Like just about every state but energy rich North Dakota, Minnesota has a huge budget deficit. $1,200,000,000 huge- //minnesotabudgetbites.org/2009/12/0... . Minnesota uses a whole lotta energy, hey, it gets cold up here and it's a long drive between towns. And then there's that white stuff we gotta plow off the roads in the winter, MNDOT only has a few hundred trucks with snowplows, and county and local governments have hundreds more. 5 miles per gallon is about what you get plowing snow, sometimes worse. So it's no wonder we use a lot of energy in Minnesota, check out this DOE report- http:///...
As you can see in the report, Minnesota has no oil, natural gas, coal, or nuclear fuel. We Minnesotans literally burn through over $10,000,000,000 of petroleum a year, well over $1,000,000,000 worth of natural gas, and around $600,000,000 worth of coal. Yep, we Minnesotans are spending over ten billion dollars a year on energy. A lot of energy is used to power school and transit busses, street and highway maintainence trucks, police cars, fire trucks, etc.. Then there's streetlights to light, schools, universities, city halls, jails, and hospitals to heat and light. But strangely enough, I can't find a line for "energy" in any government body's budget.
But after some digging I found that Minneapolis, St.Paul, Minnesota DOT, and the State Patrol each burn over a million gallons of motor vehicle fuel a year. And the states largest transit operator, Metro Transit, burns over six million gallons a year, and Minnesota's 11,000 school busses consume about the same. So we taxpayers are buying about $40,000,000 worth of gas and diesel a year, and we haven't even turned on the streetlights yet. Minneapolis spends over $5,000,000 a year on electricity, and 40% of that is just to light the streetlights. That figure doesn't include the city's schools, parks, or public housing- the Park Board spends $5,000,000 alone on energy every year.
Adding up just the numbers I've been able to find for a few cities and agencies we've accounted for around $50,000,000 a year in Minnesota taxpayer dollars spent on energy, and we haven't even gotten into heating, one of the biggest energy expenses in frigid Minnesota. I think it's safe to bet that at least 10% of the over $10,000,000,000 Minnesotans spend on energy every year is spent by government... That's a billion dollars and darn near the size of Minnesota's budget deficit!
So how much of that budget deficit could we trim with improved energy efficency? Fortunately our Democratic Farmer Labor State Auditor and energy expert Rebecca Otto is on the case. A forward thinking leader, Rebecca considers it part of her mission to audit the energy use as well as traditional finances of Minnesota's local governments. Her office produced this incredible report showing how local governments, using best practices, can save taxpayer dollars through improvements in energy efficency. You can view and download the report here: http://www.auditor.state.mn.us/...
A few highlights:
Watertown-Mayer School District upgraded the energy efficency of an existing high school and built a new elementary school to LEED standards. Total savings- $290,000 a year.
Minneapolis will be saving $160,000 a year on heating and cooling it's city hall thanks to energy upgrades.
Blue Earth County's new energy efficent Justice Center will save $117,000 a year in energy costs.
Minneapolis Public Housing is using stimulus funds for energy upgrades that will save $3,700,000 a year.
So in just 2 schools, one city hall, a jail, and 40 or so public housing buildings Minnesota local governments are already saving over four million dollars a year. Minnesota has 2000 schools, 4000 city and town halls, hundreds of public housing buildings, 87 county courthouses, hundreds of college and university buildings, and a huge state capitol complex. Apply the savings we're seeing in these not even 50 energy efficent buildings to our over 6000 public buildings and we're looking at a few hundred million dollars in savings. And we haven't upgraded even one streetlight yet or replaced a conventional street/highway maintainece truck with a hybrid that will use 30% less fuel! That means just the handful of agencies I previously mentioned could be saving over 10 million dollars a year in fuel... Multiply that times Minnesota's 87 counties and thousands of local governments each with their own fleets of cars, trucks, and busses and we've put another big dent in that budget deficit.
But reducing energy use is just the start, Minnesota needs to spend its billions of energy dollars in our own economy. About 85% of the electricity Minnesota uses is produced with fuel imported from outside Minnesota. Around 90% of the motor vehicle fuel produced in Minnesota is imported, mostly from outside of our country. But there is hope and a path to sustainability for Minnesota's governments and their budgets- despite only having about 10% of the market, biofuels are a 2 billion dollar a year industry in Minnesota. A billion of those dollars go to farmers, and much of the other billion is spent on wages that are spent right on rural Minnesota's main streets. Meanwhile, University of Minnesota-Morris blazes the trail to the future, producing over half their heat, cooling, and electricity from renewables, FFI: http://renewables.morris.umn.edu/
So with barely 10% of our energy from renewables, Minnesotans are already keeping a couple billion dollars a year in Minnesota. And unlike the billions of dollars we export for oil, the Minnesotans earning those couple billions of dollars a year are paying Minnesota taxes on those dollars. Even at Minnesota's lowest income tax rate of a bit over 5% those couple billion dollars spent on Minnesota made renewable energy are returning over a hundred million dollars a year in taxes. Imagine what happens to the deficit when Minnesota makes, and pays taxes on, at least half of our energy needs...
We just might have North Dakota's "problem", a budget surplus. So how do we get there from here? Well, we are electing a new governor this year. And of all the candidates, only one has a plan to give Minnesota energy (and financial) independence and prosperity. Here's a page from his website: http://www.entenza.com/... Matt Entenza will guide us from deficits to energy independence and prosperity, and I heartily endorse him for governor!