This week, the House Energy and Climate committee heard a number of bills, continuing the focus on solar and renewable energy programs. Two bills, HF1787 and HF1788, from Representative Patty Acomb (DFL-Minnetonka) would appropriate money to the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State to establish goals and benchmarks for a rapid transition to renewable sources of energy in campus buildings by 2030. Both the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State provided examples of current renewable projects and additional projects that could be funded under the legislation. On Thursday, the House Energy and Climate committee focused on HF1866, authored by Representative Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis), which included beneficial electrification goals reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. All of the bills were laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
In the Senate, the Energy and Utilities Policy and Finance committee heard SF1915 from newly-elected Senator Jason Rarick’s (R-Pine City) Conservation Improvement Program Modernization Act of 2019. There was a lot of testimony from both sides of the issue. The committee decided to find some compromise and amended the bill to delete Article 2 which included modifications to the Energy Savings Policy Goal in the attempt to add Demand Side Management provisions, as well as change the savings goal percentages to .75% for the consumer-owned utility’s gross annual retail energy sales from energy conservation improvements and .75% for additional energy efficiency programs. The bill passed and was sent to the Senate Finance Committee.
The committee also heard two bills SF1372 from Senator Andrew Mathews (R-Milaca) which would allow large hydro-power sources to be included in the renewable energy standard. Currently, only small hydro-power sources under 100 megawatts are able to be counted in the RES. The other bill, SF633 (Osmek) would remove the prohibition in state law to construct a new nuclear power plant. Senator Osmek (R-Mound) argued that this bill would not authorize or require a nuclear plant to be built in Minnesota, but it would make it possible for one to go through an approval process with the Public Utilities Commission. Both of the bills were laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.