feel that the burden of our energy system falls even more heavily on these communities than suggested by MPCA research. In any event, we can no longer just talk about changing how we make electricity or what kinds of vehicles we drive in the absence of consideration of environmental justice.
You have probably heard about the Green New Deal. Support for this initiative is part of the Minnesota DFL Action Agenda:
Support the federal Green New Deal goals of ending greenhouse gas emissions; establishing millions of high wage jobs and ensuring economic security for all; investing in sustainable and affordable housing and transportation for all; securing clean air and water, climate and community resiliency, healthy food, access to nature, and a sustainable environment for all; and promoting justice and equity with a ten-year mobilization effort.
There is both federal and state level legislation (across the country) that falls under this label, intended to guide this energy transition so its benefits are equitably distributed, and any harm that a technological change may produce is not borne by under-served communities, as is often the case. The current EPA embraces environmental justice as a key policy. The Next Gen Climate Act and the 100% bill take principles embodied in the Green New Deal into consideration.
Yes, we have a climate crisis, and yes, these bills will help address it
The following facts are widely understood and accepted:
1) There is a climate crisis. Climate change is an existential threat.
2) We must decarbonize. The use of fossil fuels is the most important single cause of climate change (though there are other human-induced factors as well).
3) We must electrify. In order to limit climate change, we need to stop almost all burning of fuels, and electrify almost everything, from our gas stoves and water heaters, to our vehicles, to our building heating, to our industrial processes.
The bills cited above are part of a broader initiative by the Minnesota House Climate Change Action Caucus (a bipartisan House caucus), which has produced this document on their Climate Action Plan.
This can be done in a way that promotes environmental justice, enhances our economy, does not force draconian measures, using existing technologies!
According to a major recent study by the University of California Berkeley, “Lower prices for solar, wind, and storage make conversion to renewables affordable and practical throughout the U.S., study authors say.” Award winning climate science communicator Peter Sinclair of Yale Climate Connections has produced a video summarizing the Berkely Study:
Read more about that here, and download the Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley report “Plummeting Solar, Wind, and Batter Costs can Accelerate our Clean Electricity Future” here. From the study:
Global carbon emissions must be halved by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. Most existing studies, however, examine 2050 as the year that deep decarbonization of electric power systems can be achieved—a timeline that would also hinder decarbonization of the buildings, industrial, and transportation sectors.
In light of recent trends, these studies present overly conservative estimates of decarbonization potential. Plummeting costs for wind and solar energy have dramatically changed the prospects for rapid, cost-effective expansion of renewable energy. At the same time, battery energy storage has become a viable option for costeffectively integrating high levels of wind and solar generation into electricity grids.
This report uses the latest renewable energy and battery cost data to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of achieving 90% clean (carbon-free) electricity in the United States by 2035. Two central cases are simulated using state-of-the-art capacityexpansion and production-cost models: The No New Policy case assumes continuation of current state and federal policies; and the 90% Clean case requires that a 90% clean electricity share is reached by 2035.
A brief summary of the report is here. An FAQ on the Next Gen bill and how it relates to decarbonization is here.
Renewable energy such as wind and solar solve a great deal of our problems, but they are seen as less reliable, or more variable, than other sources of energy, which causes concern. The first thing you need to know is that all sources of electricity have variation. The recent deadly blackouts in Texas were mainly caused by natural gas generation systems failing. Nuclear power plants need to be powered down during certain maintenance or safety procedures. Coal plants will produce exactly zero electricity after these highly toxic sources of pollution are finally taken off line.
The next thing you need to know is that variation in demand (which can be huge) and variation in supply ( which is typically fairly predictable) was the very first technological problem that had to be solved once our ancestors figured out how to make electricity for things like lighting or running machines. The science and engineering of electric power production is the science and engineering of managing variation. Those engineers are very good at this. People who don’t want to see us make this transition try to scare us with fear of variation in supply, but that is naive and dishonest.
The sun does shine every day, and the wind will blow as long as the earth spins and the sun provides the atmosphere with kinetic energy. One way to reduce variability and increase reliability is to use a mix of sun and wind. Another is to overproduce electricity, and use the excess, when it is available, for special purposes. Another is to use a large grid, such as the MISO grid (of which Minnesota is a part) to transfer electricity from sunny or windy regions to other areas. This report by Mn Solar Pathways shows how some of this will work for us. Not only does reliability increase with a larger interconnected grid, but energy costs go down.
The Solar Pathways Report shows that solar and wind can provide 70% of Minnesota’s electrical load within a couple of decades at a cost comparable to existing non-clean sources, with much less reliance on storage as has been assumed.
The Big Political Process: You and the government
Over a year ago, the DFL Environmental Caucus supported resolutions to add to the party platform a declaration of a climate emergency, a call to institute a carbon dividend and divest from fossil fuel industry, a call to reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector, and to encourage electric vehicle use. These and other related resolutions were submitted by citizens like you attending party caucus meetings across the state, and ultimately influenced the party platform. Now, we have legislators acting on these initiatives, and it is time for us to support them, and to encourage those who may not be on board to do the right thing.
The Minnesota pollution control agency recently produced a report on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, and a slide deck for use in testifying to the Minnesota House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy Committee. A recent committee hearing on this topic can be seen here:
This report and this and other hearings show us that while we have made progress, we have also stalled in some areas. It is time to up our game. We should have been advancing our attack on climate change, and our positive, economically smart, and environmentally just changes in how we produce and use electricity two decades ago, but the political will has not been there, and other political road blocks have thrown us off course.
Senator Paul Wellstone said, “The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better.” Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.” The writer Aaron Sorkin said, through his beloved West Wing POTUS, “Decisions are made by those who show up.” Your job is to go to the top of this page, identify your representatives, contact them, and help them do the right thing. If you think they are on board already, contact them and show your support, that helps them. If you think they will never support these bills, think again, because these are exactly the bills that are most likely to get bipartisan support. Your job is to push your representatives just a little bit farther to secure their vote.