May 20, 2021 Center for Energy and Environment Mike Bull Minnesota’s regular legislative session ended on May 18 with the biggest clean energy win since 2013, strengthening our most successful energy policy in state history. After six years of hard work and deep bipartisan collaboration, the Energy Conservation and Optimization Act (known as “ECO”) was…
19May
Minnesota legislators agree on first major energy bill in years
May 18, 2021 Star Tribune Mike Hughlett The Minnesota House and Senate agreed this week on expanding the state’s energy conservation program, the most significant energy legislation in recent years. The Energy Conservation and Optimization Act should increase spending by utilities on conservation programs, particularly to low-income households. Gov. Tim Walz is expected to sign…
19May
Minnesota utilities fell $90M short in protecting customers from February storm costs, agency says
May 13, 2021 Star Tribune Mike Hughlett Steep bills for natural gas customers during a crippling winter storm in February could end with some changes in what’s allowed for Minnesota utilities if two state agencies have anything to say about it. The Minnesota Department of Commerce says consumers are being socked with $90 million in…
23Apr
Minnesota gasps at the financial damage it faces from the Texas freeze
April 22, 2021 The Washington Post Will Englund When that big freeze hit Texas in February, the Lone Star State couldn’t help but share its pain. With its ill-equipped natural gas systems clocked by the cold, Texas’s exports across the Rio Grande froze up and 4.7million customers in northern Mexico went without electricity — more…
23Mar
Utility bills are hitting Minnesotans harder than ever
March 22, 2021 MPR Angela Davis and Katie Moritz There’s almost nothing the devastation of the pandemic hasn’t touched. That includes everyday things like bills and Minnesotans’ ability to pay them. During the pandemic, more Minnesotans have struggled to pay utility bills. The number of overdue bills in the state and the dollar amount of…
20Mar
Minnesota lawmakers look to help customers deal with natural gas price spike
March 18, 2021 MinnPost Walker Orenstein The severe cold in the southern U.S. last month will result in higher natural gas bills for a huge swath of Minnesotans. In response, a pair of Minnesota lawmakers have introduced a bill at the Legislature to help low-income people shoulder the extra costs. The new measure would distribute…
17Mar
February cold snap could cost CenterPoint customers additional $354, plus interest
March 17, 2021 Star Tribune Mike Hughlett CenterPoint Energy is proposing to spread the cost of a colossal natural gas price spike — $354 per household on average — over two years to help cushion the blow to Minnesota consumers and the company itself. The deep freeze that paralyzed Texas last month ignited U.S. wholesale…
09Mar
Xcel, environmentalists square off over planned gas-fired power plant
March 6, 2021 Star Tribune Mike Hughlett The rise of natural gas-fired power was long welcomed — or at least accepted — by both utilities and clean-energy groups. Gas vanquished coal, cutting both carbon dioxide emissions and wholesale electricity costs. But to renewable-energy advocates, gas’ days are numbered — at least as far as building…
01Mar
Xcel’s 15-year energy plan offers opportunities to address environmental racism in Minnesota. Immigrant activists are determined to make it happen.
February 26, 2021 Sahan Journal Andrew Hazzard Making 100 percent of the state’s energy carbon-free by 2040; protecting waterways to create more sustainable food production; investing in green infrastructure. These are just a few of the proposals from the DFL-led State House of Representatives that have environmental activists buzzing. But a divided state Legislature–Democrats control…
26Feb
Though power grid held steady during cold, Minnesotans brace for natural gas price surge
February 24, 2021 Park Rapids Enterprise Matthew Guerry ST. PAUL — The electrical grid in Minnesota largely withstood the punishingly cold weather that enveloped the state in recent weeks, unlike the grid in Texas, where winter storms last week caused widespread blackouts. But the surge in natural gas demands, both for heat and for power,…