With the Minnesota House of Representatives still unable–as of January 29th–to reach a compromise that would allow legislative work to commence, and with an expected tie in party breakdown once it meets, the Clean Energy Team will be trying to build support for long-term legislative goals. One of the team’s key goals is the Clean Heat bill. The use of fossil gas to heat buildings is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, and a threat to the health of residents who cook and heat with gas. Although it may not be possible to pass a bill limiting gas in new construction in the 2025 session, we want to educate legislators and voters on this issue.
The team is also following rulemaking under the Frontline Community Protection Act, aka the Cumulative Impacts law, enacted in 2023 with Sierra Club support. This law is intended to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities from the effects of too many polluting facilities in a neighborhood. We want to ensure that the rules will force the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to be proactive in reviewing permit applications to prevent any additional sources of pollution, and to require more stringent permit standards where pollution is already at unacceptable levels. In the past citizens have had to force the MPCA to act, as it has often been more interested in protecting corporate interests than enforcing the law. This is known as polluter capture, which is well documented at People Not Polluters.
Another concern of the team is the threat from carbon pipelines, which transport carbon dioxide from ethanol plants to underground storage sites. While on its face this may seem like a good thing, the Clean Energy Team believes that the risks outweigh the benefits. First, the pipelines are a safety risk. Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and is under tremendous pressure as it moves through the pipeline. A rupture would send an oxygen-suppressing gas into the atmosphere. Second, carbon pipelines support the ethylene industry, which consumes half of the nation’s corn supply and prevents farmland from being put to a more beneficial agricultural use. Finally, while the pipeline companies say that the carbon dioxide will be permanently stored underground, at least some of it will likely be used for enhanced oil recovery in North Dakota’s fracking fields, further contributing to carbon pollution.