Matt Doll, Minnesota Environmental Partnership
Minnesotans have learned not to expect much these days from a closely divided State Legislature. Bipartisanship has all but disappeared on some issues, and a crucial election year can make compromise especially challenging. And with pressing issues including the fallout of Operation Metro Surge, recent high-profile fraud cases, and rising healthcare challenges, this Legislature had their hands full, leaving less space for progress on the environment.
Fortunately, Minnesota’s environmental community showed up consistently and effectively this session and achieved some key successes, both advancing good policy and investments and preventing steps backward.
Clear Successes:
Guardrails for Sustainable Aviation Fuel – Both Minnesota’s public and private sectors have invested heavily in developing a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry in the state, including implementing a SAF tax credit. SAF aims to reduce the carbon footprint of airplane fuel using various alternatives to petroleum. If leveraged correctly, it can help reduce climate pollution from transportation while improving water quality at the same time by incentivizing continuous living cover crops, which produce oil, grow during the winter, and help prevent water pollution and soil erosion. But if done poorly, the rush to SAF could subsidize more corn ethanol (and its heavy pollution cost) and habitat destruction.
MEP and allies like Friends of the Mississippi River advocated for guardrails on the SAF tax credit to make sure SAF’s impact is positive on the whole rather than negative; these included:
- Linking the tax credit amount to the climate-friendliness of the SAF source.
- Requiring the crops used to make SAF to be grown in the US and on existing farmland so that habitats like the Amazon rainforest and Minnesota’s remaining prairies are not destroyed.
- Prohibiting carbon emissions captured during the fuelmaking process to be used to extract more fossil fuels (enhanced oil recovery).
- Allowing the SAF tax credit to be used for green hydrogen (hydrogen recovered using clean energy) when that technology is ready.
We are pleased that these guardrails were passed as part of the extension of the SAF tax credit.
Outdoor Heritage Fund appropriations
While there was some concern that spending from the sales-tax funded Outdoor Heritage Fund would fall victim to the late-session sprint, the Legislature successfully passed $200 million in conservation projects before the Sunday night deadline. These dollars will support clean water and habitat, climate resilience, and jobs across the state.
New regulations on gas extraction
The Legislature successfully passed new guardrails for extraction of gas resources in Minnesota, largely in response to the discovery two years ago of a world-class helium deposit in Northern Minnesota. The new regulations also address natural gas, however, and notably ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Minnesota. Minnesota is not known to have significant natural gas resources, but this is still a sound decision to safeguard our environment.
Qualified Successes:
Capital Investment
The Legislature managed to pass a Capital Investment or “Bonding” bill with the necessary bipartisan support in both changes. The $1.2 billion bill will fund infrastructure projects across the state, with an unprecedented more than $400 million for water infrastructure. Those dollars will help secure clean drinking water and responsible management of wastewater for numerous Minnesota communities.
However, only $15 million in bonding was designated for lead drinking water service line replacement. That’s a disappointingly low figure. The state still has around 87,000 lead service lines – each of which threatens the long-term health of residents – and will require hundreds of millions of dollars more to replace them. The state’s law aiming for 100% replacement by the early 2030s won’t succeed without additional support.
Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund Appropriations
We’re pleased that, as with the Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Legislature passed appropriations from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which is generated by lottery proceeds. It included funding for the recently created Community Grants program, which aims to enable small and disadvantaged groups to access funding for conservation and environmental improvement projects more easily.
However, we’re concerned about new requirements governing the Community Grants program that passed along with the funding in an effort to prevent fraud. The expense of using a fiscal agent or purchasing a surety bond as the new requirements mandate could put the program out of reach of some smaller groups.
We’re also disappointed that funding for our member group, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, to continue a program to bring schoolchildren to the Boundary Waters was stripped out on a narrow vote. Opponents of funding for the Friends argued in bad faith that the money enabled them to advocate against sulfide mining in Northern Minnesota. This is not the case: past ENRTF dollars have only applied to that specific program and make up a small portion of the organization’s budget. Environmental groups seeking funding to enhance Minnesotans’ experience of the outdoors should not be subject to this kind of politicking.
Bad Policy Blocked:
Late in the session, MEP and allied groups were alerted that the deal struck between Legislative leadership included a delay in a key provision of Amara’s Law, Minnesota’s nation-leading protections against toxic PFAS “forever chemicals.” This carve-out would have pushed back the requirement for industry to report the use of PFAS in consumer goods by a year.
A year is a significant amount of time when it comes to PFAS. The class of chemicals contributes to cancers, birth defects, pre-eclampsia, liver injury, and other conditions. The level considered “safe” in drinking water is extremely low, and communities across Minnesota are already contaminated. Forever chemicals do not break down in the environment or in the human body, so the only solution is to phase them out as quickly as possible.
Fortunately, environmentalists quickly expressed our firm opposition to this deal, and it was removed from the final omnibus package passed by the Legislature. We will remain vigilant against any other attempts by industry to water down Amara’s Law.
Missed Opportunities:
Despite the pressing environmental needs of this moment – and active efforts at the federal level to roll back bedrock protections for our water, air, and climate – the Legislature did not take action on several key issues:
- The Wild Rice Act, which would establish new protections for Minnesota’s wild rice waters.
- The Battery Extended Producer Responsibility bill, which would set up a producer-funded program to extend free battery recycling sites to all of Minnesota, easing the burden that local governments face due to battery fires and managing toxins in batteries. This program would benefit local taxpayers, groundwater, our climate, and industries that rely on rare metals like lithium.
- Protections for the Boundary Waters and other northern watersheds from sulfide mining. With the recent overturning of the federal ban on sulfide mining in the Superior National Forest near the BWCA, state protections are more vital than ever. Unfortunately, the closely-divided Legislature and controversy surrounding sulfide mining means that progress is not yet within reach.
Looking Ahead
The 2027 Minnesota Legislative Session will feature a new Legislature and a new Governor, completely shifting the dynamic at the Capitol. MEP and allied groups are now beginning to lay the groundwork for passing new environmental priorities into law.
We have a lot to do. Minnesota is facing ever harsher tornadoes, wildfires, and other impacts of climate change, and residents around the state grappling with unsafe drinking water, we can’t afford for the Legislature to keep kicking the can down the road. We need to build on the victories of the 2023 session to reach net zero emissions and draw down water pollution, and we need to do it as quickly as possible.