On Friday, December 7, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership held our annual meeting for member organizations, gathering together many of the groups around Minnesota that make up our coalition. We discussed the challenges we faced, but also the exciting efforts by hardworking people around the state to build a better future for ourselves and the generations… Read more »
By Matt Doll – Minnesota Environmental Partnership On Tuesday, November 27, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a major piece of legislation, the U.S. Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2017, which was passed by the Senate earlier this month. The bill, now awaiting a Presidential signature, contains legislation called the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act (VIDA),… Read more »
By Matt Doll – Minnesota Environmental Partnership Earlier this week, grassroots rural organization CURE unveiled a new Rural Electric Cooperative Report Card that aims to bring better governance and transparency to Minnesota’s rural electric cooperatives. CURE (an MEP member organization based in Montevideo) evaluated all 44 of the state’s electric co-ops to determine whether they had made several basic categories… Read more »
By Matt Doll – Minnesota Environmental Partnership From September 21st to November 6th, more than two and a half million Minnesotans cast a ballot for the 2018 general election, setting a record for total votes cast and reaching a turnout rate among eligible voters not seen in our state since 2002. Minnesotans elected forty new House… Read more »
photo credit: USDA By Matt Doll – Minnesota Environmental Partnership On Wednesday, October 31, residents of Winona County won a key victory as a District Court Judge in Ramsey County ruled to allow an extended public comment period on the proposed massive expansion of the Daley Farms dairy feedlot. Judge Jennifer Frisch halted the attempt by… Read more »
By Matt Doll – Minnesota Environmental Partnership During this month, two important cases of civil disobedience have been brought before courts in Minnesota with a highly unusual twist. Defendants in Bagley and Duluth have been charged with disruptive action in opposition to oil pipelines, and they’ve been allowed by judges to employ a rarely-used tactic: Minnesota’s… Read more »
By Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership Last Tuesday, October 16, marked the three-week-out mark for the 2018 midterm election, and the last day for Minnesotans to register to vote prior to Election Day, November 6. The week marked another important election milestone: the number of voters requesting early ballots nearly tripled in comparison to the same time… Read more »
By Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership This week’s United Nations report on climate change – estimating that the global community has roughly twelve years to cut emissions in half in order to avoid catastrophic warming – was jarring. The twelve-year deadline may seem a short window for the low-carbon revolution. But consider what has changed… Read more »
Why MEP and our allies chose to take a stand By Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership On Wednesday, the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and eight partnering organizations served the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget (MMB) with a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s raid on the constitutionally-dedicated Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund in order to pay… Read more »
By Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership On Tuesday, a study headed by the University of Michigan reported that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) – which works to improve water quality and habitat health around the region – provides a tremendous payoff for Great Lakes communities. The report found that the GLRI, already known to be an… Read more »