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State Representative Joe Mullery
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4262
For more information contact: Matt Swenson 651-297-8406
COMMUNITY NOTICE
NEW COMMITMENT ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
This session the legislature and governor adopted the strongest renewable energy standards in the country. Xcel Energy (which generates half the electricity in Minnesota) is required to generate at least 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and one-quarter of the electricity must be generataed by wind. Other utilities have to generate one-quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. These standards are no longer just good faith and voluntary provisions. Xcel also has to provide renewable sources according to a timetable beginning with a requirement of 15 percent by 2010.
There were also grants for development of wind energy, hydrogen initiatives, geothermal heat pump systems for heating and cooling, biomass gasification facilities, and terrestrial and geologic carbon sequestration.
For those not familiar with the terms, “terrestrial carbon sequestration" means long-term storage of carbon soil in vegetation to prevent its collection in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide; “geologic carbon sequestration” means injecting carbon dioxide into underground geologic formations where it can be stored for long periods of time to prevent its escape into the atmosphere.
Our House DFL Caucus wanted to enact strong global warming mitigation provisions by imposing a moratorium on new energy plants, power purchase agreements, and importations from new large energy facilities, which create global warming. However, the governor did not go along with many of our provisions and the Senate was even worse on the moratorium provisions, so we had to capitulate and adopt weaker standards. In the end, no moratorium will go into effect on anything “unless the state fails to enact a comprehensive and enforceable state law or rule pertaining to greenhouse gases that directly limits and substantially reduces, over time, statewide power sector carbon dioxide emissions”. The problem with the final language we were forced to accept is that it is so vague that there could be only tiny incremental steps towards combating global warming and those tiny steps would prevent us from putting in any type of moratorium. Moreover, certain projects were exempt from any possible moratorium in the future, namely a new coal plant on the Iron Range tied to increasing steel production; an iron nugget production facility; and the purchase of power from new plants in the Dakotas and Nebraska. There was also an extremely broad provision for exemptions from the moratorium that included any possible new large energy facility outside Minnesota that the Public Utilities Commission determines “will help ensure the long-time reliability of electric power and/or avoid an increase in energy rates”. This exemption, as you can see, can be interpreted extremely broadly in the future.
There are also new laws relating to low-income utility customers and replacing the current cold-weather rule and requiring utilities to file plans to serve low-income customers and recover their costs through increased rates.
The Energy Bill also contained provisions requiring a study of the economic and environmental costs of constructing a 600-megawatt nuclear power plant in Minnesota and comparing it with the costs related to a new coal plant with "carbon capture and sequestration" technology.
News Items
- Reminder: Primary - August 14; Some Voting Locations May Have Changed - (Posted: 2012-07-08 00:00:00)
- Passing of Dr. John Williams - (Posted: 2012-07-09 00:00:00)
- Rep. Mullery: 2012 Legislative Report - (Posted: 2012-07-10 00:00:00)
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