Policy Updates

In 2021, CEEM targeted opportunities to accelerate Minnesota’s economic recovery by removing red tape and creating market opportunities for energy efficiency and clean energy development.

With Minnesota remaining the only divided legislature in the nation, this being a budget year, and still being in the middle of a global pandemic, we headed into the 2021 legislative session with cautious optimism. Given the split, viable policies needed to have bipartisan agreement and be big enough for the legislature to consider with their limited time among a number of other pressing issues.

The Energy Conservation and Optimization (ECO) Act was heard in energy committees in both the Senate and House on Thursday, April 23. We are happy to report that the bill was passed out of these committees. The bill had strong support, and the bill authors called out the support of clean energy groups.

The first weeks of March will be a busy time for clean energy discussions in St. Paul. March marks the beginning of legislative deadlines. Every year the leadership in the House and Senate establish deadlines for committee action on bills. Committee deadlines winnow the list of topics to be dealt with in a given legislative year. Here are three trends to watch as we head toward deadlines.

The 2019 Minnesota legislative session is officially a wrap. With a new governor and a slate of new legislators, change was in the air at the start of session. Several bold policy proposals aimed to facilitate ambitious clean energy growth in the state. CEEM and the clean energy industry asserted a strong position in important policy debates. In the end, however, significant divisions between the DFL-led House of Representatives and the Republican-led Senate meant fairly little policy was enacted.

We have reached the final days of legislative session for 2019. The House and Senate have both passed versions of energy policy. The policy proposals are now sent to a Conference Committee- a select set of five representatives and five senators to debate and come to an agreement.

After a contentious three month legislative session, with long hours logged by those working in and for clean energy, the end of session came with a large question mark hanging over the work.

This week, the Minnesota House and Senate created a conference committee to work out the differences between the two versions of this year’s omnibus supplemental budget bill. Just one week remains of this year’s legislative session.

This week, the Minnesota House and Senate moved this year’s major spending and policy bills forward, with the Senate taking up their version of the omnibus finance bill on the Senate floor on Thursday where it passed along party lines 34-31.