Greetings, blogging brothers and sisters. This is my first time officially blogging under my new username. You may know me as JK Minnesota, under which I blogged about both of my campaigns for the Minnesota House, and even posted once or twice from the House Floor.
Since I worked so hard to earn my seat, I thought it appropriate to share some of our legislative successes under this user name. And, boy do I have good news.
I just completed my first legislative session. After 8 years of a Republican majority in the Minnesota House, the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party gained 19 seats in 2006 without losing a single seat. Our margin in the House is now 85-49 margin; in the Senate it's 44-23.
And boy did that majority pay major dividends for Minnesota's Energy Future! If you'd like to read the end result first, scroll down to "THE NEXT GENERATION ENERGY ACT;" I think you'll enjoy the back story, too, though.
For years, DFLers toiled unsuccessfully to raise the profile of our proposed Renewable Electricity Standard, calling for at least 20% of our electricity to come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2020. Rep. Aaron Peterson, DFL-Appleton couldn't even get a hearing for his bill during the last four sessions. In the Senate, Sen. Ellen Anderson, DFL-St. Paul was able to pass her bill through the Senate, but the House Republican majority refused to give it even a prayer of hope. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a conservative "no-new-tax" Republican, for years supported only a Renewable Energy Objective - with little to no teeth.
Yet, with the DFL landslide last fall, the balance of power shifted significantly. I believe I am typical of the DFLers who won office last year. I knocked on more than 23,000 doors over the past 2.5 years, and made thousands of personal phone calls. I campaigned openly and assertively on my environmental and conservation credentials. Many of us brought to the Capitol a lot of passion for the environment - and a desire to act. Not later, not next year, but this year. Today.
And many of us brought real-world experience as well. I cut my political teeth on a powerline fight in the late 1990's. When the local investor-owned utility tried to cut a 230,000-volt powerline across the heart of our community, we fought back. Our citizens group - over 1600 strong - became, as far as we know, the first citizens' group in the history of federal regulation, to win a powerline fight because we proved the line was not needed. Part of our argument centered on the major divestment in conservation programs - aka "demand-side management."
Inspired by that experience, I studied architecture, especially energy-efficient design. I was at the Univ. of New Mexico when Santa Fe architect Ed Mazria was first honing his article "Turning Down the Global Thermostat." [Catch the pdf here.]
It was obvious early on that Energy was going to play a big role in the DFL Legislature in 2007. After years of stonewalling, the floodgates were opened, and we were ready to rock and roll. And everyone knew it. Even Gov. Pawlenty. With national ambitions, Pawlenty attempted to beat us to the punch, announcing an aggressive package (mirroring in concept, if not in detail, what we were considering in the House) at the Midwest Ag Energy Network Summit in December.
One of the first bills passed by the House and the Senate was indeed the Peterson-Anderson Renewable Energy Standard. It's perhaps the biggest success of the 2007 Session, calling for our largest utility to provide 30% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and all other utilites to achieve 25% by 2025, with specific benchmarks along the way. The penalty for non-compliance? It's brilliant. Each utility has to then file an aggressive plan for reaching compliance. I believe that the Attorney General has the powers to enforce the standard as well.
It was no easy task, for sure. But what was clear, as a first-term House member, was that this would indeed be the Year of Energy in Minnesota.
We then set to work for the rest of the session on remaining articles of the Next Generation Energy Act. Rep. Peterson continued his work on wind energy by writing the Community Based Energy Development, or C-BED, portion of the bill.
Rep. Maria Ruud, DFL-Minnetonka took the main portion of the heat, as the author of the Global Warming Mitigation Act - eventually included in the omnibus Next Generation Energy Act, Senat e File 145. Her bill began session with a "non-backsliding" provision, essentially calling for a moratorium on any old-school (non-carbon-capture or carbon-sequestering) coal plant until the Legislature adopts an aggressive carbon emissions reduction Action Plan. One can imagine that the old-school utility executives, and the business community, did not especially love the idea of a moratorium. Ultimately, the end result was ingenious....
And I set to write the Energy Efficiency article of the bill. We held stakeholder meeting after stakeholder meeting. I worked with the Governor's staff, even meeting on Sundays in the aftermath of major blizzards, hammering out the details. I have to admit, it was nice to get some recognition for the effort, in a Star Tribune editorial in late April. After some tough work, we did get the Conservation and Efficiency bill through the Senate - 64-1 !
In the House, we decided to use the Energy Efficiency bill - my bill - as a means to the desired end - a comprehensive package that addressed climate change, community wind ownership, and conservation. Imagine my surprise, being a freshman legislator and playing such a key role in a major area.
Initially, we had hoped to pass the full "Next Gen." bill off the House floor, complete with the moratorium, knowing that we'd have to compromise with the more cautious Senate Energy Committee. But our locally-owned municipal power companies put a lot of pressure on rural members; fear of change is a powerful motivator, that's for certain. Ultimately, the House Committee Chair, Rep. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson decided to play one of our compromise cards, and offer a middle-ground amendment that allows the two currently-proposed coal and "coal-gasification" plants to try to gain regulatory approval, without any legislative comment. This compromise allowed us to pass the bill to conference, 92-37.
I thought that the Conference Committee was going to be extremely difficult and tense, knowing that the House proposed an aggressive moratorium while the Senate proposed only an initial study of the problem. Many of us in the House believed it was indeed the year for action, not more studies.
My Energy Efficiency portion of the bill was easy to deal with. Senate Author Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis and I took just 30 minutes to rectify the technical differences between the two bills.
The CBED portion of the bill required some back-and-forth negotiations, but ultimately I believe Rep. Peterson and Sen. Prettner Solon arrived on a good consensus position. Forgive me for not relating the gorey details of the back-and-forth right now.
It was the Global Warming Mitigation Act that was the most tense, of course. Yet, a stroke of genius struck the Chairs, with just 36 hours before our Constitutionally-required adjournment. The final bill then passed the Senate 59-5, and passed the House 125-9 (a vote total that frankly surprised me - I guess few people want to be on the wrong side of comprehensive energy solutions!).
So, here's the bill:
The NEXT GENERATION ENERGY ACT OF 2007:
Energy Efficiency and Conservation:
- Sets a statewide goal of 1.5% energy savings and energy reduction in the electicity and gas markets;
- Requires utilities to achieve more than 2/3 of the statewide goal through direct energy efficiency and conservation projects;
- Dedicates over $4 Million annually to technical assistance, statewide energy savings data, and ongoing applied Research and Development for energy efficiency;
- Establishes a statewide goal of 100 LEED or Green Globes-certified energy efficient commercial buildings, and 1,000 Energy Star labelled buildings by the end of 2010; and
- Allows for a "decoupling" pilot project with natural gas utilities, to remove a significant financial disincentive for conservation.
Community-Based Energy Development:
- Expands and strengthens state commitment to development of locally-owned renewable energy projects; and
- With the previous Energy Finance bill, increases funding for community energy outreach through Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTS) throughout Minnesota.
Global Warming Mitigation:
- Requires the Legislature to adopt a Climate Change Action Plan by August 1, 2009;
- Institutes a moratorium on any power plan that does not offset or sequester its carbon emissions if the Action Plan is not adopted in time;
- Establishes statewide goals for reducing carbon emissions across the whole economy below 2005 levels by 15% by 2015, 30% by 2025, and 80% by 2050; and
- Establishes the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group as the entity to develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas emission reduction plan to meet those goals.
2007 was indeed the Year of Energy in Minnesota!