Minnesota’s 2024 legislative session ends with practical solutions for ambitious climate goals
通过后膨胀, visionary energy and climate policies in 2023, this year Minnesota lawmakers tackled challenging and detailed policies to facilitate efficient and successful implementation of those ambitious goals. 美国各州.S. have been grappling with the difficult work of enabling efficient and timely implementation of clean energy projects, while heeding the needs of their residents and workers and managing environmental impacts. We are proud of the balanced and thoughtful way Minnesota lawmakers approached these complex and critical issues. It was not easy to identify solutions that move Minnesota forward in our clean energy transition without compromising on our state’s longstanding regulatory oversight and community input, but ultimately lawmakers worked together to pass key legislation that paves the way for faster and more effective implementation of vital energy policies, 包括100%清洁能源法案, 生态, and the state goal to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Here are some of the important policies the Minnesota legislature passed this year in the 农业和能源综合.
Policies passed that CEE played a direct role in organizing and promoting:
- Key modifications to 生态 – The changes to 生态 support a more practical regulatory approach to efficient fuel switching, 减轻行政负担, 扩大客户选择, and maximize savings benefits for more Minnesotans. CEE had the honor of working hard on these modifications with bill authors Senator Rarick and Representative Stephenson, whose persistence and bipartisan collaboration mobilized stakeholders. 请阅读我们的博客.
- Benchmarking revisions – The changes clarified definitions, 受法律保护的财产, and the 公用事业公司 impacted to support implementation for Commerce, 业主, 和公用事业.
Kudos to our clean energy partners for spearheading the passage of:
- 住宅 energy codes – The codes were updated to increase efficiency requirements and accelerate the adoption of codes. This provides the Department of Labor and Industry with a clear path to codes adoption. These efforts were led by Fresh Energy and supported by CEE and other clean energy partners.
- Sabathani Community Center funding – Sabathani, a longtime community partner and client of CEE, received funding for a geothermal district system to replace their old, 效率低下的, and expensive boilers (nicknamed Thelma and Louise). This project will help Sabathani meet their substantial energy efficiency and decarbonization goals, 并大幅降低他们的水电费, allowing them to be both environmentally and financially sustainable. Read more about Sabathani’s history and their work with CEE in 这篇博文.
- Geothermal pilots and study – The Ag and Energy conference committee report increased future investments in geothermal district systems in NGIA, along with a study to explore the potential for geothermal in our future energy landscape. This bill was led by Representative Patty Acomb, Chair of the House Climate and Energy Policy Committee, who CEE has been honored to work with on numerous legislative efforts.
- Permitting reform – After the passage of 100% by 2040 in the 2023 session, 公用事业公司, 清洁能源组织, and community organizations recognized that Minnesota needed to streamline the permitting process for clean energy investments in order to reach its goals. So, 从去年夏天开始, stakeholders have been discussing and working on innovative and transformative reforms to the way our renewable energy systems and transmission are permitted. The reforms are expected to reduce the total permitting time by as much as 9–18 months for transmission and large power generation facilities without losing valuable public input and scrutiny. It consolidates the disparate ways to permit and streamlines all the clean energy and transmission permitting into a single framework.
The passage of 生态 and other major clean energy policies in the past few years have set the stage for forward-thinking leaps in Minnesota's energy use and sustainability practices. The theme of this 2024 legislative session was how to make those innovative goals a reality with practical solutions born from the direct input of stakeholders. These measured but essential steps reflect what has made Minnesota a national leader in clean energy.