State officials offer preliminary climate change recommendations

The recommendations outlined Friday will be matched by a more detailed report, expected after Legislature opens.

By BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Last update: February 1, 2008 - 9:03 PM

More than 60 recommendations for reducing Minnesota's greenhouse gas emissions were unveiled by state officials Friday, but the details are at least several weeks off.

The package includes re-opening discussions of a new nuclear power plant in Minnesota, establishing a pollution limit and trading program for utilities, industries and other enterprises, and land use and workplace strategies to reduce driving. It's based on nearly 10 months of brainstorming by the Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group.

But the package, assembled by state energy security director Edward Garvey and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Assistant Commissioner David Thornton, does not include several recommendations the panel adopted at its final meeting Jan. 24 -- the proposed adoption of the California Clean Car standards and a proposed reduction of some rural speed limits.

Garvey and Thornton said the preliminary report, issued to meet a deadline, will be matched by the advisory group's final report, which isn't expected until after the Legislature convenes Feb. 12. Their report, Thornton said, emphasizes measures that can be achieved in the relatively short term through legislation, policy changes and other strategies. Some of the group's goals, such as a 75 percent recycling and composting rate by 2025, are "aggressive" enough to need more study and public input, Thornton said. The current recycling rate is 41 percent.

Rep. Bill Hilty, DFL-Finlayson, chairman of the House Energy Finance and Policy Division, received the report Friday and said he found some of its language "tepid."

"It's 'encourage' this, 'encourage' that," Hilty said. "I'm not sure we're at the point with all these things where 'encourage' is going to be enough to accomplish what needs to be accomplished."

Friday's report would require legislation in several cases. It calls for repeal of a nuclear power plant moratorium, which Garvey and Thornton said would simply allow discussions of the possibility of a new nuclear power plant for Minnesota no earlier than 2025. Eliminating "certificate-of- need" requirements for power generators using renewable energy, such as wind, would also require a law change.

Sen. Yvonne Prettner Solon, DFL-Duluth, chairwoman of the Senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee, said a hearing on the two reports would be the committee's first order of business.

The Legislature last year set a goal that Minnesota drop its greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2015, 30 percent by 2025 and 80 percent by 2050. Policies and actions already in place -- requirements that utilities increase their use of renewable energy sources, ethanol and biodiesel enhancements, and Xcel Energy's conversion of power plants in Minneapolis and St. Paul from coal to natural gas -- can cover half of that, Garvey and Thornton noted.

"We believe we can and will meet these goals," Garvey said.

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646

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