Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Last week, Governor Walz ordered the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to write new agency rules requiring auto manufacturers that sell vehicles in Minnesota to deliver more electric and hybrid vehicles for Minnesotans to purchase. The governor’s action follows California’s effort to set stricter emission standards for cars than the federal government.
Minnesota would be the first state in the Midwest to adopt these emission standards.
First and foremost, it is disappointing that Governor Walz is sidestepping the legislature on this issue and instead relying on bureaucratic rule-making to achieve his policy goals. By using rulemaking, Governor Walz is trying to by-pass the voice of the people of Minnesota to enact his agenda. These new standards would increase car costs and effectively eliminate many of the cars and trucks Minnesotans own and continue to rely on every day.
Governor Walz says that the most important part of these new regulations is to slow that rate of climate change. However, the fact is that the rules will likely have little to no impact on temperatures in Minnesota.
In an article from the Center for the American Experiment, author Isaac Orr notes that Governor Walz says that his new proposed regulations could reduce CO2 emissions from cars and trucks by 2 million tons per year by 2030. What the governor doesn’t’ mention is that 2 million tons of CO2 represents only about 1.3 percent of total state emissions, as of 2016, according to the MPCA’s website.
In the grand scheme of things, these burdensome regulations would have little to no demonstrable impact on carbon emissions.
Further, since auto manufacturers already struggle to profit from electric vehicles, forcing them to offer more of those types of cars to Minnesotan consumers will result in the price of gas-powered vehicles to rise as manufacturers attempt to cover losses.
This could make automobiles more expensive for Minnesotans.
As you can see, Governor Walz along with his metro DFL legislators who support the Green New Deal continue to advance regulations and laws to drive up your energy costs especially for rural Minnesota that do next-to-nothing for the environment. This is another bad idea from the radical metro left for Minnesota.
Staying in Touch
It is an honor to serve you and your family in St. Paul.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me to share your thoughts, questions, and concerns. I can be reached by phone at 651-296-4229 or via email at rep.glenn.gruenhagen@house.mn
Have a great weekend,
Glenn