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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative Paul Anderson

225 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4317

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Posted: 2009-03-25 00:00:00
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GUEST COLUMN

Update of bills in Legislature

The pace of activity here at the Capitol is picking up. First deadline for bills to be heard in a policy committee was Friday, March 27. Extra meetings are being scheduled, and notices have been sent out saying that some committee meeting may go longer than scheduled, or until all items on the agenda have been heard.

I did have legislation drawn up that would allow a local election to be postponed for one week. Work on exact wording of the bill was finished on March 24 and it was submitted that same day. It looks as though the bill won’t be scheduled to be heard in committee before the first deadline, so it will probably be laid over until next year. In talking with the administrator of the Government Operations Committee, I was told there were several election bills held over until next year because the next election won’t take place until 2010.

The reason behind my bill had to do with a special election held in Pope County March 10, the day our area experienced a blizzard. Voter turnout was low, but even more significant; several election judges went off the road after leaving the poll that evening and spent the night in a church. Currently, there is nothing in statute that gives the county auditor or other local election clerk any authority to either extend or postpone an election.

Another bill making its way through committee is HF1250, legislation that would require the development of electric vehicle infrastructure in Minnesota. Covered under this bill are electrical circuitry and facilities to exchange battery packs.

If this bill becomes law, it would establish new building codes relating to residential construction. All new residences and those with at least a 75-percent remodel would have to install equipment to handle vehicle battery charging. When fully functional, these would include 40-amp, 240-volt hook-ups that are able to accommodate every make and model of electric vehicle.

Parking ramps, surface parking lots, parking lanes, and parking meters would have to provide recharging infrastructure for each parking space. While the actual connections will not be immediately required, electrical panels able to handle a 40-amp breaker for each space would be.

While all this may sound good and would make Minnesota a leader in electric car readiness, many questions remain unanswered about its practicality. First of all, the expense to provide these hook-ups would be huge. Next, who would pay for the electricity when you or I pulled into the parking lot of our favorite store and “filled ’er up” with electricity? And, do we have enough capacity in our nation’s electrical system if a substantial number of electric plug-in cars were added?

And, lastly, if this is done with an eye toward reducing auto emissions (which is good), where do we think electricity comes from? At present, most of it comes from generation with coal, which has its own pollution issues. Wind power is the obvious answer, but it would have to be ramped up significantly to meet the demand of plug-in electrics. That would mean additional transmission lines to get the power where it’s needed, and nobody is real excited about building more power lines.

Thanks to all those who sent their surveys back in. We’ve received large numbers of them in the mail these past few days.

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