Next Tuesday, February 19, the MPCA in Duluth will host a community dialog with Alex Jackson, the City of Duluth’s Energy Coordinator, who is responsible for tracking energy consumption in Duluth facilities. The City of Duluth owns, operates and maintains approximately 150 buildings, 450 miles of roadway and more than 100 parks. Energy required by this infrastructure includes up to 4,000 electrical accounts, 400 natural gas accounts, at least 400 water accounts, and five steam/hot water accounts. Alex will talk about his efforts to identify, advocate for and implement ways to reduce consumption throughout city departments.
What: Discussion of the City of Duluth’s aspirational yet pragmatic efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Where: MPCA (Duluth), Large Conference Room, 525 South Lake Avenue – 4th floor, Duluth, 55802.
When: February 19, 2019; 11:30 a.m. to noon – networking. Feel free to bring a lunch. Noon to 1:00 p.m. - presentation and conversation
Here’s an update from the Capitol.
Disability parking permits
Last week the House Transportation Committee approved HF 211, a bill of which I’m chief author, to allow physical therapists to certify applications for disability parking permits. Currently, only physicians, licensed physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses and chiropractors are allowed to do this.
Physical therapists work more closely with their patients, and certainly more frequently, than physicians, and have a better understanding of their capabilities to determine the need for a disability permit. Allowing physical therapists to sign-off on these applications would help a patient get the permit quicker and without making an otherwise unnecessary appointment with a physician resulting in a cost savings. For patients in rural Minnesota, where primary care providers or hospitals can require lengthy travel, this can result in an even more onerous burden. The bill now awaits action on the House Floor.
Ensuring money invested for health care is used for health care
In 2017, the state’s longtime ban on for-profit health insurers operating in Minnesota was successfully removed by Republicans, who were at that time in charge of the Legislature. Money health maintenance organizations (HMOs) receive either through publicly-funded programs or from private premiums should go toward providing care, and not into corporate bankrolls.
Shortly after this, Medica transferred $90 million in reserves from its nonprofit HMO to a holding company, allowing the money to potentially wind up within its for-profit arm. Last week in the Health and Human Services Finance Division, we had some difficult questions for Medica, and their lack of clarity about this shift highlighted the Legislature’s need to act.
Minnesotans deserve quality health care they can afford, and unfortunately high administrative costs already drive up what folks pay out of their pockets. Adding a profit motive to the mix will only make this worse. To address this, I’ve introduced HF572, which will restore language into law to prevent transfers of this funding to for-profit arms, ensuring this money will be used for health care and not for shareholder profit.
Addressing Climate Change
We’ve reached our state’s statutory goal of 25 percent of all energy from utilities to come from renewable sources by 2025, a full seven years early. Meanwhile, data continues to show the urgent need to address climate change, with a lack of action meaning irreversible damage to our planet.
In Minnesota, we enjoy our natural resources including our lakes, streams, rivers, prairies, and forests. Here in Duluth we especially have treasured resources which we all want to see protected for future generations. That’s why I’m excited to see such bold measures coming forth as HF 700, a bill calling for a 100 percent renewable energy standard by 2050. This is a certainly ambitious goal, but we can’t afford the cost of doing nothing as the harm of climate change takes hold.
Please continue to reach out with your input, feedback, and ideas for how we can strengthen our state. It’s an honor to represent you.
Sincerely,
Jen Schultz
State Representative |
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