(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Minnesota Moves Towards A Clean Energy Future & North Dakota Threatens To Sue Them Over It [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-08 Not So Friendly Neighbors At The Moment What happens when one state tries to embrace the future, and another resents them mightily for it? This scenario is playing out right now in the woods and prairies of the Upper Midwest. At one time North Dakota was led by overall sensible people. While their Democrats (D-NPL in local parlance) like Quentin Burdick, Kent Conrad, and George Sinner were perhaps more to the right of their national D counterparts, they still were reasonable and generally progressive prairie populists. Even their Republicans were generally reasonable. No longer. Unlike many of their Upper Midwest counterparts, Minnesota has taken steps to ensure it keeps moving forward in the twentieth century. For example — their solons recently passed, and Gov Walz signed into law, legislation that would move the state towards 100% carbon-free energy by 2040. There is a lot packed into the legislation, which included working with the state major utilities to ensure they were on board with the moves. The bill actually has more than one power standard for electric utilities. One is a renewable energy standard, which expands current law that already required power companies to hit 25% renewables by 2025. Now, utilities would need to reach 55% renewables by 2035. But the most consequential change is an entirely new carbon-free standard, which ramps up for electric utilities in the bill from 80% in 2030 to 90% in 2035, and then finally to 100% in 2040. There is a difference in the proposed law in what’s considered to be carbon free and what is defined as renewable. Anything that doesn’t emit carbon is considered to be carbon free. That includes nuclear, hydroelectric power and more, along with wind and solar. The new law has gotten the attention of their neighbors to the Northwest. Led by Gov Doug Burgum (R — At One Time A Reasonable Guy), they are treating Minnesota’s actions as some sort of existential threat to their very existence. They are threatening to sue. The North Dakota Industrial Commission voiced unanimous support Monday to move toward filing a lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s carbon-free electricity legislation, with North Dakota’s governor arguing the neighboring state is overreaching. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign a bill that requires Minnesota utilities to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. The bill would prevent North Dakota utilities from exporting power generated from coal and gas to Minnesota. North Dakota exports about 50% of its electricity supply, with the vast majority used in Minnesota, according to the North Dakota Lignite Energy Council. [emphasis added] A copy of their letter to Gov Walz, Attorney General Ellison, and the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Thom Peterson, which lays out their case based on interstate commerce, can be found here. North Dakota has clung to the use of coal and other fossil fuels as an energy production source like a bad barnacle. Efforts to move beyond it have been met with not just staunch opposition but at times outright hostility. This is the state where some folks could not even stand to see a visage of Greta Thunberg. Will they actually sue? I would not put it past them. Would it succeed in court? Considering the makeup of the federal judiciary at the moment, that would not shock me. Smarter legal minds on this page could perhaps verify that a case like this would go directly to the SCOTUS? As states move to take bolder action in the clean energy future arena while the federal government dithers, it is possible that more legal threatening like this will arise. As a nation we will not be well-served by any of it. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/8/2151957/-Minnesota-Moves-Towards-A-Clean-Energy-Future-North-Dakota-Threatens-To-Sue-Them-Over-It Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/